War of words as Stephen Nolan and Cool FM Breakfast both claim to be ‘biggest show in the country’

The Nolan Show has long been hailed as the ‘biggest show in the country’ by Stephen Nolan himself but the Cool FM Breakfast Show has now staked its claim.

Bauer Media Group, Northern Ireland, which owns Cool FM, Downtown and Downtown Country, tweeted that the Cool FM Breakfast Show was now ‘The Biggest Show in the Country’.

It said that the show, hosted by Pete Snodden, Rebecca McKinney and Paulo Ross, has 310,000 weekly listeners, according to the latest Radio Joint Audience Research figures.

David McCammond, deputy programme controller and presenter across Bauer’s three radio stations, tweeted that was “19,000 more weekly listeners than the ‘2nd biggest show in the country’ BBC Radio Ulster’s The Nolan Show”.

However, the BBC has rejected the claims. A spokesperson said: “While we don’t normally comment on individual programme figures, The Nolan Show is still the most listened to in Northern Ireland in terms of average programme audience.

“On that basis, Stephen can still claim to be ‘the biggest show in the country’. An individual programme’s reach will be affected by that programme’s duration, so it is difficult to make direct comparisons using this metric.”

Average programme audience is the average number of people who listen in a particular quarter-hour period of the programme, averaged over the duration of the programme. The Cool FM statistic is thought to relate to ‘programme reach’, the number of people who tune into a particular programme for at least one quarter-hour period.

Stephen Nolan also waded into the row and rejected the claims that his BBC Radio Ulster morning show had been overtaken.

He said: “Not just disks spinning at Cool FM /DTR.

“How does Cool Fm’s audience between 6-10am compare to Radio Ulster’s?

“Nolan Show blows them out of the water at 9-1030am when both shows are on air.

“I’m very very tempted to print the 9am 1030am graph - but it’s not kind to mock the tiny.”

He also said Cool FM gets more listeners in the morning when he is asleep.

“Breaking news: Cool Fm gets more listeners than me when they are broadcasting - and I’m asleep ....just about,” he said.

“And don’t ruin their weekend by asking them about my listening hours - they don’t like the million figure!

“You show me yours DTR - and I’ll show you mine.”

The light-hearted nature of the row was revealed when Cool FM and Downtown Radio present Stuart Robinson said : “I think what Stephen Nolanmeans is happy birthday Cool FM and congratulations on achieving the best listening figures in your 30 year history!”

This prompted the BBC presenter to jokingly claim Cool FM were trying to poach him from the public broadcaster.

“Happy Birthday Stuart - and for the 100th time - N0, I will not at the moment join your station for a big cheque,” he said.

“Don’t eat too much cake.”

The long-running host of Cool FM’s breakfast show Pete Snodden had also tweeted his delight at claiming the number one spot.

He said: “This is such a nice to result to get. Thank you if you listen and support the show. We love doing it.”

Mr Nolan has been presenting the Nolan Show since 2003.