Figures released by Radio Joint Audience Research Limited (Rajar) show Radio 2, which is home to DJs including Terry Wogan and Jonathan Ross, is the most listened to in the country.

The figures show that DJ Brian Hayes added a quarter of a million listeners to the Radio 2 lunchtime show when he was holding the reins for Sir Jimmy Young, who left the BBC last year.

But there was bad news for the beleaguered commercial station Capital FM with losses of 500,000 listeners up to the final quarter of 2002.

Its weekly listening figures have fallen from 2.9 million to 2.4 million over the course of a year.

Revamp

Capital went through an uncertain period as its star DJ Chris Tarrant debated whether he would continue with his breakfast show.

He finally signed up again, on condition he worked less demanding hours, and his show relaunched in January, with co-presenter Becky Jago.

The latest research does not take into account the revamped show.

Radio 2 boasts the widest audience of any radio station in the country and has been growing ever more popular.

Wogan's morning show has an average of 7.8 million listeners each week.

Tarrant signed up for another stint as breakfast show presenter

On hearing the figures he joked: "Don't dis' us man - it's a big-up from the coffin dodgers. Grey is the new black."

Sir Jimmy Young quit the BBC lunchtime show after 28 years but not before launching a scathing attack on the corporation, saying he had been pushed out because of his age.

Classic

He had been off air for much of his last several months recuperating from a hip operation.

Brian Hayes stepped in as a replacement until Sir Jimmy's successor was unveiled as former Newsnight presenter Jeremy Vine.

Fears that loyal J-Y listeners would desert the show without him proved unfounded as Hayes not only kept it ticking over but attracted 250,000 more.

The Radio 1 breakfast show, hosted by Sara Cox, picked up some of the near-one million listeners that deserted it in 2002, with a 100,000 rise in the quarterly figures.

But Radio 1 has lost nearly 300,000 listeners overall during the year.

Classic FM can celebrate a boost at the younger end of its audience today, which showed that almost a quarter more listeners in the 15-24 age group were tuning in.