MARIAN Finucane suffered huge losses in new radio listenership figures.

The weekend host dropped 35,000 listeners from her Saturday radio programme and fell an even worse 38,000 on her Sunday show in the last book.

5 Marian saw her figures drop dramatically Credit: Photogenic Photographers

This leaves the RTE Radio 1 presenter with 324,000 tuning in on Saturday and 308,000 on Sunday.

But Radio 1 head Tom McGuire told the Irish Sun: "Marian's gains and loses often vary. For instance in the last book she added 30,000 listeners.

"In these figures, she's down but Marian has created a large audience for current affairs on Saturday and Sunday mornings which wasn't there before she had a weekend programme."

Other RTE stars have also been hit, with Saturday With Claire Byrne down 238,000 to 219,000 on Saturday, and Miriam O'Callaghan's Sunday With Miriam down from 259,000 to 248,000.

5 Claire Byrne also suffered drop in figures Credit: RTE

5 Ray D'Arcy's numbers aren't great news for him Credit: Lorraine O'Sullivan - The Sun Dublin

5 Miriam's show is slightly down Credit: Kenneth O'Halloran - The Sun Dublin

And Sean O'Rourke's Today show was down 312,000 to 295,000, the Ryan Tubridy Show fell from 308,000 to 304,000, and the Ray D'Arcy Show went from 207,000 to 205,000.

But Mr McGuire said: “With almost 1.4 million listeners every week, RTE Radio 1 remains the 'go to' station for news, sport, arts, music and entertainment.

"It is great that the appeal of such a broad schedule remains the top choice for listeners. Throughout the year we hope to introduce more new voices to our audience in a schedule that will again bring home the sounds of the summer.”

He added: ""Saturday and Sunday Sport have huge gains year on year with a rise of 30,000 on Saturday and 33,000 in Sundays."

2fm also saw loses with book-on-book drops, including the Tracey Clifford Show who was down from 133,000 to 129,000.

5 Eoghan was only 2fm presenter to see a boost Credit: Crispin Rodwell - The Sun Dublin

Breakfast Republic fell from 186,000 to 185,000, the Nicky Byrne Show was down 2,000 to 148,000 as the Eoghan McDermott Show made the only gain - up from 134,000 to 136,000.

But 2fm stressed that year on year their figures were up. 2fm boss Dan Healy added: "It is also worth noting that 2fm has 11 out of 20 of the top programmes in the country for adults 15-34 and the top four are all 2FM shows.”

Wireless is top around Ireland ALL Wireless stations made gains in the new radio figures - reaching 636,000 people daily. In Dublin, FM104 increased its market leadership with an 11.7 per cent prime share, well ahead of all local competitors - and the Strawberry Alarm Clock is top in the morning. Q102 also increased its share rising to 6.3 per cent - both stations combined now reach 426,000 unduplicated listeners each week. Meanwhile in Limerick, Live 95 saw its share increase significantly to 31 per cent with bosses crediting a sharper focus on local content for the increase. In Cork, both 96FM and C103 increased share and both stations combined now reach 62 per cent of Corkonians each week. And in the north east, LMFM increased both reach and share and now reaches 110,000 people each week. Wireless Ireland group content director Scott Williams said: “We’re extremely proud that each of our Wireless stations have grown in reach and share. This is testament to our ongoing investment in talent and content across the board."

The new JNLR book-on-book figures provided better news for commercial rivals with Newstalk's Breakfast show up 7,000 to 126,000, the Pat Kenny Show adding 5,000 listeners to 148,000, and Ivan Yates up 6,000 to 45,000 for his Hard Shoulder programme.

Newstalk's Chris Doyle said: “Newstalk has had audience growth consistently over the last 12 months with the station adding audience across the day."

While on Today FM, the Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show jumped from 160,000 to 163,000, Fergal D'Arcy increased by 2,000 to 104,000 and Muireann O'Connell's lunchtime programme was up 98,000 to 101,000, and Matt Cooper's Last Word increased 4,000 to 138,000.

The new radio figures covered April 2017 to March 2018.