MUMBAI: Absolute Radio has lost a fifth (461,000) of its listeners after changing its name from Virgin Radio, going by the first Rajar quarter figures for the station.

Reports in the Guardian and Brand Republic say the BBC stole audience from commercial radio, according to the Rajar figures for the fourth quarter of 2008. Absolute's rival national commercial station TalkSport scored a record audience of 2.5 million listeners in the final quarter of 2008.

The figures are the first Rajar quarter for Absolute Radio, which changed its on-air identity on 29 September 2008 last year following Virgin Radio's sale from SMG to the Times of India group.

They show that 461,000 fewer listeners per week tuned in compared with the previous quarter, when it had 2.35m -- the drop in reach was 19.6 per cent.

There was a less dramatic drop in Absolute's share of listening from 1.4 per cent to 1.2 per cent. Absolute, which said it expected the drop, pointed out that its average hours per listener were the highest since June 2006 at 6.6 per week.

Clive Dickens, chief operating officer at Absolute Radio, said: "Absolute Radio has had just 15 weeks to sink into the nation's ears, Virgin Radio had had 15 years. When Oasis were 15 weeks old they told everyone they were going to be one of the biggest bands in the world. 15 years on, now look at them. We have the same aspirations."

National commercial radio's share of listening dropped from 11 per cent in the third quarter to 10.6 per cent, and local commercial from 32 per cent to 31.6 per cent.