Popularity ranking · South Africa

The 100 most popular Radio Stations in South Africa

This curated ranking covers the 100 largest radio stations in South Africa, ordered by estimated audience size from Rascasse's anonymized search-behavior signals. Out of 708 radio stations tracked in South Africa, the 100 ranked here account for the largest measured audience reach. Metro FM, Metro FM (Turkey) and sabc lead the list with a combined estimated audience of 2.3M people. Across all 100 entries the average audience size is 67k, and the largest, Metro FM, reaches around 1M people in South Africa. Audience size is the estimated number of unique people in South Africa who actively engage with each radio station, derived from search demand signals. Rankings reflect search-behavior signals collected across South Africa and are refreshed weekly.

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How to read this list

Rank

Position in the Top 100, sorted by audience size from largest to smallest. Updated weekly.

Audience size

Estimated number of unique people in South Africa who actively engage with this audience, derived from anonymized search-behavior signals.

Country share

Share of the global audience that is active in South Africa. A higher value means the audience is more locally concentrated here.

Avg age

Average age in years across the people who engage with this audience in South Africa, derived from anonymized search-behavior signals. A dash means demographic data is not yet available.

Female share

Share of women among the people who engage with this audience in South Africa. 50% is gender-balanced; values above mean female-skewed, below mean male-skewed.

Ranking

Rank Audience Audience size Avg age Female share Subtype
26 SAfm 51k 42.9 20.9%
27 Hot FM (Australian radio network) 45k
28 Good Hope FM 44k 33.0 53.8%
29 FM 43k 39.7 75.1%
30 Munghana Lonene FM 41k 35.3 41.0%
31 HOT FM 38k 35.5 58.8%
32 Talksport 38k 36.5 20.1%
33 Ligwalagwala FM 37k 39.4 40.5%
34 Hot FM (Malaysia) 35k 35.8 67.1%
35 Jacaranda 94.2 32k 38.4 60.4%
36 Nehanda Radio 28k 42.3 24.7%
37 BBC Radio 1 25k 36.7 39.5%
38 Classic FM (Netherlands) 25k 53.6 66.1%
39 888casino 24k 43.3 41.3%
40 China Radio International 24k 41.5 46.6%
41 Cadena COPE 21k 49.4 49.5%
42 BBC Radio 2 21k 39.5 34.9%
43 KSL (radio) 21k 41.7 61.1%
44 KFM Radio 21k 37.4 60.7%
45 Radio France Internationale 20k 46.3 16.3%
46 R101 (Italy) 20k 40.3 65.3%
47 BBC World Service 19k 39.6 34.3%
48 BBC Radio 4 18k 46.6 58.6%
49 Deutsche Welle 15k 39.2 54.8%
50 Hotfm (Malaysia) 14k 35.3 57.5%

Want the full picture for any of these audiences?

Open any profile to see psychographics, top regions, peer affinities and demographic splits — all derived from the same anonymized signals.

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Frequently asked questions

How is this list of the most popular radio stations compiled?

Rascasse aggregates anonymized search-behavior signals across South Africa and ranks each radio station by its estimated audience size. Only entries with at least 5 measured entities are listed.

How often is the list updated?

The ranking is refreshed weekly from the latest search-behavior data and re-published as a static page.

What is the largest radio station in South Africa?

Metro FM currently leads with an estimated audience of 1M people in South Africa.

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