WHEN it comes to attracting listeners BBC Radio Suffolk is in charge of the airwaves.The Ipswich-based station's latest figures show that it is leaps and bounds ahead of other radio broadcasters in the region and other BBC networks alike.

WHEN it comes to attracting listeners BBC Radio Suffolk is in charge of the airwaves.

The Ipswich-based station's latest figures show that it is leaps and bounds ahead of other radio broadcasters in the region and other BBC networks alike.

In both the last year and last three months BBC Radio Suffolk has enjoyed an increase in listeners tuning in daily, the number of hours they are listening in for and its share of all radio listeners.

The station can now boast 124,000 tuning in every week making it Suffolk's most popular local station. These figures also put it ahead of all other BBC networks except Radio 2.

BBC Radio Suffolk's average weekly reach – the percentage of adults over the age of 15 who tune into the station at some point during the week whether it be for ten hours or ten minutes – is now 29.3 per cent compared to 24pc this time last year and 28.4pc in September.

Similarly its average daily reach has gone up. Today it is at 17.8pc compared to 14.5pc a year ago.

And while a year ago people would tune in for 11.84 hours a week they are now turning the dial to BBC Radio Suffolk for 13.56 hours.

To complete the upturn in figures the station now enjoys a 17.5pc share of all radio listeners, a rise in nearly 6pc in 12 months.

Gerald Main, editor of BBC Radio Suffolk said: "These are fantastic figures and prove what a huge appetite Suffolk has for local news, local sport and local programmes."

nAn Ipswich grandmother has had one of her life's wishes granted, as diamonds became her very best friends for a day.

Dot Jenkins, 73, of Macauley Road, Castle Hill, Ipswich, wrote to BBC Radio Suffolk's Nick Risby after he promised to fix it for listeners to fulfil one of their grandest dreams.

The pensioner, who has four sons and three grandchildren, wanted to spend, spend, spend and thanks to the popular broadcaster and his team, affectionately known as "Nick's Pack", she was able to do just that.

Her fairytale day began on Thursday when she got an exclusive morning hair appointment with Jeanne Wells from the Robert Terry Hair Group.

Dot was then whisked off in a white stretch limousine by her chauffeur to be treated to the highlight of the day, getting decked out in a deluge of diamonds courtesy of Preston and Duckworth Jewellers in Ipswich.

"I just love jewellery and I have never even had a real diamond before," Dot said while she was dripping with jewellery worth a staggering £250,000.

"I have been a bit nervous with all this expensive stuff on though."

Weblink: www.bbc.co.uk/england/radiosuffolk