Bermuda's radio wars look likely to escalate, with Bermuda Broadcasting Company this week hitting back at claims by newcomer Hott 107.5 that it is the most popular radio station on the Island.

The BBC says that two of its stations are the most popular, with Power 95 leading the pack, talk radio station AM 1340 holding second place and Hott coming in third.

The Bermuda Media Survey, which was commissioned by business service company BermudaJobs.com, was conducted in August by Research Innovations, which also conducts polling for The Royal Gazette.

The statistics in the Favourite Local Radio Station category showed Power 95 with 30.1 percent of listeners, ZBM 1340 with 24.3 percent, HOTT 107.5 with 23.9 percent, FM 89 with 14.1 percent, and DeFontes Broadcasting's Mix 106 with 7.6 percent of those polled.

BBC chief executive Rick Richardson said the survey confirmed his company's beliefs, but he said the company did not want to challenge Hott's claims until an independent survey had been conducted.

"We had no involvement, except to ask if we could get a copy of the survey," he said. "It was totally done by (BermudaJobs) who wanted to see how all the media stacked against each other and that included newspapers, the periodicals, the websites."

Mr. Richardson said the results showed the company had not lost much ground as a result of Hott, which has become known for on-air stunts and events promotion.

"I think it is even more pleasing to see that we have not only held our position, we have widened the gap with some of the traditional stations, and we have distanced ourselves even more," he said.

But Mr. Richardson admitted the company had lost some of the concert and party advertising market to Hott since it was launched 18 months ago.

"What we had was not a drop off in our solid traditional advertising, but there was a shift in some of the party and some of the concert advertising," he said. "That's what we saw a diminution of, but with the confirmation of our status, we expect that that will change."

However, the survey did show that Hott dominates among younger listeners.

Among 18-35 year-olds, Hott drew 45.9 percent of those polled while Power 95 had just 16.9 percent of the audience.

In the 36-54 age group, the survey revealed that 29.5 percent listened to Power 95, 20.7 percent listened to FM89, and 20.3 percent for 1340 am, 15.9 percent listened to HOTT 107.5 and 7.1 percent listened to Mix 106 on a regular basis.

The Bermuda Media Survey also showed that The Royal Gazette was the most trusted newspaper, with 57.5 percent, the Bermuda Sun following, with 40 percent, and the Mid-Ocean News, with 2.4 percent of those polled.

In terms of television news ZBM/ZFB came in with 70.8 percent, VSB had 24.1 percent, while Fresh TV had 4.5 percent.

Meanwhile, on the same front for most trusted local radio stations, ZBM/ZFB had 69.9 percent, VSB had 22.9 percent and HOTT had 7.6 percent respectively.

Newspaper readership revealed that 54.2 percent of those polled read the Island's only daily newspaper frequently, 39.7 percent read the Bermuda Sun and 32.2 percent read the Mid-Ocean News on a regular basis.

The survey did not detail what "frequently" meant.

The survey also covered magazine readership and whether they were read on a regular basis, sometimes, seldom, never and not applicable. The publications included were the RG Magazine, The Bermudian, Bermudian Business, Bermuda Homes and Gardens and Show Off Magazine. The figures for being read on a regular basis were 32.2 percent, 11.8 percent, 7.1 percent and 12.2 percent and 8.7 percent respectively.

Websites visited on a regular basis revealed that society websites fared better than the more traditional news sites.

Bermynet.com was visited by 13.8 percent of those polled, Blackandcoke.bm had 13.2 percent, theroyalgazette.com had 7.6 percent while Bermudasun.bm had 7.3 percent.

In television, ZBM/ZFB has double the number of regular viewers when compared with VSB. Power 95 and Hott 107.5 are neck and neck with 20.1 percent and 21.6 percent respectively.

On the surveyors question of Quality Content Rating in the excellent category, Show Off Magazine came in with the highest at 26.4 percent, followed by RG Magazine with 19.4 percent and Bermuda Homes and Gardens with 14.5 percent.

The survey also revealed that 1340 AM had the highest content satisfaction with listeners.