BOLTON'S star DJ Sara Cox has been beaten in the breakfast show ratings by veteran broadcaster Terry Wogan.

The Radio 2 presenter, more likely to play Bacharach than Blur, has piled on one million listeners in the past 12 months, giving him 400,000 more than the former Smithills and Canon Slade pupil who presents the Radio One programme.

It was good news for his station, famously middle-of-the-road, which drew an extra 2 million listeners in a year, to give it a total of 12.9 million.

Cox has maintained a lead over Wogan until now but the Irish host's phenomenal rise has seen his audience rocket to an all-time high of 7.46 million, while hers now totals 7.03 million.

Although she has piled on more than half a million in the past year, it was not enough to keep the Blarney king at bay.

The latest quarterly figures from Rajar (Radio Joint Audience Research) show Radio 2's big hitters have not stopped with Wogan. Ken Bruce and Steve Wright have each piled on a million in a year.

Wogan, who was named Best Breakfast Music Presenter at the Sony Awards last week, said today: "It's great to hear that the Radio 2 bandwagon is still rocking and rolling." A Radio One spokesman pointed out that Cox's audience was on the rise over the year.

"Terry's is a mainstream, broad-reaching audience and ours is much more focused. We're concentrating on 15 to 24-year-olds."

Cox, who was brought up on Grundy Old Farm, Tonge Road, Little Lever, is only the second woman to present the flagship breakfast show.

The 27-year-old took over from her friend Zoe Ball at the beginning of 2000 and immediately attracted thousands of listeners.

But her spell on the breakfast show has been dogged with controversy. Earlier this year she had to apologise on air when comedian Ali G used a host of obscenities. She also shocked listeners when she described three journalists as "looking like burns victims".

Wogan, who has fronted Radio 2's breakfast slot since 1993, attacked Cox in August last year, claiming the local girl and fellow Radio One DJ Chris Moyles were "in your face and both sometimes in doubtful taste".