The BBC's digital radio station 6 Music, which is controversially due to be closed at the end of next year, has seen an almost 50% rise in its audience to a record 1 million listeners.

The surge in popularity coincided with an unprecedented campaign to save the digital station, drawing support from politicians, trade unions and celebrities. A Facebook group to save the station had nearly 180,000 members last night.

6 Music had an average weekly reach of 1.02 million listeners in the first three months of this year, up from 695,000 in the final three months of last year, according to official Rajar figures published today.

The station is due to be axed, along with its BBC digital sister station the Asian Network, as part of a strategy review announced by the corporation in March. BBC director general Mark Thompson said 6 Music was too expensive "given its relatively small audience".

Campaigners will be hoping the latest audience figures will help persuade the BBC Trust, currently overseeing a public consultation on the proposed closures, to force Thompson to reverse his decision. Earlier this week 6 Music won two coveted Sony radio awards, the industry's equivalent of the Oscars.

BBC presenter Richard Bacon, who hosts shows on Radio 5 Live and 6 Music, said the threat of closure had encouraged people to try the station. "A BBC Trust review said that not enough people had heard of 6Music. The decision to close the station meant that everybody heard about it. And guess what - they love it."

Chris Evans has also seen a big increase in the audience for the BBC Radio 2 breakfast show since he took over from Sir Terry Wogan at the beginning of this year.

Evans' arrival prompted howls of protest from some Wogan fans known as "Togs" - Terry's Old Geezers and Gals - but helped boost the station to its biggest ever audience and a record share of the market.

Radio 2 had 14.57 million listeners in the first quarter of 2010, up from 13.47 million in the previous three months, and a 17.2% share of the audience. Evans had an average weekly reach of 9.53 million listeners, up from Wogan's last audience of 8.1 million, confirming the show's position as the most popular breakfast show in Europe.

Radio 1 breakfast host Chris Moyles, who had hoped to leapfrog Evans into the number one spot, remained in second place. Moyles' audience also grew, from 7.24 million to 7.9 million.

Rivals feared Evans' breakfast show would drive Radio 2's audience younger and eat into commercial radio's heartland audience. But Radio 2 said last night the average age of the station's listeners remained 51.

Boosted by the popularity of 6 Music and its sister station, BBC Radio 7, there was a record increase in the popularity of digital radio. Digital platforms including digital audio broadcasting (DAB) radio, digital TV and online now accounts for 24% of all radio listening. But there was no spike in audience for the second BBC station under threat, Asian Network, which had 357,000 listeners, marginally down on the previous quarter.

The BBC's director of audio and music Tim Davie said he was "delighted to see Radio 2's listeners have taken to Chris in such a positive way. "He is one of the best broadcasters of his generation and has earned his popularity. This quarter's figures are also great news for the industry as all radio listening has grown, and for BBC Radio, where our efforts to produce ambitious, high quality programming have resulted in healthy listening figures."

The BBC continues to dominate radio listening with a 56.5% share of the audience against commercial radio's 41.3%, a lead of 15.2%.