The Melbourne radio market is “one of the most exciting marketplaces anywhere in the world right now”, according to Nova Entertainment’s Paul Jackson, with the latest radio ratings survey revealing a dead heat between four FM stations.
The tie between Nova Entertainment’s Nova 100 and Smoothfm 91.5, and Southern Cross Austereo’s (SCA) Triple M and Fox FM is “extraordinary” Jackson told B&T.
Jackson, Nova’s group programme director, said such a tie has probably never happened before and is evidence that the market is getting closer.
“You look at the cume and everyone has high numbers, it tells you that all these stations are very familiar, very evolved in people’s minds,” he said, adding that the conclusion of two heritage breakfast shows on Nova and Fox last year has “made a lot of people reassess what they listen to”.
Radio is front of mind in a positive way that it hasn’t been in many, many years. This goes right through to how consumers and advertisers relate to it and I think radio is currently seeing a huge upturn and that is exciting.
At the end of last year Nova had farewelled 12-year breakfast program, Hughesy & Kate, and Fox said goodbye to decade-long program Matt & Jo.
The four-way tie is evidence that the Melbourne market is “in a state of flux”, Australian Radio Network’s (ARN) national content director Duncan Campbell said.
“We expected to see the churn earlier on as a result of those two key breakfast shows on Fox and Nova leaving the market.
“What we are seeing now is the audience moving off and sampling other stations and it looks like they are settling on ours at the moment,” Campbell said. ARN’s Mix 101.1 has taken the crown as Melbourne’s number one FM breakfast show with Chrissie & Jane (pictured top) in today’s radio ratings survey after steady growth across the past two books. Fox’s and Nova’s breakfast offerings dipped in the survey.
“Nova and Fox have got some challenges there but they would have expected that given the fact that they lost such high profile breakfast shows,” Campbell added.
Jackson said a clearer view on which new show is listeners’ preferred won’t be available until the end of the year.
“These are exciting times for radio because people are talking about radio more than ever,” according to Jackson who said interest has been piqued by the changes in Melbourne and Sydney, where ARN launched new station Kiis 1065 with Kyle & Jackie O at the helm.
“Radio is front of mind in a positive way that it hasn’t been in many, many years. This goes right through to how consumers and advertisers relate to it and I think radio is currently seeing a huge upturn and that is exciting.”
In Sydney, Macquarie Radio Network’s 2GB is celebrating 10 consecutive years as Sydney’s number one radio station with today’s survey release its 80th uninterrupted ratings win.
Russell Tate, Macquarie Radio Network’s executive chairman, said the feat is “deserving of recognition and celebration”.
“It is no coincidence that this latest survey also records Alan Jones’ 83rd consecutive win in the breakfast slot, and Ray Hadley’s 80th consecutive win in mornings,” Tate said in a release.
“On behalf of the entire Macquarie Radio team I congratulate Alan and Ray and their production teams, on the personal milestones they have chalked up today, and the audience platform they have provided for the entire 2GB on-air team.”
We are not concerned about the station at all. What it does say to the team though is ‘look, you can’t take these results for granted; you have to continue to work hard’.
ARN is also celebrating a win in Sydney today as it returned to the position of owning Sydney’s number one and two FM stations.
WSFM is now Sydney’s number FM station having taken the lead from Kiis 1065.
Campbell described the result as a “perfect storm” and said it does not matter to ARN which of its stations are in first place as long as they have number one and two.
Kiis 1065 recorded its first drop today with Kyle & Jackie O sliding from 10.9% of breakfast to 9.5%. The station also dropped overall and now has 8.5% of all people 10+, Monday to Sunday.
Duncan said the overall result of 8.5% is below where Kiis should be and he expects the station to correct itself over the coming ratings books.
“We are not concerned about the station at all. What it does say to the team though is ‘look, you can’t take these results for granted; you have to continue to work hard’. It will be a refocusing for them which is nothing but a positive as far as we are concerned.”
WSFM’s ratings boost was delivered by a rebrand to Classic Hits Pure Gold and a largescale marketing campaign. But the station has a history of jumping up in the ratings when there are on-air promotions and dipping back once they have concluded.
“There were, you could argue, some awareness issues which the marketing has obviously corrected. The challenge for the team is to maintain this now because you are right it tends to ebb and flow a bit,” Campbell said.
But Campbell is confident WSFM can do it.
“I have always believed the format was undelivered in Sydney,” he said, using Gold which is the same format and has been number one FM station in Melbourne for two books now as an example of the strength of WSFM’s format.
SCA’s chief content officer Guy Dobson said 2DayFM has displayed “great momentum”.
The station, which is the former home of Kyle & Jackie O, added half a point to its overall Monday to Sunday share to sit on 4.5%.
“2DayFM is up again second book in a row now. They are small incremental increases but more is yet to come and we are really happy with all of our assets on the Today Network,” Dobson told B&T.
The standout for SCA is the Triple M network, according to Dobson who said The Grill Team in Sydney “has some incredible momentum”. He also prophesised that it won’t be long until Eddie McGuire reclaims number one FM station in Melbourne’s breakfast with The Hot Breakfast with Eddie McGuire, Luke Darcy and Mick Molloy.
Melbourne’s breakfast crown is still firmly in the grasp of the market’s overall leader 3AW.
3AW’s breakfast share increased in the latest ratings survey from 16.3% to 17.3%.
Fairfax Radio Network’s national content director Clark Forbes said: “3AW continues to be a dominant force in the Melbourne market and the extraordinary team of Ross and John in breakfast are now tantalisingly close to reaching a century of survey wins as Australia’s most listened to radio show.”
