A ‘fairytale ending’, unexpected drop and new world order for radio bosses in Sydney
Kyle and Jackie O
Kyle and Jackie O’s topping the radio ratings on Kiis 1065 is a “fairytale ending”, while 2DayFM did not expect such a large collapse in its audience share and that collapse has made Sydney a two-horse race between Nova Entertainment Group and the Australian Radio Network are the key messages from FM station bosses today after one of the biggest shifts in radio in recent history.
The move of the number one rating breakfast show from the Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) Today Network station 2DayFM to ARN’s newly rebranded station Kiis 1065 “could not have asked for a better result”, ARN national content director Duncan Campbell said.
Guy Dobson, chief content officer for SCA, expected the attrition but admitted the drop in audience share from 8.4 to 4.0 share points was larger than expected.
Meanwhile Kiis’s share rose from 5.0 to 8.4 share points and Nova remained steady in overall audience Monday to Sunday with a slight drop from 7.7 to 7.5 share points.
Soon after the results were released shares in SCA dropped 2.5 per cent to $1.39 and then rallied to $1.41, still 1.7 per cent down on where they opened this morning.
See radio ratings for Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.
Paul Jackson, program director for Nova Entertainment Group, said the shift of Kyle and Jackie’s audience was bigger than expected, and the competitors have changed in Sydney’s two-horse race.
“2Day’s poor performance accentuated Kiis’ strength and it’s really its audience going between those two brands, so it continues to be a two-horse race in Sydney, it’s just SCA are no longer in that race,” Jackson said.
“The dynamics have changed and it’s Nova Entertainment and ARN. It was a terrific launch for them amongst masses of hype. When all that has settled down and the year unfolds then I will still be backing Nova and Smooth could be the top station.”
Yesterday Commercial radio Australia CEO Joan Warner said “it will not settle down for a couple of surveys” with new ratings provider GfK taking over with a revised methodology earlier this year.
Kyle and Jackie O quit the breakfast show on Today FM in November after rating as Sydney’s number one FM breakfast show in 51 consecutive surveys for SCA. In December 2DayFM confirmed Jules Lund, Merrick Watts and Sophie Monk, with Mel B, as the new breakfast lineup.
Dobson said he was prepared for a fall and is confident 2DayFM will bounce back.
“Judge us in a year’s time in terms of where the show’s at. You can’t have a first survey where you go up especially when you get rid of a show you’ve had for 14 years and putting one that has only been together for 14 weeks,” he said.
“We knew this result was on the cards, we knew this from November last year and we’re perfectly comfortable with the plans we have in place for that show and we’re going to grow this show, it’s just a question of how long and by how much.
“You don’t wake up overnight and all of a sudden you’re incompetent. You don’t lose competence overnight you lose confidence, and we’re very competent, we’ve just got to make sure that we execute our plan flawlessly which we’ve all been working on for the last 12 to 14 weeks. Today was just the first survey of the next couple of years and hopefully we’ll see growth very soon.”
However Campbell, the content boss at ARN, said he never understood why SCA let go of Kyle and Jackie O.
“We’ve pretty much seen the Kyle and Jackie audience from 2DayFM move straight across to 1065 in one big hit, which shows you the power of a strong breakfast show,” he said. “We could never understand why Austereo let them go as they did but that’s now a part of history.”
Kyle Sandilands and Jackie Henderson’s show had been a double-edged sword for 2DayFM as although it was a consistent ratings winner, outbursts by Sandilands made advertisers nervous and led to withdrawal of advertising.
However Campbell said he has experienced no problems with the pair so far.
“A lot of those stories have turned out to be myths as far as I’m concerned, and simply have not been true with us,” he told Mumbrella. “We’ve set this up as a partnership between Kyle and Jackie O and ourselves, and they’ve not said no to anything we’ve asked them to do.
“It’s all about how you manage talent, and setting the expectations upfront. But they’re also incredibly excited to be here and they like being here which was not the case where they were previously.”
Campbell said Kiis did not attempt to change the show, produced by a combination of the show’s old 2DayFM team and staff at ARN, and its success has seen ratings rise across the network.
“They’re such a strong show and we put together a station that would hopefully protect some of the Mix listeners as well, which it seems to have done, and the impact it’s had, along with a strong music strategy throughout the day, is a rising tide effect throughout the day and into the night.
“It just demonstrates how strong that show is and how when you’ve got a successful breakfast show you should try to hang on to it,” he said.
“It’s a whole fairytale ending to the Kyle and Jackie O story for us we couldn’t have asked for a better result from ARN in Sydney today and we’re all very happy.
“It’s an historic day, it’s obviously never happened before, and I don’t think even Alan Jones managed to achieve it in one survey so it’s full credit to Kyle and Jackie O and the team at Kiis, an amazing result.”
As the typically younger listeners moved over from 2DayFM to Kiis, Campbell said ARN protected its Mix listeners with a strong music lineup throughout the day and gave older listeners the option of moving to ARN’s sister station WSFM rather than to Nova’s competing Smoothfm.
In overall share Monday to Sunday in Sydney WSFM increased from 6.4 to 8.1 points as Smoothfm also gained from 6.5 share points to 7.1.
Meanwhile Nova’s breakfast shows increased their audience in all metro markets, with Fitzy and Wippa growing audience share from 7.0 to 7.8 against Kyle and Jackie O and 2DayFM breakfast.
Nova recorded its best numbers ever, with the top cumulative share of 920, up from 881, and the station had the strongest start yet to the survey year with a 7.5 per cent share in Sydney compared with 6.1 per cent at the start of last year.
Kiis followed with a cumulative share of 848, up from 624, and 2Day went down from 895 to 665, holding the third largest cumulative audience in the Sydney market just ahead of 640 for WSFM.
However SCA is still dominating in the Melbourne market with Fox FM maintaining its lead and holding the breakfast spot with new duo Fifi Box and Dave Thornton while sister station Triple M and the established Hot Breakfast team with Eddie McGuire still holding an 8 per cent share.
At ARN, Campbell said the network will not rest on its laurels, as its focus will now shift to Melbourne where it hopes to lift audiences further despite encouraging increases today.
Megan Reynolds
Now 2GB know what to do when Alan retires from broadcasting. Hire Kyle.
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Totally surprised by the ratings outcome. Not a fan of Kyle and Jackie O but congratulations to them. With the legal battles 2DayFM are facing we may see that station fall further in the ratings. There are now more people listening to 2RN and 2JJJ than 2DayFM breakfast. I bet the SCA programme directors and advertisers will be disappointed over this.
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