Melbourne radio ratings: Gold FM and Christian O’Connell successfully unseat Fox FM for top breakfast spot
Just over a year after the British radio star joined the station in 2018, Christian O’Connell has successfully pushed Gold FM to overtake Melbourne FM breakfast leaders Fox FM, holding 9.1% of the share, above Fox FM’s 8.7%.
Australian Radio Network’s (ARN) Gold FM also continued to climb above Southern Cross Austereo’s (SCA) Fox in the overall audience share, climbing 0.5 percentage points to 12.5%, making it the most-popular FM station in the Melbourne market.
Fox FM’s Fifi, Fev and Byron dropped 0.9 percentage points in the breakfast slot, falling to 8.7% overall. There were losses across the board in breakfast – ARN’s Kiis FM fell 0.4 percentage points, putting hosts Polly ‘PJ’ Harding and Jase Hawkins (Jase and PJ) on 5.4% overall, and Nova’s Chrissie Swan, Sam Pang and Jonathan Brown (Chrissie, Sam & Browny) fell 0.5 percentage points to 8.1%, putting them in third spot overall in the FM stations.
Overwhelmingly, 3AW is still the most-listened to station in breakfast with a massive 20.6% share, up 3.3 percentage points from last survey for Ross Stevenson and John Burns. ABC Melbourne also rose 0.5 percentage points in GfK radio ratings survey seven to 10.4% for its breakfast offering of Jacinta Parsons and Sami Shah.
3AW held 15.2% overall in the Melbourne market, making it the most-listened-to station, and ABC Melbourne held 9.2%. 3AW rose 1.3 percentage points from last survey and ABC Melbourne 0.6. 3AW parent company Macquarie Media has just been acquired by Nine, with senior management changes already taking place. Those changes will not have affected this survey.
Both Fox FM and Gold fell in the drive slots, 1.3 percentage points and 1.4 respectively. Carrie Bickmore and Tommy Little begin the drive slot on Fox FM, followed by Dave Hughes and Kate Langbroek, with Ed Kavalee filling in while Langbroek is in Italy. Gavin Miller holds the drive spot for Gold.
Nova dropped 0.1 percentage points overall in the survey, ending at a total share of 7.1%. Triple M rose 0.3 percentage points for 6.5%. Its biggest gains were in the morning and afternoon slots, where it rose 1.3 percentage points and 1.4. Nova had the most success in the afternoon slot where it gained 0.3 percentage points. It dropped 0.3 for Kate Ritchie, Tim Blackwell and Marty Sheargold’s drive show – Kate, Tim and Marty – to hold 9.0%.
Is it any wonder, the man is a genius! Nice work Christian!
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… so it takes a pom to teach Oz how to do breakfast radio?
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….and one with a very smug press shot at that!
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Christian is very good – since he started I’ve increasingly listened to him on the morning commute and less to the Nova team (and I like them, they’re still very good and have good team chemistry and good fill-ins for Sam Pang’s regular absences, especially Tony Martin who I would listen to anywhere.)
The Hot Breakfast team has just been doing it too long (and I never really liked Darcy; Eddie is a pro but after 20 years there’s no surprise with anything he says; Wil is better in small doses).
Jase and PJ… I’ve tried to give them a go but just too often something happens to make you switch off. Jase sometimes just comes off as a bit of a bully towards PJ. His persona can be too nasty (and not in on the joke like Sam Pang’s persona or owning it like Kyle Sandilands) and PJ’s too silly. I think they’re going for a watered down version of the Kyle and Jackie O dynamic and not getting it?
The Fox team are fine but a bit radio paint by numbers. The Nova team do a similar show better for mine. But Fox has R&B Fridays. Flicking around during annoying songs and annoying ads leads to more station changes than show runners might think… This tends to be Smooth’s advantage, if you like their music once you land there in the morning you’re likely to stick.
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Maybe 2day FM should get him for their breakfast show in Sydney.
Still I doubt he would be able to compete against Kyle & Jackie O (Kiis) or Alan Jones (2GB).
Who have been dominant for years here.
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