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Hungry breakfast listeners help commercial radio set record high 12.1m weekly listeners

The number of Australians tuning into commercial radio at breakfast soared by 20% to more than 8.4 million people across the five major metro markets, compared to 7 million a year ago, according to the latest GfK radio ratings.

The number of commercial drive-time listeners increased by 14% to more than 7.2 million people, while weekend listening surged nearly 16% to 9.8 million people.

Overall, GfK Survey 6 showed nearly 12.1 million people listened to commercial radio each week, beating the all-time high of 12 million recorded in GfK Survey 5 released in August and up from 11.2 million in GfK Survey 6 in 2021.

Last month, commercial radio ad revenue was up 11.7% in August across the metro commercial sector.

Commercial Radio & Audio chief executive officer, Ford Ennals said: “We’re thrilled that commercial radio is continuing to break audience records with each survey and is growing listeners across all parts of the day.

“Listening in the car and at work have both shown healthy increases and breakfast radio has also come roaring back as Australians adapt to hybrid working arrangements.”

Approximately 81% of Australians aged 10+ listened to commercial radio each week during the survey period.

Commercial DAB+ stations again performed strongly with nearly 2.8 million weekly listeners, up 35% from 2.04 million a year ago. Nearly 4.2 million people listened to commercial radio via a DAB+ radio and nearly 3.6 million listened via live streaming, a 15% increase over the past year.

In Sydney, KIIS FM’s Kyle & Jackie O has retained the top spot in FM breakfast radio, but it was again Nine’s Ben Fordham who kept the title of #1 breakfast show, with 2GB topping this book overall in Sydney, despite losing listeners in the sixth radio ratings survey of 2022.

In Melbourne, breakfast frontrunners Russel and Ross on 3AW have dropped back 1.5 points in the latest Gfk radio survey, as stations Nova, KIIS, and Fox FM proved the big winners.

In Brisbane, Nova 106.9 went from strength to strength in the latest radio ratings, topping overall share and taking the lead in both key timeslots as competitors tussle for a place on the podium.

In Adelaide, Nova 91.9 has snatched the overall share crown in the sixth GFK radio rating of the market, while ABC Adelaide had its breakfast crown stolen for the first time this year, after a dip in all three key slots in survey five.

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