‘It’s not just about going after a younger audience and trying to be cool and groovy’: Nine Radio’s Byrnes
After a shift away from COVID in the radio market, Nine Radio's stations have continued to perform well. Director of content - radio, Greg Byrnes tells Mumbrella's Calum Jaspan how it hopes to grow its audience, but why it doesn't want to do so at the expense of the fundamentals it does best.
Nine Radio’s 3AW and 2GB once again topped the pile in GfK radio ratings survey five for the year, as both have done all year long, and director of content – radio, Greg Byrnes insists it is something the network “doesn’t take for granted”.
The conversation was dominated in both 2020 and 2021 by COVID’s impact on the radio sector, with talkback providing a ratings hit for both Nine Radio and ABC’s local stations, yet its only the former that has been able to maintain its audience as some sort of normality resumes.
What next for Nine Radio’s stations then? Byrnes says its stations are aiming to attract “an even larger audience”, but it doesn’t want that to come at the expense of TSL (time spent listening), which has continued to be a focus for him and his team.
“As we attract a younger and wider audience, we probably run the risk of bringing our TSL back a little.”
Nine Radio talent
“TSL continues to be a focus and will continue to be because traditionally talk had that sort of older audience and TSL is very strong. As we go to widen that audience, we don’t want to do it at the cost of TSL, so that’s certainly a focus for us on a content level.”
And while attracting a younger audience is important, Byrnes says “it’s not just about going after younger audiences and trying to be ‘cool and groovy’, its talk radio. It is news you can trust and opinions that matter.”
“It’s companionship, it is that our news at the top and bottom of the hour in breakfast is such a key ingredient to what we do, add in traffic reports and weather reports and they’re our key ingredients that we’re very, very proud of.”
“That is what our audience expects, and will always remain a key part of what we do. Credible strong news and information up to the minute.”
Nine Radio also had a strong showing in both Brisbane and Perth, where Byrnes continues to say stations 4BC and 6PR are “challenger brands”.
4BC’s breakfast lineup
On 4BC, new breakfast trio of Laurel, Gary & Mark delivered a 10.1% share, rising 2.1 points, despite only being at the helm for half of the survey. It is a “big change” in the market Byrnes says.
Shifting host Neil Breen to the drive slot means that Nine Radio now has its first female host in a breakfast show nationally too.
While a new lineup, he says the network is conscious of keeping things fresh, while also continuing to provide voices its listeners know and trust.
“We’ve said all along that we’re looking at the next generation of hosts for the next generation of listeners, without giving our long loyal listeners a reason just to turn off and that’s a balance.”
“Moving Ben into breakfast after Alan retired was very different from what Alan was delivering, but Ben had been on the station for 10 years doing drive so they knew him. So while it was a new show and Ben had to do his show and not try and do what was previously done, at least we knew that he was a broadcaster that was known to the audience.
And the same goes in Brisbane he says, with Laurel and Gary being around for 30 years in the local market, “add Mark, for the last 17 and there is three broadcasters for a heritage radio program on a heritage radio station”.
“There is risk absolutely, but there’s also a pretty good base to start from.”
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Calum Jaspan was news editor at Mumbrella, based in Melbourne. He was also the producer and host of the Mumbrellacast. He left Mumbrella in May 2023.
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