Kyle and Jackie O finally make strides in Melbourne
After more than a year in the Melbourne breakfast market, Kyle and Jackie O have finally moved the ratings dial, with their biggest audience leap since launch.
In today’s radio survey, the second of the year, the pair’s Kiis 101.1 show managed to move from a 5.1 share to a 5.8%.
This may seem like a modest jump, but it marks the largest upward movement in the fiercely competitive Melbourne breakfast market this survey. This positive momentum comes a day after an on-air dummy spit, where Sandilands threatened to pull out the Melbourne market unless the listeners started tuning in.
Kyle and Jackie O in their newly built North Sydney studio
Gold’s Christian O’Connell remains in top spot for ARN, despite falling 0.7 points this survey – albeit following a 2.8 point leap in the first ratings book of the year. Nova’s Jase and Lauren, who dominated in 2024, remain in second place, climbing 0.1 points. As usual, over on AM, Nine’s 3AW trumps all, with Ross Stevenson and Russel Howcroft commanding a 18.8% market share.
Overall in Melbourne, 3AW fell 2.7 points, but remain the most-listened-to station in the city, with 14.1% market share. Gold sits in second, with 12.5%, while Smooth sits at a distant third, with 9%. Smooth trumped Gold during the final survey of 2024, so don’t count them out too soon.
In Sydney, Kyle and Jackie O are celebrating their 50th straight show as the top FM breakfast radio program – a mighty achievement made extra sweet by their Melbourne momentum, but slightly soured by dropping 1.0 point in their hometown. The pair are now 3.3 points behind Ben Fordham on 2GB, who gained 1.2 points to sit at 15.6 this survey.
Jonesy and Amanda sit a distant third (second in FM) at 9.2, despite picking up 0.3 points.
Overall in Sydney, 2GB pulls ahead as the top overall station, gaining 1.2 points to command 12.8% of the market, well ahead of the top FM station Smooth, who gained 0.3 points to sit at 11.8 – after coming within 0.1 of 2GB in the last survey.
Second in FM is Kiis, who fell 0.4 to sit at 9.5 share, while the recent rebrand from WSFM to Gold hasn’t harmed the station, who remained static at 8.3. This is the first full survey first 2DayFM announced its younger, more local format, and they’ve also held steady, gaining a modest 0.1 to sit at 4.3.
Interestingly, over on DAB+ radio (digitally broadcast stations), the controversial Workdays With Thy show on Western Sydney hip hop station CADA is completely dominating the 12-4pm timeslot, with a cumulative audience of 74,000 far exceeding its closest rivals, SCA’s RnB Fridays station, which drew 49,000, and ARN’s iHeart Australia, which pulls 45,000.
The reason this matters? Two weeks ago, news broke that Thy was an AI avatar, not a human, with her voice and likeness being modelled on an ARN staffer from the company’s finance division – which ARN yesterday announced would be moving offshore.
In Brisbane, Triple M have toppled B105 to become the city’s favourite radio, with the latter falling 2 points over the last two surveys, while Triple M climbed 1.0 point this time, following a 0.2 rise in the first survey for 2025.
NOVA’s Ash, Luttsy & Nikki Osborne have claimed top spot in Brisbane breakfast, gaining 1.5 to rise to 13.6%. They move past both B105’s Stav, Abby, and Matt and Triple M’s Marto, Margaux & Dan, who are tied for second place, with 13.2% apiece.
Triple M may be ruling Brisbane at the moment, but it seems the rock station has lost its lustre in Adelaide, dropping 1.8 points as Nova picks up 0.5% to take top station honours.
Roo, Ditts & Loz still lead in the breakfast market for Triple M, despite also dropping audience share, with a 0.8 point slide to 13.2. Nova’s Jodie & Hayesy are hot on their heels, gaining 1.2 points to move to 12.8, while Hayley and Max on Mix gained 1.8 points to slide into third, with 12.0%. Adelaide’s days as a Triple M town may be numbered.
Nova continues to completely rule Perth, with a 0.7 climb off the back of a 1.6% leap last survey. With 17% market share, the station is 1.8 points clear of nearest rival 96FM (who held a 1.1% lead in November), and a further 3.4 points clear of Mix, in third.
Nova’s Nathan, Nat and Shaun jumped 1.9 points to command an incredible 21.7% share of the breakfast market, making it the most successful breakfast show in the country. Although they hold a 8.4 point lead in breakfast, Nova’s domination in Perth isn’t assured, with 96FM making decent gains in mornings, afternoons, drive, and across the weekend.
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Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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If you look into the data you will see that the total radio audience shrank, including Kyle & Jacki O’s audience. Their relatively % increased but their total audience declined. Seems misleading to not mention that
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K&J’s audience share went up in Melbourne, yes. BUT the cumulative audience went DOWn. Which means they have fewer people sampling the show. That’s not good for K&J.
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the amount of media spend they did to get that 0.7 jump was massive.
the test is whether the content will keep the audience. Over to you Melbourne.
I suspect as soon as triple m sort their act out down here they will lose that again.
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Absolutely disgraceful article by Mumbrella – no mention of the pure filth that comes out of Sandilands’ mouth
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