Melbourne radio ratings: 3AW still on top, but GoldFM surges into second
Nine Radio’s 3AW still dominates in Melbourne, but ARN’s GoldFM has taken a bite out of its lead, according to the sixth GfK Radio 360 survey of 2023.
GoldFM rose 3.1 percentage points in overall share, to 12.7%, while 3AW dropped 0.9 percentage points to 15.8%.
3AW maintains its lead in overall share and breakfast
3AW’s Ross Stevenson and Russel Howcroft continue to own breakfast, at a 21.7% share – almost double their nearest competitor, The Christian O’Connell Show on ARN’s GoldFM.
But O’Connell’s 3.8% jump to a 12.2% share was enough to pull the show clear of the rest of the market. Last survey, just 2.5 points separated six stations in breakfast.
Nine Radio’s head of content, Greg Byrnes, said: “To maintain number one positions in Sydney and Melbourne, while increasing total audience, is well deserved recognition for all of our on-air teams.
“3AW has never had this many listeners before in a Survey 6 and we’ve recorded a 5% increase in 25-54 year-olds, across the network. Talk content is relentless but so is the loyalty of our listeners and we thank them for their engagement each day,” he said.
“Gold104.3 has had a big upswing in Melbourne, achieving its biggest-ever audience and becoming Australia’s most listened-to station,” said Duncan Campbell, ARN chief content officer.
“Congratulations to everyone involved for consistently delivering compelling content that connects with our audience wherever they are and however they choose to listen.”
SmoothFM saw a 0.6% decrease in overall share, now sitting at 9.3% – while FoxFM remains at 9.4%.
GoldFM’s Christian O’Connell Show is closing the gap in breakfast
Elsewhere, FoxFM’s Breakfast team Fifi, Fev and Nick sit at 9.5% share, while ABC Melbourne sits close behind at 8.7% – an increase of 0.6 from the last survey. KIIS follows at 7.9% share, then SmoothFM at 7.8%.
In drive, GoldFM’s Dave ‘Higgo’ Higgins has taken the lead having increased 2.5 percentage points, to 13.2% share – the largest increase across the drive time slot. 3AW’s Tom Elliot fell 0.5 percentage points, now sitting at 11.2% share. Last month it was announced Tom Elliot will replace Neil Mitchell in Mornings next year.
FoxFM took third with 9.5% share – despite dropping 0.3 percentage points.
Nova dropped 2.3 percentage points to 8.2% – the largest dip in drive. The station now competes in the middle-of-the-pack race with SmoothFM, Nova, ABC Melbourne and KIIS, which have 8.4%, 8.2%, 8.1% and 8.0% share, respectively.
Survey six [click to enlarge]
In the latest Radio 360 streaming figures for breakfast:
- 3AW: 34.9%
- ABC Melbourne: 15.8%
- GoldFM: 6.8%
- SmoothFM: 4.9%
- FoxFM: 6.0%
- Triple M: 4.4%
- KIIS: 3.4%
- Nova: 3.7%
Byrnes said: “Radio360 has shown our talk formats dominate listening via connected devices and in this survey our streaming audience has grown even bigger. The overall streaming results for 3AW and 2GB are remarkable and across the country, all of breakfast programs are number one.
“The teams should all be very proud,” he added.
And overall, the streaming share in survey six was:
- 3AW: 27.5%
- ABC Melbourne: 9.5%
- GoldFM: 8.4%
- SmoothFM: 8.4%
- Triple M: 5.1%
- FoxFM: 5.6%
- KIIS: 4.0%
- Nova: 4.2%
Campbell said: “We are thrilled with ARN’s consistently strong results, not only across broadcast radio but also our on-demand and digital platforms.
“Moving forward, we will continue to utilise the power of our much-loved brands and personalities to provide our clients with scalable, multi-platform content delivery and seamless commercial solutions.”
The survey referred to the period of 9 July to 16 September.
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Lauren McNamara is a journalist at Mumbrella, covering the creative and PR beat. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS.
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