Melbourne radio ratings: Christian O’Connell and Gold are back on top in FM breakfast
A big jump in breakfast has pushed Gold’s Christian O’Connell back on top in FM, nixing Nova’s Chrissie, Sam and Browny who took the top spot in the final radio ratings survey of 2019.
O’Connell rose 1.4 percentage points to hold a 9.2% share in the timeslot, giving him the most popular FM breakfast show. Former leaders Fox FM’s Fifi, Fev and Bryon, who were first toppled in survey seven in 2019, tied in second place with Nova. Both stations held 8.3% of the share – Fox FM rose 1.6 percentage points, while Nova held steady with just a 0.1 percentage point gain.
Melbourne Radio Ratings survey 1 2020 [Click to enlarge]
The winning breakfast show overall was still 3AW’s Ross and John. The AM station, now operated by Nine Radio, dropped 4.3 percentage points but still held a commanding 15.9%. John Burns is set to retire in mid-2020.
Also in breakfast, ABC Melbourne grew its share in the slot by 0.5 percentage points to take second place on 11.1%. At the end of 2019 it was announced Jacinta Parsons and Sami Shah had been dropped from the hosting gig in the market in favour of comedian Sammy J. They exited with a 10.6% share. Triple M’s Hot Breakfast, which saw Wil Anderson exit at the end of 2019, dropped 1.2 percentage points to 5.8%.
Syndicated channel Triple J, which also saw a new hosting lineup after Ben and Liam exited for Nova in Adelaide at the end of 2019, rose 1.3 percentage points in the breakfast slot for 6.0% with new hosts Sally and Erica. Overall the station held a 6.6% share in Melbourne, a 1.6% rise from the end of 2019. The surveyed period of Sunday January 19 to Saturday February 29 is usually the best for the station as it contains the annual Hottest 100 song ranking.
Melbourne Radio Ratings survey 1 2020 Total People
In drive, previous FM leader Gold FM held a steady 9.5% share, resulting in Nova and Smooth FM overtaking the station with 2.2 percentage points and 3.1 percentage points of growth respectively. Nova’s national drive show of Kate, Tim and Marty now holds an 11.3% share in Melbourne while Smooth FM’s Byron Webb holds 10.4%.
Overall, most FM stations performed well for the first survey of 2020. Fox FM, Nova and Smooth all rose 1.1 percentage points for the survey, landing on 8.4%, 8.3% and 9.6% respectively. Gold FM dropped slightly, 0.2 percentage points, to hold 10.8% – making it the most popular FM station in Melbourne. Triple M had the biggest drop in FM, falling 1.3 percentage points for 5.5%, while Kiis FM gained 0.7 percentage points for 6.4%.
The biggest fall overall went to 3AW with a 2.3 percentage point drop for a 13.3% share overall. The station is still the most popular in the market. ABC Melbourne also fell 0.6 percentage points, landing on 8.7%.
Um, no. Gold 104.3 and Christian O’Connell are NOT on top. Ross and John on 3AW are top. It’s radio. You can’t discriminate against AM stations to suit a narrative.
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Hi Geoff,
The story clearly states:
“The winning breakfast show overall was still 3AW’s Ross and John. The AM station, now operated by Nine Radio, dropped 4.3 percentage points but still held a commanding 15.9%. John Burns is set to retire in mid-2020.”
To make this even clearer, I have moved the position of ‘FM’ in the headline. I hope this clears it up further.
Thanks,
Vivienne – Mumbrella
That’s all you had to do to make the headline accurate Vivienne. Glad that you have!
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How’d Jase and PJ fare on a survey on a survey basis?
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Hi there,
Kiis 101. had 6.4% in the final survey of 2019 in breakfast, and have climbed 0.7 points to 7.1%.
Thanks,
Vivienne – Mumbrella
Surely Hutchy at SEN is going to have trouble spinning a positive light on these numbers ? Almost terminal
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Agreed. How do you lose half of 4% and have a viable station? Can’t wait to see how this translates to a speck on the map like Bunbury, WA … where they’ve just bought a moderately successful music station. Surely they have designs on a similar format? More money than sense comes to mind.
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