Melbourne radio ratings: FM stations eat up the tasty breakfast share
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.
GfK has delivered radio rating survey five for 2022, which relates to the period 22 May to 25 June, and 10 July to August 13.
Coming off a 0.9 percentage point gain in survey four, KIIS has again jumped 1.1 points to a 7.6% share overall, with breakfast pairing Jase and Lauren also rising 1.6 points to an 8.1% share in the slot following a heavy out-of-home advertising campaign across the city.
Melbourne survey five [click to enlarge]
During this survey period, Paul Jackson resigned from his role as chief programming and music content officer at Nova Entertainment, exiting after leading Nova’s programming function for almost 12 years.
With big rises across these three stations, the losses had to come from somewhere. Alongside the 1.5-point breakfast dip at 3AW, Christian O’Connell’s Gold FM show dropped back 0.7 points to 10.5%, while ABC radio national fell 1.4 points to a 2.7% share, after the previous reporting period fell during election season. ABC Melbourne’s Sammy J also dropped back slightly from 9% to 8.6%, despite the station’s overall increase of 0.2 points to 7.1%.
All up, 3AW remained the market leader on 14.5%, falling from 15.7% overall, with Gold the only other double-digit shower on 11.8%, down from 12%.
A good showing for the NOVA trio
In the chasing pack, Fox FM follows on 9.1% after a half-point rise, while Smooth FM rose to 9.3%, buoyed by strong day-time listeners, showing the continued value in playing the hits, similarly to Gold.
There was little movement for SCA’s Triple M, which remained fairly stagnant in the breakfast and drive slots, while dropping 0.1 point to a 5.8% share overall after the company reported broadcast revenue being up by 9.4% to $182.7 million in yesterdays financials.
CEO Grant Blackley added yesterday: “Commercial radio audiences in metro markets reached record levels in recent surveys. The total audience of 12 million recorded in GfK Survey 4 was the highest ever and a 7.6% jump over the prior year. SCA’s Hit and Triple M stations have led this rise as audiences return to entertainment and music formats.”
Gold’s ‘Higgo’ is pushing for top spot
In the drive slot, Gold has continued to rise, challenging 3AW for the top spot overall. Dave ‘Higgo’ Higgins has continued to be a hit for the station, now sitting on a 12% share, just 0.2 points behind 3AW’s Tom Elliott, who dropped by 1.3 points.
Elsewhere there were improvements for Fox, KIIS, Nova and Smooth in the drive slot, delivering 10.4%, 8.5%, 10.1%, and 8.1% shares.
Duncan Campbell, chief content officer at ARN (Gold FM and KIIS) said: “Today’s survey results, combined with the continued growth in our podcast offering, once again highlights the strength of ARN as the leading audio company in Australia. In particular, our ongoing dominance in the two biggest markets of Sydney and Melbourne means continuing opportunities for clients to capitalise on our highly engaged audience.”
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