Melbourne radio ratings: Fox FM continues charge as the 3AW powerhouse stutters again
Southern Cross Austereo’s Fox FM has continued its strong start to the year in the GfK radio ratings survey two for the year, growing its overall share 1.8 percentage points to 9.6% in Australia’s largest commercial radio market.
Survey two for the year was measured between 6 February to 26 February and 27 February to 2 April, which means there was some slight overlap with survey one, delivered a month ago.
Fifi, Fev and Nick finding some form on Fox
Fox’s growth across both surveys so far this year will be a welcome result for SCA, which had a disappointing 2021, with both Fox and Triple M feeling the impacts of ongoing COVID interruptions. Triple M also grew its share by 0.4 points this book, up to a 5.4% overall share.
After telling Mumbrella earlier this year he would be sticking with his talent line-ups, it so far appears to be paying off for Dave Cameron, as the breakfast trio of Fifi, Fev and Nick grew to a 9.6% share. In what was a rough period for the FM stations, the show fell to as low as 4.7% in November.
Nine Radio’s 3AW has lost share overall for the third successive survey, this time by 0.8 points, landing on a 15.1% overall share. The talkback station continues to lead the Melbourne market by some distance, despite sitting as high as an 18.9% share as recent as survey seven in 2021.
Melbourne survey two [click to enlarge]
Another big winner of book number two for the year was Gold FM, which continued to show it is the leading traditional FM station in the market, despite dropping 0.1 percentage point. The station’s leading man, Christian O’Connell again grew his share to 10.3% overall, after an already strong survey one.
The Melbourne market, Australia’s largest by advertising investment is set up for a competitive year, as Nova also grew its share. It was a strong book for Chrissy, Sam and Browny at breakfast, who similar to the Fox breakfast trio have had a good start to the year, this time growing 1.7 points to 9.2% share.
After a great run across 2021 alongside 3AW, ABC Melbourne appears to be on the loser so far from the return to commutes and lockdowns ending. The station grew slightly 0.2 points to a 7.6% overall share, however still a far cry from the results of last year. Its breakfast show host Sammy J dropped 1.1 points to an 8.7% share while Raf Epstein also went to a 7% share. With a federal election cycle now underway, whether talkback will see another boost is one to look out for across survey three, which runs until 21 May, the day of the election.
Last month, the ratings measurement revamp got underway, however it was only live in Sydney for part of survey two.
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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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topics
3AW
ABC Melbourne
Fox FM
Melbourne radio ratings
Nine radio
Nova
radio ratings
russel howcroft and ross stevenson
SCA
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