Melbourne radio ratings: Fox FM kicks off the year as most-listened-to FM station across the board
Southern Cross Austereo’s Fox was the most-listened-to FM station in breakfast, drive and overall people, climbing the most in the breakfast time slot.
Fox FM’s breakfast team of Fifi Box, Brendan Fevola and Byron Cooke managed to climb 3.3 ratings points in the first survey of the year with a 10.3% audience share, overtaking Nova, Triple M and Gold104.3.
Melbourne radio ratings survey 1 2018. Source: GfK (Click to enlarge)
Coming in second to Fox FM’s clear lead in the breakfast battle was Nova Entertainment’s Nova 100.3.
Chrissie Swan, Sam Pang and Jonathan Brown saw a slight 0.2 point increase for survey one taking its share to 8.4%.
Survey one ran from January 21 to March 3.
Triple M’s ‘Hot breakfast team’ Eddie McGuire, Wil Anderson and Luke Darcy came in third with a 7.9% share compared to last survey’s 7.6% share. Anderson replaced Mick Molloy, who moved into a syndicated drive-time slot with Jane Kennedy after Merrick Watts departed.
Meanwhile, Smooth FM’s Jennifer Hanson and Mike Perso attracted a 7.8% share, jumping 2.5 points while Gold104, which has no permanent host at present, stayed stagnant on a 7.4% share.
Last year, Gold104’s parent company, Australian Radio Network (ARN), announced Jo Stanley and Anthony ‘Lehmo’ Lehmann will not be returning to the network in 2018. UK radio star Christian O’Connell was subsequently announced as the duo’s replacement, however his show has not yet kicked off.
Coming in second last spot for the FM stations was Kiis 101.1’s new breakfast duo, Jase Hawkins and Polly ‘PJ’ Harding.
‘Jase ad PJ’ – who joined the ARN network from New Zealand in January – fell 1.2 ratings points to a breakfast share of 5.1%.
Triple J saw a 4.1% share, taking the last FM breakfast spot.
In the AM battle, 3AW was once again the most-listened-to station across both AM and FM stations despite dropping 1.1 points to 19%.
ABC Melbourne had a 10.1% share, after falling 2.9 points.
Meanwhile, 3RN managed a 3.9% share just beating SEN’s 3.2%.
Survey one saw Fox FM’s new drive show combination – which features two shows Carrie & Tommy, followed by Hughesy & Kate – crowned the top FM drive spot.
Improving 1.7 share points from the last survey to 12.7%, Fox FM held on to its top drive spot despite seeing the departure of Hamish Blake and Andy Lee.
Coming in behind Fox FM was Smooth FM’s Byron Webb, who overtook Nova as it managed a 1.7 point increase to 8.8%.
In a tie for third place, Nova’s Kate Ritchie, Tim Blackwell and Marty Sheargold and Triple M’s Mick Molloy and Jane Kennedy managed an 8.7% share as Nova fell 1.8 points and Triple M jumped 2.2 points.
Gold 104.3’s Gavin Miller took home the fourth drive FM spot with an 8.1% share beating Kiis FM’s new drive team Will McMahon and Woody Whitelaw who dropped 2 whole share points to 7.4%.
Meanwhile in the AM stations, 3AW took the top spot with a 10.4% share compared to ABC Melbourne’s 6.7%.
The other AM stations consisted of ABC News’1.7%, 3RN’s 2.3% and SEN’s 3.1%.’
Melbourne radio ratings survey 1 2018. Total audience share. Source: GfK
In the FM battle, Fox FM was the most-listened-to station overall scoring a 10.8% share compared to last year’s 8.4%.
Hot on its heels was Smooth FM, which managed to jump 2.5 points to 10.3%.
The third most-listened-to FM station was Gold 104.3 gaining 0.1 points to 9.7%. The station lost its first place title from last year’s survey.
Triple M came in fourth with a 7.4% share despite jumping 1.1 points from last survey’s 6.3%.
Meanwhile, Nova fell one point to 7% but still managed to beat Kiis FM’s 5.7% share.
Triple J managed a 4.8% overall audience share as it fell 0.6 points.
For the AMs, 3AW was the most-listened-to station overall despite dropping 1.8 points to an overall audience share of 13.2%.
ABC Melbourne saw an overall share of 8.1% also dropping 1.2 points.
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2.9 drop for ABC Melbourne Breakfast is a disaster. It has eroded their whole day. Clearly I’m not the only one who finds Sammy Shah and Jacinta Parsons unlistenable. And I wasn’t especially a fan of Red.
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Miss Red he was my start to the day, l no longer have 774 on, it’s 621 now.
Still bewilded by ABC and the decision to replace Red.
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Sloppy reporting there Abigail.
“Southern Cross Austereo’s Fox FM was the most-listened-to station in breakfast, drive and overall people…”
No it wasn’t, AW was.
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Why would talking lifestyle want to go to a sports format when SEN get less than 3% audience share are they mad. Granted they have no listeners now but battle it out over 3% madness
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Hi Andrew,
The sloppiness can probably be attributed to me in this instance. The headline was correct, but the placement of ‘FM’ in the opening sentence probably led to the confusion here.
I have re-worded it for clarity. Thanks for flagging.
Vivienne – Mumbrella
SEN has now lost even more of its audience. Sam McLure 6-7pm is very boring. Shouldn’t have sacked Finey. KB & the Doc don’t work on the afternoon timeslot. Only good thing was getting rid of Francis Leach. Even when the footy starts they will still be in trouble.
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I just cannot lizten to tbe ABC bresk fazt any more
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Have switched off the ABC completely since they dumped Red. The only thing I will go back to listening to is the Coodabeens.
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Andrew, rather than take a pot shot at Abigail’s ‘sloppy’ reporting, how about you understand the semantics of a radio survey?
FoxFM was INDEED the most listened to in these three areas. AM and FM.
The most listened to can mean the most listeners, yes? What you are referring to is share, very different. Not cumulative audience. Check station cumes on these 3 areas, and it certainly could be reported that indeed Fox FM has the most listeners in these three areas.
So, Abigail’s reporting could actually be deemed correct.
Jump off Mr Ed and give her an apology young man and stop being a survey-hero.
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No longer listen to ABC Melbourne breakfast radio, or Nightlife with Phillip Clark . Very disappointed !
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Why is there no rating for Classic rock radio 1377??
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1278 lifestyle has been a complete disaster.
I wish they would return the station back to Magic 1278.
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I no longer listen to the “me too” commercial breakfast copy of 774’s appalling and incompetent decision to replace Red. The narrow minded management attempt to become another banal commercial broadcaster in the morning is inexcusable. Bring back Red and sack the people who made this bewildering decision.
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There’s no chance of 1278 returning to Magic whilst all decisions are made in Sydney.
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Whoever made the decision to revamp 774 got it wrong and should be replaced. The breakfast program is a classic example of contempt for listeners.
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774 hopeless
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Never listen to abc breakfast anymore since red left just a disgrace when will abc learn Sammy shah is unlistenable
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Can only agree who can understand Sammy and Jacinta Listened for the first 4 weeks trying to see improvement but now switch my radio over to another station at 5.30 as cannot understand or in fact stand what they carry on about , after being ABC breakfast listener for close to thirty years have left and would take a big change for me to go back
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What! I thought Red had retired. I can’t believe he was sacked! I can’t listen to Sammi and Jacinta. I tried -hoping they would improve. Jacinta on her own would be better. Sorry Sammi.
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Yes terrible getting rid of Red good rittance to774 and Faine should also go
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