Melbourne radio ratings: Gold 104.3 overtakes Fox as most popular FM station
Australian Radio Network’s Gold 104.3 has surpassed Southern Cross Austereo’s Fox FM and become the most-listened-to FM radio station in the third radio ratings survey of the year.
Gold 104.3 climbed 0.6 points to a 10.6% audience share, narrowly edging out Fox FM – which fell 0.9 points to 10.5% – by just 0.1 point.
Melbourne radio ratings survey 3 2018. Source: GfK (Click to enlarge)
Falling from its previous second place, Smooth FM dropped to third overall as it slid 1.2 ratings points to an 8.9% share.
Meanwhile, Nova finished with a 6.8% overall share, narrowly beating Triple M’s 6.6% share.
Australian Radio Network’s Kiis FM trailed behind the other FM stations with a 5.5% share, despite only dipping 0.1 points from survey two.
For the AM stations, 3AW held its lead with a large 14.4% share, climbing 0.7 points from the previous survey.
ABC Melbourne also saw improvement with an increase of 0.4 points to attract an 8.7% overall audience share.
While SEN radio also had an improvement, up 0.3 points to 3.4%.
Macquarie Sport Radio, which debuted on April 4, attracted an audience share just of 0.4% as it jumped just 0.1 points.
In the breakfast battle for survey three, Fifi Box, Brendan Fevola and Byron Cooke managed to hold their first place title despite losing 0.9 points – down from 10.3% to 9.4%.
Gold 104.3, whose new permanent host Christian O’Connell began yesterday, is hot on the heels of Fox FM as it jumped a whole point to an 8% share, creating a clearer gap between second and third.
O’Connell’s immediate impact on the station won’t be clear until survey four, released on July 10.
Third place went to Triple M’s ‘Hot breakfast team’ of Eddie McGuire, Wil Anderson and Luke Darcy, as they improved 0.8 ratings points from a 6.9% share last survey to 7.7% share for survey three. Smooth FM’s Jennifer Hanson and Mike Perso tied with Triple M as they also managed a 7.7% breakfast share.
Nova 100 came in fourth place as Chrissie Swan, Sam Pang and Jonathan Brown saw a loss of 1.6 ratings points from an 8% share to 6.4%.
Meanwhile, Kiis FM’s Polly ‘PJ’ Harding and Jase Hawkins once again trailed behind with a 4.8% share.
For the AM stations, 3AW yet again saw the largest share with a whopping 20% drive share.
ABC Melbourne managed a 9.6% audience share, ahead of SEN’s 3.5%, 3RN’s 4.7% and ABC News’ 2.1% drive share.
Melbourne radio ratings survey 3 2018. Total audience share. Source: GfK
Fox FM’s new format with Carrie Bickmore and Tommy Little, followed by David Hughes and Kate Langbroek also managed to hold onto its most popular drive title as the station saw a drive audience share of 13.3%, only falling 0.1 points.
Gold FM, once again, came in behind Fox FM as Gavin Miller attracted a 9.7% audience share and gained 0.4 points from the last survey.
In third position, Nova’s Kate Ritchie, Tim Blackwell and Marty Sheargold lost 0.8 ratings points to come in with an 8.5% share.
Byron Webb dropped 1.3 points, giving Smooth FM a drive audience share of 7.7%.
Kiis FM’s Will McMahon and Woody Whitelaw managed to finish fifth in the drive battle, falling 0.5 points to a 7.3% share.
Trailing behind Kiis FM in drive was Triple M’s Mick Molloy and Jane Kennedy as they attracted a 7% share.
Although it lost 0.4 ratings points, 3AW was again the most-listened-to station in drive with a 10.4% share, coming in front of ABC Melbourne’s 6.7% share for the AM stations.
3AW and ABC Melbourne managed to edge out SEN’s 3.2% drive share, 3RN’s 2.8% and Macquarie Sport Radio’s 0.9% share.
Abigail Dawson was Mumbrella's senior content journalist covering event content. She left Mumbrella to move into an agency role in 2020.
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