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Melbourne radio ratings: Nine Radio’s 3AW dominates as lockdowns continue

Nine Radio’s 3AW has continued its domination in Melbourne breakfast, and in the market as a whole, with another massive jump in GfK radio ratings survey seven.

The channel grew by 3.7 percentage points overall to a total market share of 20.6% and by 2.3 percentage points in breakfast, giving ad man Russel Howcroft and co-host Ross Stevenson a 28.4% share in the slot. This makes the duo overwhelmingly the most popular breakfast show with more than double closest rival ABC Melbourne which lost 1.2 percentage points for 13.7% overall.

Howcroft and Stevenson

The survey, which covered the period from Sunday August 23 to Saturday October 24, was the seventh of the year and the second since the radio industry took a break from surveys during COVID-19. Howcroft joined 3AW at the beginning on August, replacing longtime breakfast host John Burns.

Melbourne Radio Ratings survey seven total people [click to enlarge]

3AW was the biggest mover overall, but in FM, Australian Radio Network’s Gold 104.3 held onto its top spot and had a slight gain of 0.2 percentage points to an overall share of 8.9%. This marks its seventh survey as the top FM station. Southern Cross Austereo’s Fox FM dropped 0.7 percentage points to 5.2%, putting it just below Nova 100 which gained 0.3 percentage points for 5.6%. Nova’s Smooth FM had a fall of 1.0 percentage points, dropping it to 6.5% but holding onto its spot as the second most popular FM station overall.

Gold’s Christian O’Connell held onto his top breakfast spot with 7.3%. Nova’s Chrissie, Sam and Browny gained 1.3 percentage points for 5.9%, helping them recover after a big 3.2 percentage point fall last survey. Fox FM’s Fifi, Fev and Byron rose 0.2 percentage points to 5.0% and ARN’s Kiis FM saw its breakfast show, Jase and PJ, recover 0.3 percentage points of the 2.4 percentage point drop it experienced in survey six.

Melbourne radio ratings survey seven [click to enlarge]

In Drive, last survey’s upset held strong for survey seven – Nova’s Kate, Tim and Joel Creasey stayed on the 6.3% it fell to last survey. Creasey replaced Marty Sheargold in September. But Gold FM’s Gavin Miller lost the top spot he gained last survey to SCA’s Triple M’s Kennedy and Molloy, which runs from 5pm to 7pm, and Matty O, who runs from 1pm to 4pm, seeing a 0.4 percentage point increase to 7.9%.

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