Melbourne radio ratings: Russ & Ross dominate, Gold FM a big winner, while ABC takes hit
GfK metro survey one for the year has seen 3AW’s breakfast duo, Russel Howcroft and Ross Stevenson show no signs that a post-covid market will impact numbers for their talkback show, posting a strong 22.5% share.
With 2021 the year of talkback in both Melbourne and Sydney, in the context of lockdowns, the same cannot be said for the ABC’s Melbourne station, with breakfast host Sammy J’s show facing a major setback, dropping 4.2 percentage points from 14% to 9.8%. The station, which performed strongly across the entire calendar year also saw a dip of 2.7% to a 7.4% share overall, well back into the midst of the pack, ceding its shared second spot to Gold FM. In Survey five last year, the ABC was as high as 12.4%.
Survey one [click to enlarge]
After Dave Cameron told Mumbrella recently that the Southern Cross Austereo talent lineups are here to stay, both Triple M and Fox 101.9 saw a positive result. The latter was the major beneficiary, with the station up 1.2 points to 7.8% overall, and breakfast team Fifi, Fev and Nick up 0.9 points to 7.5%. Triple M rose just 0.2 points, with Marty Sheargold at breakfast further falling to a 4% share.
COC: A big winner
Other big winners were Triple J, up to 6.3% overall, a 1.8 point rise, with Nova’s breakfast team Chrissy, Sam and Browny also up 1.4 points to 7.5%. Nova’s drive team Kate, Tim and Joel showed a recovery, with a major boost of 2.1 points to land on 9.1%.
Elsewhere at drive time, Tom Elliot on 3AW led the pack, extending from 13-13.4%, with Gold’s Dave ‘Higgo’ Higgins also rising 0.6% to 11.5% overall. Raf Epstein followed suit on ABC, with a 1.9 point drop to 7.3% overall.
On the strong start to the year for 3AW, director of content for Nine Radio, Greg Byrnes praised the breakfast team: “It very strong start to the year for us across the network. Wonderful results across breakfast in Sydney and Melbourne.” He also highlighted that it was the best result to start the year for 3AW since the current data was made available in 2004.
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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
Christian O'Connell
GFK
Gold FM
Melbrourne Radio Ratings
radio ratings
Sammy J
SCA
Southern Cross Austereo
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