Revealed: Three times more men than women present breakfast radio in Australia
Breakfast radio remains the province of male presenters in all of Australia’s capital cities, research by Mumbrella suggests.
According to data gathered by Mumbrella, men outnumber women in the most high profile timeslot of the day by more than three to one.
Mumbrella examined the on air lineup of each FM and AM breakfast show across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. While there are eight shows fronted by a single male presenter, not a single metro radio show is presented by a woman on her own.
Across the five cities, Mumbrella assessed the lineup of 40 shows, including AM and FM commercial shows as well as each city’s local ABC station.
In total, 68 men and 24 women have presentation roles, giving men a 73.9% share of voice.
Mumbrella examined the breakfast slot because it is the highest rating, and most commercially important, timeslot of the day.
Adelaide was the most male dominated with 77.8% male voices, while Brisbane was the least, although men still outnumbered women by 72.2% to 27.8%.
The situation is even less diverse when the fact that many shows feature more than one presenter is taken into account. When examining shows with multiple presenters, programs with, for example, one man and one woman would see those hosts as presented as half a person when added to the total. This made the ratio even more extreme with 78.4% men to 21.6% women.
Across the country, the most male dominated network is the ABC, with all five local breakfast shows fronted by men.
The statistics, which cover metro shows only, do not include ABC Radio National, which has its breakfast show hosted nationally by Fran Kelly, or ABC Triple J whose national show is co-hosted by Ben Harvey and Liam Stapleton, alongside newsreader Brooke Boney. It also excludes ABC Classic FM, hosted by Martin Buzacott.
Last year new ABC boss Michelle Guthrie’s called for greater diversity following the 2016 federal budget. In an email sent to staff on her first day she stated the ABC must “extend our reach and our relevance into areas where we are under-represented…[which] means more diversity in both our staff and our content”.
A spokeswoman for the ABC told Mumbrella that the network’s record is rapidly improving in slots outside of breakfast time.
She said: “It’s unfortunate that you’re only looking at one day part. When viewed across the day, ABC Radio has an increasingly gender-balanced lineup. Recent additions in the last year or so (including Christine Anu, Larissa Behrendt, Ali Clarke, Clare Bowditch, Wendy Harmer, Sarah Macdonald, Chris Bath, Belinda Varischetti) join an established and respected cohort of female presenters in every capital city, as well as national hosts such as Eleanor Hall and Patricia Karvelas.”
She also pointed out that the ABC’s metro stations also carry a half hour nationally syndicated offering which is hosted by a woman.
The spokeswoman said: “AM broadcasts a daily 30 minutes of in-depth, national, current affairs hosted by the award-winning Sabra Lane. This is an integral part of our breakfast offer.”
She added: “News Radio breakfast is regularly fronted by the respected Sandy Aloisi and of course RN Breakfast is piloted by the peerless Fran Kelly. Gen Fricker is a regular on triple j breakfast in addition to her regular afternoons gig and Brooke Boney is an important member of the triple j Breakfast team. Many ABC Radio breakfast shows have female newsreaders.
“While women make up 50% or more of our presenters in six of eight cap cities, we are committed to bringing greater diversity to breakfast radio, and look forward to evolving to a more representative lineup.”
Macquarie Media matches the ABC, also having no female presenters.
Meanwhile, the most diverse network, with a near 50/50 split is KIIS FM, which is owned by Australian Radio Network.
Definitely on the AMA band, although I would rather that than the mindless drivel with male and female pairs on FM radio – usually washed up reality stars and stupid names like Woody and Sammy.
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“Revealed” “Research” Seriously ?
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I took a look at Sydney stations with 4% or more of market share
2GB Male 14.60%
ABC702 Female 10.60%
Smooth Male/Female 9.70%
KIIS Male/Female 8.30%
WSFM Male/Female 7.70%
Nova Male/Male 6.80%
JJJ Male/Female/Male 5.90%
MMM Male/Male/Male 5.40%
2 Day Male/Female 4.40%
2UE Male 4.30%
You could argue 30% women but I think most would look at that and say there was not a great inbalance.
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So what?
Does gender trump ratings? This whole gender debate and search for equality is underpinned by a lack of reality.
Radio stations need to make money. If an all female team or single female presenter suddenly strikes gold in delivering listeners to other slots in the day then they will be promoted to the key breakfast slot.
What will we have next? A call for more ginger presenters to be represented in drive time slots because balding men are over-represented?
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I, for one, am fed up with the cue-ball dominated radio industry.
RISE UP, FOLLICLE FIT AUSTRALIANS. TAKE BACK WHAT IS RIGHTFULLY YOURS
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Time to open your mind Mumbrella?
You are supposed to be journalists. Instead you have been bullied by feminist into viewing the world through their cultural Marxist lens.
It’s getting a bit repetitive.
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I hope that not too many old white men have given an opinion here yet, I don’t wish to upset quotas.
I don’t care who talks to me from the radio, as long as she/he is talented and interesting. Male voices are not the be all and end all in broadcasting, I would tune out 20 Walter Cronkites to listen to Fran Kelly in the mornings, but there are one or two other women who shriek and cackle as if they were gossiping on the phone, rather than addressing a radio audience. There are many men and women on radio who just fill in air time, some have a talent for it, but many have little or none.
Equal numbers of male and female announcers? It is a silly notion with no benefit to anyone.
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And how many men are employed in the PR and HR departments of radio stations across Australia? We need more diversity in those departments too if you’re being unbiased in your look at radio in Australia.
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Yes, but you are not supposed to mention that, it’s the kind of thing that draws attention to the receptionists, the childcare workers, the engineers, automotive and electrical trades, the garbage collectors and the nursing profession, where each has a huge gender disparity. Right now we are only concerned with glamour jobs and high pay/high power jobs.
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Well thank goodness you were not around over 45 years ago when the only women on Australia radio as ‘radio announcers’ were – Vicki G who left to look after her sick mum, Denni (don’t know what happened to her), Denise Beckinsile who married the boss, Glenda Karen went on to work at a number of stations, built a strong academic career, ran companies etc and Vonnie who gave it up to manage a one person record store and oversee her not too poor family’s investment properities. These ladies were on 4BH; along with a couple of housewife types who hung around talk back shifts one was known as ‘Cuddles’. But at the time were the only ‘trained’ women expected to do exactly the same as the men – program, panel their show, run to time all that kind of stuff. All the other women – and there were few; basically go told when to speak, what to say, and when to shut up. The women listed by name didn’t and I recall during the America’s Cup era visiting Perth and heard Glenda Karen had turned into a strong presence sticking it right up a politician or two. The first ‘real’ female breakfast radio announcer was Jane Cameron in Melbourne. She was responsible for her own show own paneling etc. Carol Lane a nude model did a breakfast show for a while on 2KY but looks will only get you so far. Nothing much has changed.
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