Nova’s Merrick & Dools on the up but 2Day FM continues to dominate Sydney’s music radio
Nova 969’s revolving breakfast lineup has done the station no harm in the latest radio ratings with Merrick & Dools delivering the biggest audience jump in the Sydney market.
The show’s ratings rose from a 5.3% share to a 6.4% share according to Nielsen’s fifth survey of 2011.
The result is likely to ease what appeared to be growing pressure for the station management to make a change.
DMG’s Nova also delivered an increase in its overall share – up from 5.7% to 6.5% of the weekday audience. DMG’s troubled second station Sydney’s 95.3FM Classic Rock was up fractionally from 3.3% to 3.6%.
Speaking about the Merrick & Dools numbers, DMG’s programming boss Paul Jackson told Mumbrella: “It’s a fantastic result. I’m delighted.”
Asked about the speculation around the lineup, he said: “It’s exactly that – speculation.”
However, the battle of the music stations is still dominated by Southern Cross Austereo’s 2Day FM, which stood still at 9.8%.
And ARN’s WSFM remains the number two station with a weekday share of 7.1%. The Jonesy and Amanda breakfast show also remmained at number two for WSFM, with a slight drop from 7.2% to 6.7%. Sister station Mix 106.5 was also down slight, from a 5.7% to 5.2% weekday share.
Meanwhile, talk station 2GB remains the biggest station in Sydney, with a 15.5% weekday share, down on the last survey’s 16.4%.
2UE, which is undergoing a change of guard in its presentation lineup is yet to see an improvement in its overall share. It’s weekday share was down slightly from 6% to 5.6%. The only slot that saw an improvement for 2UE was Paul Murray’s early drivetime, up from 4% to 4.6%, while 2GB rival Ben Fordham dropped 1.2% from 10.4% to 9.2%.
2GB’s Ray Hadley still has the biggest share on the dial with 18.7% for his mid-morning show, down on the last survey’s 20.7%.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large. He returned to Mumbrella as Publisher in January 2025
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There are three commercial FM license owners in Sydney. SC Austereo, ARN and DMG.
Austereo own the No. 1 FM
ARN have the No. 2 FM
DMG have the No. 3 FM.
DMG spokesperson “It’s a fantastic result. I’m delighted”.
Gotta love a business with low expectations.
Thank goodness these guys work in radio and don’t train our sporting teams.
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2Day FM are the No.1 station with 10 – 17 year olds.
2Day FM are the No.2 station with 40 – 54 year olds.
That is the sign of a ratings powerhouse.
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I don’t have much to say today. My stations dropped again in the ratings. But at least I’ve got my iPod
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We’re number 3! We’re number 3!… hehehe…
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Half way through the day and I’ve made my first powerful statement on Mumbrella. Powerhouse was a word I thought up last survey day but my spell check kept auto correcting to powderpuff. Someone pass me a Val before I drop another vernacular bombshell!
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No wonder the Federal Government are so worried about the commentary in 2GB and 2UE and network stations
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Jackson’s comments remind me of this great clip from the D Gen from a few years back – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n42lNEoP5zE
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I have been using the word powerhouse for eleven surveys now.
In that time DMG have used the words “vega”, “classic rock” and now “Sydney’s 95.3” to descibe the same radio station.
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Whilst I also concede that in that time triple m is till rating in the 4’s with 100 on air announcers and heaps of marketing. Dog, Fleas.
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