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%.
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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%.
