Radio ratings: Early result for Classic Rock in Sydney; no breakthrough for Merrick, Dools & Ricki-Lee; Nova fourth in Brisbane
DMG’s decision to switch formats from Vega to Classic Rock appears to be showing early signs of paying off in Sydney, according to newly released listener ratings.
The station’s daytime share of listening rose from 3.6% to 4.5% its second rise in consecutive ratings periods.
The Nielsen survey period covers April, May and the beginning of June. Vega switched to Classic Rock half way through the previous period. In the last full ratings period before then change, Vega had languished on 3.2%.
The biggest lift for Classic Rock came in the 10-17 demo, up from 3.7% to 10%.
However, the switch was less immediate in Melbourne, where daytime share for Classic Rock slipped a fraction, from 3.5% to 3.4%.
The Melbourne Classic Rock breakfast show fell from 3% to 2.3%.
DMG’s other big change – the Sydney breakfast show on Nova96.9 with Merrick, Dools & Ricki-Lee – remains a slog, with audience slipping from 7.5% to 6.3%.
In Sydney, Austereo’s 2Day FM remains on top among the commercial FM stations, with a 10.3% share. Kyle & Jackie O remained on top for breakfast, although their share slipped from 11.5% to 10.2%.
In Sydney talk, Alan Jones remained the king of the mornings on 2GB with 17.2%, while the station averaged 15.1% across the day. Rival talk station 2UE showed a small improvement, up from 4.4% to 5.6%.
In Melbourne, the Eddie McGuire-helmed Triple M breakfast show made steady progress, up from 5.2% to 5.9%.
Sister station Fox FM remained the numebr one in Melbourne commercial FM with 13.8%. Talk station 3AW stayed steady at 15.1%.
New Melbourne talk radio station MTR’s ratings barely moved on the last survey, although for the majority of the ratings period the station’s predecessor 3MP was on the frequency.
Brisbane:
In Brisbane, Nova is still to fully recover from the destabilising effect of the departure of breakfast host Ash Bradnam over alcohol problems late last year. He has since been replaced by the Meshel, Tim & Marty show. They rated a 10.7% share, down on the previous 11.4%.
Nova – until recently the long time market leader in Brisbane – sunk to fourth for daily weekday share.
Austereo’s Triple M dropped its daily share from 13% to 11.4%, handing the Brisbane lead to sister station B105, up from 12.6% to 12.8%.
Moving into second place, ARN’s 97.3 FM rose from 11.5% to 12%, ahead of Triple M and Nova (down from 11.8% to 11.3%).
Using the alternative measurement of Monday-Sunday daytime share, the order shifts slightly, with B105 first, 97.3FM second, Nova third and Triple M fourth.
Adelaide:
In Adelaide, ARN’s Mix 102.3 (up from 12.8% to 13.5) narrowly maintained its lead over Austereo’s SAFM (up from 12.7% to 13.3%).
Perth:
In Perth, Austereo’s Mix 94.5 maintained its healthy lead with a daytime share of 16%.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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i wouldn’t think classic rock would be happy growing their audience in 10-17’s. Looks like an anomaly that will be corrected in the next survey. So in theory classic rock’s audience has pretty much stayed the same
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Clarification needed.. ARN’s Brisbane station 97.3Fm has the number 2 share Mon-Fri 05.30am-12MN (not number 3 as quoted in your story above). They also hold number 2 share Mon-Sun 05.30am – 12MN.
All very close in Brisbane…
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Thanks, Jamie. Duly clarified.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Tim, I know Perth is low on the list in the eastern states eyes but it would be nice if you wrote a bit more about the results in WA.
It is important to note that despite holding #1 in 10+ Austereos MIX went down 25 – 54. They also dropped in breakfast (all the FM’s did) . Also note that AM breakfast was up – Johnny Young at 6IX and Millsy & Tony Mac at 6PR went up.
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Interesting you talk about very small increases or drops in melb, but miss out on the BIG story of Magic’s 2.1% rise which now puts it at 5th best station in melb and has most likely taken all of those disenchanted with 3MP moving and vega changing. A massive result for a station with miniscule marketing up against the Nova’s and Triple M’s of the world
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the magic / 3aw combo buy is the most cost efficient two station buy in the country now, in front of the gbch combo
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Hi Paul, thanks for your comment; however, I would like to clarify a few things in your post.
Firstly, it is well known that 10-17’s share some media consumption with their parents; it is a common occurrence for a station targeting adults to improve in both the 40+ demographic and 10-17’s.
Secondly, Classic Rock 95.3 experienced gains in 25-64’s (25-39, 40-54 and 55-64) not just 10-17’s. Furthermore, the contribution of a 1% increase in the 10-17 demographic to a station’s 10+ share is relatively insignificant when compared with a 1% increase in the 40-54 and 55-64 demographics. It’s the same situation when looking at the sessions – a 1% increase in share at Night doesn’t contribute as much to the overall 10+ share as a 1% increase in Breakfast.
Thirdly, we are pretty happy with the result!
Happy to discuss further offline if you would like.
All the best
David Kidd
Program Director Classic Rock 95.3 & 91.5
Group Research Director DMG Radio
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Hi John,
Fair point. I generally aim to send out our daily email bulletin by lunchtime, Sydney time. So generally what I do is write up the Sydney & Melbourne ratings first as they go online first, then update the story when Brisbane, Adelaide & Perth become available.
Today I’m afraid time was so tight I only got to do the top line before hitting send.
I’ll look to go deeper next time round.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
There’s clearly life in AM radio yet…as evidenced by the good ratings some of the heritage stations achieve such as 2GB and 3AW.
Also ABC 702, ABC 774 etc.
Good point about Magic 1278 and I would add fellow ‘easy’ music stations 4BH, 2CH, Cruise 1323 etc.
Latest word from the USA is that talk radio is slowly tanking and, surprise, music is returning to AM in many formats such as Latin, Country, Religious, Ethnic and brokered time.
The most powerful of pure radio markets – babyboomers – never left AM anyway.
It’s just that AM walked away from them.
Talk will run out of puff on AM in Australia sooner rather than later, and music make a comeback.
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Thanks Tim for acknowledging WA. Look forward to more depth next survey.
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I was pleased to see UE jump a bit, particularly after that hatchet job in the Telegraph a few weeks ago. One could easily write a story on the decline of their Sunday Tele’s circulation over the past couple of years when all they’ve got is the Herald to compete with. But UE is Fairfax and the Tele is News Limited, so that’s the way it goes.
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MTR’s 1.7 per cent has got to worry them, no matter what Steve Price says. Perhaps he should sack himself – breakfast went backwards slightly.
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To say 2UE showed a small improvement from 4.4% to 5.6% is a very poor statement indeed. Very poor. This is a 30% improvement in a few months. Do your maths and be fair, please.
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MTR has made no impact, no change from previous dying station. May we know your reasons?
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Maybe MTR Casting is problematical.
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Thank you for the clarifications David (Kidd) on the performance and survey information you provided.
Although I agree with you regarding the 10-17’s share some of the listening habits of their parents I would be interested to know why this does not correspond with the 10-17 share for WSFM when in fact the cume figures for WSFM in this demographic actually decreased yet the 25-54 cume increased by a combined 45000. Classic Rock cume in the same demographics increased by 21000 which obviously means your 10-17’s are listening longer which is great if you are targeting them. I dont know how many 10-17’s would actually buy your advertisers products though.
It is also true to say that a 1% increase in the 10-17’s is relatively insignificant to a 1% increase in the 40-54 however the 10-17 increase for Classic Rock was 6.3% and 40-54 was 1%. Surely this effects the overall increase Classic Rock has shown within this survey. Considering the All People 10+ result for Classic Rock saw a 1% increase, would not the 6.3% increase in 10-17’s contributed to this?
If so, and should Survey #5 show a decrease in the 10-17’s for Classic Rock to a more appropriate 3.7 (as per Survey #3) would we not then see Classic Rock actually dip in the overall result for All People 10+.
Also as you have quite correctly stated in your above comment regarding the common effect of 10-17’s sharing listening habits with their parents, should a correction in the 10-17’s in Survey #5 to a 3.7% (a decrease of 6.3%) does this mean we should expect a decrease in the 40+ demographics for Classic Rock?
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