Radio ratings: Hard road for Classic Rock and MTR as Austereo stays on top
The second full ratings period since DMG relaunched its Vega network as Classic Rock has seen the station fall slightly in Sydney and remain stable in Melbourne. Meanwhile, Austereo has retained the number one FM station in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane while new Melbourne talk station MTR has flopped.
Classic Rock’s weekly daytime share fell from 4.5% to 4.3% in Sydney and stayed flat at 3.3% in Melbourne.
The axing of the Melbourne Dicko & Dave breakfast show by the DMG-owned Classic Rock took place in the final two weeks of the ratings period, which ran from May 9 to June 12 and June 27 to July 31. Over the whole ratings period, the timeslot actually improved slightly – up from a 2.3% to 2.6% share.
Sydney:
In Sydney, Austereo’s 2Day remains the number one FM station with a share of 9.4%, slightly down from the previous 9.7%. ARN’s WSFM remained stable at number two with a 6.6% share, while Nova 96.9 closed the gap – up from 6.1% to 6.5%.
At breakfast, Today FM’s Kyle & Jackie O Show improved in its number one spot – up from 10.2% to 10.5%.
Austereo boss Guy Dobson told Mumbrella: “The thing I’m most pleased to see this survey is Kyle & Jackie O above the 10s. There’s no God-given right to be number one and they work for it.”
Meanwhile, WSFM’s breakfast show Jonesey & Amanda in the Morning strengthened its second place in the FM battle – up from 7.1% to 8.1%.
Despite the promotional push of asking listeners to promote the Merrick, Dools & Ricki-Lee breakfast show for Nova, the show’s share remained unchanged at 6.3%. However, the station’s 4-7pm drivetime slot which includes Ryan, Monty & Wippa from 4-6pm improved from 6.9% to 7.8%.
Sydney drivetime still belongs to 2Day FM’s Hamish & Andy though, with 4pm to 7pm listening at a massive 14.7%.
Sydney weekly daytime FM share:
- 2Day – 9.4%
- WSFM – 6.6%
- Nova96.9 – 6.5%
- Mix106.5 – 5.4%
In a potential worry for 2GB, Alan Jones’ audience has fallen again. Although he remains the most listened to breakfast show in Sydney, his share fell from 17.2% to 15.9%. Earlier this year he had hit the 20% mark.
Melbourne:
The first numbers for new talk station MTR were a major disappointment. The station, which launched towards the beginning of the ratings period replacing 3MP pulled in a share of just 1.3%, down from 1.7%.
MTR program director and breakfast presenter Steve Price said, “This is where we start from. People are still finding us. We are putting to air a good alternative talk product which we think is compelling listening. Our challenge is to change listener’s habits in a crowded and competitive radio market. We intend to make inroads over time.”
Despite a slight fall in weekly daytime share for Austereo’s Fox FM, the station remained in a comfortable number one slot. It also won the FM breakfast battle with 11.9% share for the Matt & Jo Show.
Meanwhile, the Eddie McGuire-led Triple M breakfast show has fallen to fifth in the FM battle for the timeslot, with a drop from 5.6% to 5.3%.
Melbourne weekly daytime FM share:
- Fox FM – 12.5%
- Gold – 7.3%
- Nova 100 – 7.0%
Brisbane:
Weekly daytime FM share:
- B105 – 13.1%
- 97.3FM – 11.4%
- Nova 106.9 – 10.9%
- Triple M – 10.3%
Adelaide:
Weekly daytime FM share:
- Mix 102.3 – 12.2%
- SAFM – 12.0%
- Triple M – 9.6%
- Nova 91.6%
Perth:
Weekly daytime FM share:
- Mix 94.5 – 15.3%
- 92.9 – 13.5%
- Nova 93.7 – 10.3%
- 96FM – 8.9%
Ratings for Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth follow shortly.
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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topics
austereo
Classic Rock
Dicko & Dave
DMG
Guy Dobson
Hamish & Andy
Mix
MRN
MTR
Nielsen
Nova
radio
ratings
Today network
triple M
Vega
Last time I checked, Magic was actually on the AM band
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Why would anybody change from Faine or Mitchel to Price? MTR is the opposite of Melbourne’s taste. Steve, take your redneckin’ back to Sydney champ.
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I dont understand why you need to distinguish AM and FM , this just ads fuel to the fire that exists in the under 30’s media departments. We should be recognising the AM stations. I would of thought the angle for this survey would have been the influence the election is having across all radio and its digital platforms.
I see 2UE has gained audience and is 3rd overall .. What election ?
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Fair point on AM vs FM, Puzzeled. As it happens we sometimes do give a bit more emphasis to the talk stations when there have been big moves. But it’s probably fair to say that FM and talk fight separate programming battles, even if they are fighting for the same advertising dollars.
Regarding the point on the election, it’s worth bearing in midn that the survey period kicked off at the beginning of May and only ran to the end of last month, so that may not be a major factor.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Good point on the survey Tim. That will make the next Survey interesting given both Abbott and Julia have been using AM and FM platforms to reach out to the people. A very traditional approach.
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It’s time you got serious and dedicated some commentary to Brisbane and the other markets. Not good enough Tim.
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Hi Why Not?
Sadly I’m afraid that Brisbane, Perth & Adelaide missed out slightly by the fact that they are published slightly later than Melbourne and Sydney. As it happens, sometimes practicalities also intervene (I was committed to speak at the Walkleys journalism conference which saw me with less time than usual to write this story).
But I did have time to look at the Brisbane numbers. If there was a major drama in terms of changes of share/ relative position, then I didn’t spot it. I’m all ears though if you can point to a major development I missed.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
I have always been a “music listener” and being of the baby boomers era, I only always listened to 3MP or Magic. When MTR started I was disappointed because I am not into “talkbalk radio” at all. But decided to give MTR a go anyway. Now 4 months on…. I have MTR on at every opportunity. They are great to listen to. I might not always agree with what they talk about but I always have a good laugh.
My husband who has always been a 774 listener is now a full MTR listener. Now we don’t switch stations when in the car anymore. We have one station in common!! Being “swing voters”, we are very open to all the discussions that takes place.
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Classic Rock = Fail.
So typical of Aussie radio, changing the music doesn’t mean that listeners will believe the brand.
The 8:55am classic rock challenge is a case in point. Yesterday’s question was, Larry Mullen Jr is the youngest member of which band? Easy question that took 3 callers to answer. Live the brand people.
And stop playing mainstream crossover tracsk that don’t back up the brand – Peter Gabriel Sledgehmmer, Blondie Heart of Glass, etc.
Play some credible CR music and back it up with everything else you do. It’s about building a brand, not playing music that tests with Triple M and WS auds.
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DMG have been trying to get 91.5 and 95.3 to attract 40 – 50 year olds for five years now with not even a remote sniff of success.
Why?
1) Classic Rock does not have announcers. Instead they employ 16 year old traffic reporters. Announcers / DJs give you company and create an image for the station.
2) 40 – 50 year olds have a very diverse taste in music. In melbourne the No.1 music station for this age group is FoxFm. The No.2 station is Gold. Neither are rock stations yet DMG think they will storm the 40 somethings with old rock music.
They should have classed themselves Old Rock Music 91.5.
3) They have no announcers. Might as well listen to Triple M.
4) They have no announcers. Might as well listen to my iPod.
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Hi Terry – my bad – thanks for pointing that out – now updated.
Cheers,
Tim