Sydney radio ratings: 2GB knocked off its perch in Sydney for the first time in 18 years
Nine Radio’s 2GB has surrendered the top spot in Sydney’s radio market, with its 146-survey streak as the market’s number one station being ended by KIIS FM in the first GfK metro ratings survey of 2023.
KIIS FM snatched an overall share win from 2GB in People 10+. While KIIS FM claimed an 11.9% share, up 0.3 points, 2GB had an 11% share and saw the biggest drop in overall – 1.5 points.
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The duo managed to push Nine Radio’s Ben Fordham on 2GB off the top spot, as the latter settled for a 14% share in breakfast, down 1.7 points.
Nine Radio’s head of content, Greg Byrnes, said “the audio market has never been more competitive”.
“This survey period also coincides with a return to more traditional summer listening habits. Music tends to have the upper hand this time of year and while 2GB’s audience has actually held steady in this survey more people have turned to music.
“At the same time we’ve also had a number of lineup changes to key shifts and that always takes time to bed in.
“It’s going to be a competitive year and with our live and local content we’re up for the fight.”
ARN chief content officer, Duncan Campbell, told Mumbrella about the win: “It’s nice not to have the FM after the #1 this survey in Sydney and for the very first time in terms of KIIS 1065.
“It’s a historic day for the station and the team who work so hard behind the scenes. It’s only one result though and I’d love to get a trend which would be three in a row. That’s the goal.
“I think people are a little fatigued with news at the moment as well and that’s taking nothing away from Ben and 2GB but in tough times people like to escape and Music and Entertainment like KIIS and Kyle and Jackie O offer that escape.
“KIIS has always had great tactics on the air with big giveaways. To maintain the momentum the station will have more of those as well as K&J Give Backs and K&J talking about topics that the audience connects with. Hopefully momentum is such that we can make it two in a row on 20 April.”
Elsewhere, radio veteran Mick Molloy’s fresh take on Sydney breakfast has given Southern Cross Austereo’s (SCA) Triple M an uptick in the slot share.
Molloy started hosting the slot on Triple M with Mark ‘MG’ Geyer at the beginning of this year, replacing Jess Eva. The show had a breakfast share of 5.2%, up 0.8 points from the previous survey.
Another fresh face in Sydney breakfast, whose performance will be measured in the next survey, is Nova Entertainment’s Kate Richie. She joined Fitzy and Wippa earlier this month, while her position in the national drive slot with Tim Blackwell and Joel Creasey was replaced by Ricki-Lee Coulter.
WSFM’s breakfast duo, Jonesy & Amanda, started the year strong with a 9.5% share, up 0.7 points and also had an increase compared to the previous corresponding survey.
This survey period ran from 17 January to 25 February. While industry body Commercial Radio & Audio (CRA) previously flagged the introduction of a new measurement system Radio360 from survey 1, the launch has been postponed until later this year to facilitate training and feedback from radio networks.
This is the third continuous survey period starting last year where ABC Sydney lost its overall share, this time down 0.4 points to 5.9%.
Chris O’Keefe
In Drive, 2GB’s Jim Wilson replacement, political reporter Chris O’Keefe, managed to maintain the same level of share in the slot with 5.7%. Before Wilson announced his exit, he was witnessing a downward streak of listenership.
But it was KIIS FM’s drive duo Will & Woody that retained the overall spot, snatching a 13.7% share with a significant 3 points boost compared to the last survey.
In the second spot in the drive slot was SmoothFM’s Byron Webb, whose share dropped 0.1 points to 10.4%.
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Darcy Song was a reporter at Mumbrella, covering media owners, adtech and social platforms. She left in October 2023.
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