Sydney radio ratings: ABC’s Wendy Harmer and Robbie Buck overtake Kiis FM’s Kyle and Jackie O

The breakfast radio market in Sydney has experienced a shake-up in the first ratings survey of 2020, with the ABC’s duo of Wendy Harmer and Robbie Buck beating Kiis FM’s Kyle Sandilands and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson.

‘Kyle & Jackie O’ had a share of 9.9%, down 1.5 percentage points from the final survey of 2019, while Buck and Harmer rose 1.3 points, from 10.5% to 11.8%.

The Sydney breakfast leader in terms of audience share is still Nine Radio’s 2GB. The program is fronted by Alan Jones and commands a 14.8% share – up 0.1 points from last survey.

2GB also remains on top of the overall radio market in Sydney with a 13.2% share, up 1.1 points.

Over on FM, Kiis lost the top spot, falling 0.7 points to 8.1%. This enabled Australian Radio Network (ARN) stablemate WS FM to surpass Kiis, with a 0.9 point climb to 8.4%, just behind the ABC’s 8.9%.

WS FM’s breakfast duo of Amanda Keller and Brendan ‘Jonesy’ Jones climbed 0.6 points to place second in the FM market, with 9.1% of the audience.

The next closest competitor in breakfast was Nova 96.9’s ‘Fitzy & Wippa’ with Ryan Fitzgerald and Michael Wipfli, which rose 1.3 points to 8.0%.

Overall, Nova was fourth in the FM battle, behind Kiis, WS FM and its Nova Entertainment stablemate Smooth 95.3. Smooth had a share of 8.1% in people 10+ (down 1.2 points), and Nova had 7.7% (up 0.5).

Sydney radio ratings survey 1, 2020. Source: GfK (Click to enlarge)

There was also a shake-up in the state of play at Southern Cross Austero’s (SCA) stations Triple M and 2Day FM, with Triple M falling 0.3 points to a 4.9% share overall, and 2Day FM climbing 1.2 points to surpass it on 5.3%.

2Day FM’s music-based breakfast program climbed 0.2 points to 3.7%, while Triple M’s Moonman in the Mornings with Lawrence Mooney climbed 0.2 points to 5.5%.

In drive, Nova’a ‘Kate, Tim & Marty’ with Kate Ritchie, Tim Blackwell and Marty Sheargold topped the pile, up 1.1 points to 10.3%. 2GB was not far behind on 10.2%, but its nearest FM competitor was Kiis 106.5’s ‘Will and Woody’ on 9.0%, down from 9.6% last survey.

Vivienne Kelly

Vivienne Kelly is the editor of Mumbrella. Throughout her career she has worked as a journalist and editor across a number of consumer and B2B finance and real estate titles. She has also spent time in public relations across the health, finance and energy sectors.

topics 2Day FM2GBAlan JonesARNAustralian Radio NetworkKIIS 106.5Kyle & Jackie OLawrence MooneyMoonman in the MorningNine radioNova 96.9radioradio ratingsSCASouthern Cross AustereoSydney radioSydney Radio RatingsTriple M Sydney

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Comments: 5 Add Comment

Dale Smith 10 Mar 20

At last the real story has been unmasked here.
KandJ have never been outright number 1.
Never.

Reply

trisha dick 10 Mar 20

Always turn Kyle and Jackie o off if one of them is away. Also Kyle being in the US is a turn off. Somehow it changes the atmosphere in the studio and that comes through to listeners. Just love this show and want it to be No. 1 again.

Reply

Any absolute audience figures? 10 Mar 20

How is the pie growing or (more likely) disappearing?

Growing your share of a diminishing pie might mean going backwards in absolute terms. This fixation on share by many media bodies is hiding the true underlying story.

Reply

Pete 11 Mar 20

No one is hiding anything, you just aren’t looking at it. The “absolute audience” is called “cume”, its released with every survey. The total number of people who listen to a station in an average week. Its actually on the rise. …. but on average they are listening for less time.

Reply

Stormsy 11 Mar 20

I wonder if any of the other networks are looking at the cost of their announcer lineup and looking to emulate 2day’s success…

One survey is not conclusive, but you can bet if the trend continues it may be a different story.

Meanwhile, Spotify’s “daily drive” podcasts may just be the middle ground that the commercial stations should be looking for.

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