What five years’ worth of radio data tells us about the industry: Sydney
Over the last few months, Mumbrella has been crunching five years’ worth of cumulative and average audience data from radio stations across the five metro cities. So what do the results show? Zoe Samios investigates.
Eight times a year, the radio industry sits down in front of a series of numbers which define the success of a respective station or program.
Over the next five days, Mumbrella will break down some of the GfK survey’s findings in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth between the years of 2014 and 2018.
The findings are dependent on respondents who complete a paper or online diary for GfK on behalf of Commercial Radio Australia. The paper diary sample requires door-knocking.
Australian radio is so protected and uncompetitive – no matter what these figures suggest. As a media student from New Zealand, research and listening didn’t take long to reveal that commercial (and public) radio offers far more choice and more stations across the ditch. Check out any major city around the world the size of Melbourne or Sydney, and you’d be hard pressed to find one with so few commercial FM stations. And the ABC metros still sitting on AM – sorry young people wouldn’t bother. DAB is splintered in coverage, and restricted to prevent overspill, e.g. Melbourne into Geelong. Sorry to be negative, but radio in Australia is pretty uninspiring.