Radio Ratings Report

By Florea Nuthall
At the end of last year some big changes were announced which had the potential to shake up the radio industry this year. Kyle and Jackie O left 2DAY FM after 13 years at their post to go over to Mix 106.5 which has been re-branded to Kiis 106.5. In Melbourne, Hughesy and Kate announced that they would not be returning to their breakfast show on Nova after a 12-year partnership, and subsequently Matt & Jo also announced their retirement to the breakfast timeslot after 10 years. This left some pretty big holes to be filled that would also affect other sessions across the networks.
And, the numbers are in! Survey #1 results were published on Tuesday and there would have been big celebrations for some stations and commiserations for others.
I can hear the pop of champagne corks over at ARN in Sydney. The most significant change in this market was the loss of audience on 2DAY FM across all sessions, notably in Breakfast where Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O left their post at the end of last year. In this key session, 2DAY FM went from a healthy 10.4 share (which had them in third spot behind 2GB and ABC) to a 3.8 share. Their loss was Kiis’ gain with them going from a 3.3 share (when they were Mix 106.5) to a 9.3 share. This places them as the equal number 2 commercial station with their sister station 2WSFM.
In Melbourne, key changes were made to the Breakfast line up on Nova and Fox FM as well as Drive line-up changes to Triple M, Nova, and Fox FM. Not such drastic results here, but people preferred the new breakfast team of Fifi and Dave Thornton on Fox FM (0.4 share drop from 8.3 to 7.9) to Meshel and Tommy on Nova (1 share drop from 8.4 to 7.4). In Drive session, Triple M, Nova and Fox all lost audience.
This just goes to show that personalities can make or break a radio station especially in the key session of Breakfast which drives the stations. This is evident with the loss of audience which 2DAY FM encountered with the departure of Kyle and Jackie O when they lost half of their audience. The station will be doing it tough right now and looking at ways to turn around the declining share, and quickly. Revenue will most definitely be affected as current advertisers re-evaluate their deals and potentially take their money elsewhere. Hopefully guaranteed audience delivery or CPM was negotiated by agencies on behalf of their clients so that they will be compensated for loss of audience. It will be interesting to see what strategies SCA put in place in the coming weeks and months.
And here’s my prediction for Kiis…. look out for a rate rise in the not too distant future!

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