http://radioitsalovething.com.au/RIALT/media/RIALT/PDF/GfK_SummaryReport_Canberra_Survey-3-2017.pdf
ABC Canberra tops the market with 16.9%, followed by Mix 106.3 at 16.4% & Hit 104.7 at 14.3%. 2CA went up 1% to 7.5%, whilst 2CC went up 2% to 5.9%.
In breakfast, ABC Canberra’s Dan Bourchier dominates with a 22.8% share, followed by RN’s Fran Kelly with 16%, Mix’s Kristen & Wilko with 14.7% and Hit’s Ryan & Tanya with 11.7%.
Big hits (sorry) for both hit and Mix, down 2.5 and 3.1 respectively 10+.
Gee they seem pretty poor numbers for Mix and Hit given they have no commercial competition on FM and little overspill.
There’s a market in desperate need of Smooth FM or Hot Tomato.
Glad 2CA had an increase.
It’s a bit like Newcastle, even though they have 3 commercial FM stations instead of just 2. In fact, in the Newcastle ratings released last month, New FM’s share is half that of KO’s, in which it’s the same as 2CA’s in this survey.
In terms of music variety, Canberra has it better than Newcastle with its commercial music stations, thanks to having an AM music station.
I agree, as long as it doesn’t involve 2CA converting to FM for Canberra to get a 3rd commercial FM station. 
Same here. It’s my most listened-to station when in Canberra. 
Knowing the demographics of those who live in the national capital, why am I not overly surprised that ABC Radio Canberra is topping the ratings?
As far as the commercial stations are concerned, I personally think the market is in desperate need of a 3rd station on FM to the point that even a swap between 2CA and ABC News would probably be an improvement. Although unfortunately I can’t see this happening anytime soon.
If I was to guess, most of the “Other Stations” figures in Canberra’s radio ratings would probably be for the community stations.
2CA has really improved in the past couple of years.
Imagine living in the nation’s capital and the two commercial FM stations you could listen to were called “hit” and “mix”.
Could the FM radio scene be more boring in Canberra?
It more like Sleep FM versus Snore FM.
Because of the duplication of the existing Canberra Fm services at Tuggeranong, there cannot be any new Fm stations in Canberra.
The only way a new Fm service can start up in Canberra is if ACMA moves 95.1 from Tuggers to Canberra as it is licensed to Tuggeranong, but it is not in use. The licence could be auctioned off to allow a new entrant to the market, or allow 2CA to covert to Fm. If this happens they will not have a frequency in Tuggeranong.
There is very little overspill into Canberra from adjacent licence areas. Eagle Fm drops out after Eagle Halk as you come down the hill into Canberra, and Snow Fm drops out as you come down the Hill into Tuggeranong. Sydney Fm makes it to Lake George with the smallest amount of tropo.
It would also require the Licence Area Plan to be changed, which is in act of parliament.
The other frequency I can identify as being potentially available is 103.1. It’s specificed as a National service for Tuggeranong, but no licence for it is listed with the ACMA.
However, both of these frequencies are used for services in Gundagai and Tumut respectively, and these might suffer interference from a high powered service so close - so they would also have to relocate.
It’s pretty rediculous that Canberra can have all frequencies used up - it’s overkill to have more community stations than commercials, plus 3 HPONs in the area.
SBS is meant to be using 103.1 in Tuggeranong, but it’s not on air yet.
There’s also 2GCR Goulburn on 103.3 to consider.
2XX is meant to be using 95.1 in Tuggeranong, I don’t think that’s on air yet either.
Looking at the Canberra ratings in more detail, I’ve noticed that ABC Classic FM narrowly outrates JJJ in the 25-39s!!! 
I used to be able to listen to Snow FM in Tuggers under the right conditions. Used to have much better music than was on offer on the Canberra FM stations.
UCFM and Raw FM are both decent alternatives to Hit and Mix.
Wonder if Hit are regretting the botched transition from Scotty and Nige to Ryan and Tanya yet…
Maybe the Hit 104.7 playlist from the Gold Coast could be the problem?
Mix 106.3 have their own playlist and they are rating much better then Hit 104.7. Why cannot Hit 104.7 do their own playlist for the Canberra market.
In regards to Snow / Eagle Fm there playlist has Improved dramatically from about a year ago. 97.5 from Queenbeayn adds to the difficulty of receiving Snow Fm in Canberra.
Would it really make a difference? All the Hit stations play the same songs don’t they?
I think there are subtle differences between say 2day / Hit 105 / Fox , and Sea Fm which has the same playlist as Hit 104.7. The regionals have more old school rock songs. Carn’t Canberra create their own log and find out what their market wants rather then the standardise regional log from Sea Fm Gold Coast?
The Hit regional stations in competitive markets are starting to drop down abit in the most recent ratings-
E.g
Gold Coast- Hot Tomato #1 / Sea Fm either #2 or #3
Central Coast - Sea Fm #1 but now under threat from Star 104.5
Obviously Newcastle cannot be compared as SCA are up against weak competition from BOG, and SCA have duopolies in other smaller regional markets.
Yeah I see what you’re saying but really can’t see them straying too far from what they’re currently playing unless they changed formats. They don’t have any competition so I can’t see them abandoning the Hit format (albeit with subtle differences - and I’d have to take your word on that 
I would have thought the ‘regional’ variation including a bit more old school would be appropriate in Canberra given it’s an FM duopoly. If they went more metro they might lose listeners to Mix and if they went a bit older they’d likely take some listeners from Mix
It’s a lose lose situation. But anyway Canberra is a weird city that’s for sure
As if they would be! It’s been two years since Scotty & Nige were moved on and even back then, they were way past their use-by date. They were stale. Ryan & Tanya have brought something fresh to Canberra radio. And both make enough noise to be a little bigger than just Canberra breakfast announcers (Tanya and her social media following, for example). Scotty & Nige were complacent and it finally caught up with them. Time to move on!
SCA seemed to think well enough of Ryan & Tanya to give them a Saturday morning run on 2Day FM in Sydney; I haven’t heard what the result was/if that’s still happening?
I enjoy their show and they’re both doing well in their other ventures, but their share in breakfast is well below what their predecessors had.
That said, I haven’t looked at the demographic results, and obviously Hit wanted a team that appealed to younger listeners given the station changed focus somewhat to head in that direction.
Generational change of a breakfast show is always difficult and SCA botched the transition.
I’d say why Scotty and Nige had to go was that the average age of the audience was cannibalising the Mix audience or in danger of doing so.
Despite being a JV with plenty of funding from each backer, SCA are running a lean operation, Mix no longer local at night, no MD for Hit and so on.
From a revenue perspective, there’s no reason why both such savings have been made. Only greed which knobbles them in the long run. Short sighted.
The shares of both have dropped significantly, it’s showing the network template doesn’t work and time to do what radio should do and be individual to a market. Canberra is unique.
National broadcasters always score well in Canberra, however, if the national shares are up, it shows dissatisfaction with commercial alternatives.