At the 1st survey of 1984, 2WS tied with 2UE for the #1 spot, in which both stations achieved an 11.2% share, with 2CH not far behind at 11.1% & 2MMM with 10.8%. It was also the first survey of the ill-fated Magic 11 (2UW), which debuted with a 6.7% share, which then fell to a 5.8% share the following survey.
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Inspired by this post, which looked at the radio ratings for Melbourne during the following period:
Here’s one for Sydney during that same period.
Source: McNair Anderson Assoc. Pty Ltd (via SMH)
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The advent of CBC in June 1986 doesn’t appear to have bitten 2UE as harshly as it did 3AK.
Also interesting to see the decline of 2SM was more advanced in 1986 than it was for 3XY. I think 3XY did well to fight the flow of listeners to FM which was inevitable.
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Also interesting to note that 2BL didn’t rate as highly as 3LO did in that time. This was especially evident in Survey 4 of 1985, where 3LO scored 8.5%, whilst 2BL scored a paltry 3.7%, below that of 2JJJ.
Also, 2KY rated very highly compared to Melbourne’s talk/racing equivalent of the time, 3DB.
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In those days 2BL/3LO would have also had their schedules interrupted with huge slabs of Parliament which would have done ratings no favours either. I think it was 1988 that Parliament broadcasts moved to Radio National before going to what is now NewsRadio.
3DB had been re-launched in June 1986 with Bert Newton as general manager and taking over as breakfast announcer (7am-9am). Looks like ratings fluctuated a lot with the new line-up starting.
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It always surprises me that FM wasn’t dominating Sydney and Melbourne at that time the way it was in Brisbane and Perth (probably Adelaide too but not sure). By 1985/86 FM104 was untouchable and so far ahead of the AMs.
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If Melbourne and Sydney only had one FM station it might have dominated but potentially by having 2 FMs it divided the audience?
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Have you been able to find similar Adelaide or Perth data? Data from this timeframe for those markets continues to elude me!
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In 1984 2SM was consistently rating above 9 and 10 per cent. The problem was that the station was very heavily skewed towards 10 - 17 year olds where it had a 47% share and it was second (behind MMM) with the 18 - 24 year olds with around a 15% share.
2SM decided to go for an older audience - teenagers do not have that much money to spend. They dropped the “Rock of the 80s” branding and hired Club Veg from JJJ in 1986. Their new branding was a more adult “Stereo 1269 2SM” Ho hum. Doug Mulray’s brother became the station manager. 2SM skewed older but this was probably a mistake. They were now competing against 2 FM stations and 2WS and 2UW. The teenagers drifted and the ratings slid. In April 1988 they become Lite’N’Easy 1269. At this point they cut loose the under 24 year olds and this enabled Triple M to reign supreme until the mid 90s.
Thanks for posting these ratings. I am always amazed how 2CH ruled the airwaves with “Beautiful Music”. No such music can be found on Sydney’s airwaves nowadays. Did the 2CH audience simply die? We also forget how 702 struggled against its commercial competitors (a 2.9% share?) and that the Carlton - Laws combo on 2GB was possibly even stronger than the Jones - Hadley duo today. As for 2KY? It showed that sport, talk, music and racing can work - take note MMM and MSR.
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True but even adding the ratings of the 2 FMs in Sydney it’s nowhere near what FM104 was rating.
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Question for those who were alive around that time (yes I know that makes you sound old and me sound like a kid 
), what was the proliferation of FM radios like in the mid-80s when this survey was taken?
I remember my Dad’s old car (early 80s Suzuki I think) which only had an AM Radio, but we also had an 84 Toyota and an 86 Falcon both of which had both. I guess I’m just curious how commonplace FM radios were at about this time, as this would obviously have affected FM radio ratings
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FM104 had less competition. Melbourne and Sydney both had 9 commercial stations then, including the 2 FMs. Brisbane had 6?
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Dad’s 82 Commodore only had AM as his Mum’s 84 Corolla, auntie’s Jag and later 85 Crown had FM. My first car was an 85 Magna (purchased mid 90s) had FM and cassette, but judging by the manual was an optional extra.
At home we had a radiogram which only had AM although by the late 80s my brothers and I had a am-fm radio and cassatte player each in our rooms. A
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our family car (late 1970s vintage) had AM radio only. It wasn’t really a problem as dad never liked having the radio on anyway 
My brother’s first car in the mid 90s was a 1970s Toyota Corolla. It also had an AM radio only. He became very familiar with listening to Perry Como on Magic 693 
My first car was a 1985 Nissan Pulsar. It had an AM-FM radio.
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My father was the same. Even on a 6-7 hour trip to Coffs Harbour he wouldn’t turn it on and would prefer to sit in silence. If we wanted to listen to music on a long trip we’d have to bring the transistor radio with earphone, later the Walkman. The only time the old Datsun’s AM radio went on was when he wanted to catch a horse race he’d bet on.
My 73 year old mother has every AM preset on her relatively new car’s radio tuned to 2GB and will not allow anyone to touch it. Switched to the FM band when I had to drive it once and the stations had never even been tuned in.
I prefer to listen to podcasts and my iTunes playlist in the car now. I’m slightly irritated by the quality of what’s being put to air these days. Far too repetitive.
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My first car an XD Falcon had AM only but my 1983 Ford Meteor Ghia had FM (2x FM presets and 3xAM). At the time though it was very common for after market car stereos to be installed. Car stereo installers like Brisbane Car Sound and Strathfield Car Sound in Sydney were huge.
Anyway regardless of some cars not having FM stations like FM104 were rating as high as 30% by the mid to late 80s.
As a young kid in the 70s our home stereo had FM - but no stations…
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In the early 80s, higher model grades eg. Ghia or SLX/SLE usually had FM and a cassette player whilst lower grades like L/GL only had AM.
But by mid 80s, lower grades had FM and cassette added, whilst higher grades got 4 speakers and digital tuning.
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My very first car,a 1978 Datsun 200B only had an AM radio,My next one,1983 Ford Laser had an AM/FM radio,later on I had a AM/FM cassette player installed in this car…Thats when I started listening to FM 104/Triple M more ,around 85/85 .In my bedroom I had a small AM/FM ‘boom box ,that I also played my cassettes on
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I’ve got the Sydney radio ratings from that time. They made its debut on Survey 4 of 1980.
Here are the ratings from that survey:
#1 2UE: 19.2
#2 2CH: 15.5
=#3 2SM: 11.6
=#3 2WS: 11.6
#5 2BL: 8.8
#6 2UW: 8.3
#7 2GB: 6.0
#8 2MMM: 2.6
#9 2DAY: 2.0
#10 2JJJ: 1.2
And Survey 1, 1981:
#1 2CH: 17.7
#2 2UE: 16.5
#3 2UW: 15.9
=#4 2SM: 8.5
=#4 2WS: 8.5
#6 2BL: 8.1
#7 2MMM: 5.2
#8 2GB: 5.0
#9 2JJJ: 2.9
#10 2DAY: 2.4
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Wow! Thank you TV Expert.
Check out those 2UE and 2CH ratings.
There were only four surveys a year in the 80s. 2UW almost doubled its audience over summer. Now that is a stellar relaunch of an old brand. Take note 2DayFM in 2020.
Triple M gained traction so much quicker than 2DayFM
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