3AW took a bit of a hit in this survey, falling from 12.0 (3rd) in Survey 4/89 to 9.3 (6th) in Survey 1/90. I am not sure what was happening in programming terms but IIRC this was around the time that the station tried to upmarket its image a bit with the branding “3-AWARE. The Thinking Person’s Radio Station”.
3AW improved in 2/90 with 11.0 (5th), then 11.4 (5th) in 3/90 and 11.3 (4th) in 4/90. It didn’t hit #1 again until 1/93 (14.0).
And KZFM’s triumphant win in 1/90 turned out to be a one-off. Fox was back at #1 next survey, and by the end of the year KZ was down to 5th on 10.8.
3XY’s rating of 1.7 in Survey 1/90 came as the station tried to undo its Easy Rock format and go back to Top 40/contemporary. It managed to only beat JJJ making its Melbourne survey debut with a rating of 1.2.