With the end of the year, a bit of reflection on how the Melbourne radio stations have fared over the last twenty years. Here’s a list of the top 5 stations (average for all surveys) for every five years:
Some observations for the 20 years:
- Radio is becoming an older person’s game - in 2017, the top two stations are talk and the top 4 stations are aimed at older demographics. With yellow shading identifying the year where a station hit its highest ratings, Gold and Smooth from a music station viewpoint have been the beneficiaries.
- The overall Top 5 share provides a general indicator of competition. This obviously increased with licences issued for Nova100 (in 2002) and Vega 91.5 (in 2005). However, the drop in Top 5 share in 2012 and 2017 indicates that other players (incl community and DAB) are being more competitive.
- The Gold prize goes to 3AW for the constant number one position. The Silver goes to Nova 100 as the most successful launch by a country mile with year 1 ending as #4 in the market. Bronze goes to Fox for holding on, especially in the face of Nova’s launch, but the challenge is really on now for Fox with the older demographics taking over.
- The wooden spoon has a number of contenders, as there are have been some absolutely shockers - Mix101.1 rated 6.4 in 2002, that’s a massive drop . (3MMM still rated 7.9 in 2002). I think the actions of ARN in dumping TTFM for Mix were just a bad call. As KIIS101.1 in 2017 had an average rating of 6.5, the station’s mojo is still MIA. Anyway, the current winner has to be Magic1278 to TLS (enough documented on other threads!), even though its not been in the Top 5 - it takes a committed effort to end up with a rating of 0.3 within a year of relaunch. It makes the much discussed launch of MTR1377 seem quite successfull.
Have a great New Year’s everyone…and enjoy the ratings battle for 2018!