And like a true radio nerd, I have the newspaper article from 1981. I need to get a life.
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haha love it @nickatnights . Very interesting how the take up of FM was not an overnight success. It was 1 year after launch, I wonder how the ratings were in US/UK and other parts of the world at that time.
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Yes, my bad - I was looking at exclusive #1s. It did tie 2UE with a 15.8 in S3/1981.
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FM success in the US was on a market-by-market basis.
There were some markets where FMs had already hit the top with easy listening formats by the mid-70s. Some markets, like San Francisco, whose terrain gives FM many challenges, didnât have an FM hit the top until the 90s. But FM had been around in the US for many decades and had started seeing its first signs of life in the late 60s and early 70s with progressive rock stations.
FM was a different story in the UK as the commercial licenses were extremely limited, and more often than not were AM/FM simulcasts (like Capitol and LBC) with no separate AM vs FM data.
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The next step in radio nerdom is to have a copy of said survey! 
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What a find! Can you show us more of those results from 1981? Iâd love to see how the stations fared over the year. Do you have the age demos and time slot ratings? You have no idea how excited I am.
I only have surveys from 1983 onwards (when I worked in radio)
I loved the way the pre 1990 surveys would show âhousewivesâ as a demographic, as they were considered the main shoppers for grocery items. In 2023, housewives are a rare breed, apart from when women are on a yearâs maternity leave. I wonder how they worked out who a housewife was? A married woman who was not working? Or just a married woman?
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Wow at those weekend numbers for CADA in Sydney, doubling your audience is no mean feat! Strange itâs at the one day part where it doesnât sound like commercial FBi.
Clearly people are voting with their tuners. Time to listen ARN.
Dance Hits in Melb⌠again, maybe itâs time to look at either Kiis or Nova with those numbers, removing them off the network playlist, and taking them a slight bit rhythmic.
Especially with BL&B bringing a youthful feel at Nova, nowâs the time to embrace it, rather than trying to be everything to everyone.
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But the adverts sometimes get a bit too much now. Still fewer than competing FM stations. And no surprises it is so successful. In Perth at least there is no real competing format for Smooth (96fm and 6iX are too classic rock and Mix and Nova too current hits). Still prefer The Wave (if you can pick it up on FM or DAB), it is a bit more edgy than Smooth but the number of commercials is getting too much. Too bad The Wave and Coast canât be compared with the Perth stations (Coast vs Nova, are they that different?).
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Putting Basil on for breakfast was an incredibly off-putting decision still impacting the station now. Clearly a decision made by east coast management who had no clue that heâs not particularly well liked in Perth.
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Definitely for Nova in Sydney and Melbourne what they are doing is clearly not working in these cities.
Nova in Sydney is getting smashed by KIIS 10-17 and even 18-24 by Smooth.
If they axe FWK at the end of this year and go with BLB they need to blow up the station and go more 18-39âŚ
Nova cannot compete with KIIS while KJO are there, but ithe station has become so stale. Same throwbacks over and over again, same repeated contests. It is like management have run out of ideas and running the network on autopilot.
KIIS will probably have their best year ever.
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No, that decision was made locally (as is the current playlist). The content team is local, and most certainly do know/understand Perth. I wouldnât say Basil is ânot well likedâ, heâs just polarising.
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Kyle Sandilands is polarising and can pull more than 10% in Sydney breakfast.
Basil Zempilas is polarising and appeals to no one under the age of 40, as evidenced by how poor his Triple M stint rated compared with his time at 6PR.
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I think that hes just had his time, but his time had gone before he even started at Triple M. The 5 minutes of sport presenting or being quite generic on Sunrise was palatable, but 3 of breakfast radio was too much
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Tim Burrowes has some interesting stats for Radio Nationalâs ratings, but, as he says, itâs not good with ABC News Radio outranking it in various metrics at a fraction of the cost
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Thereâs no doubt RN is in a funk. While there are some good programs the whole thing sounds disjointed and just a collection of podcasts, rather than a live national station.
I also think the ABCâs digital strategy isnât working. In the capital cities you have ABC Local, RN, and NewsRadio on AM and the ABC refuses to acknowledge the existence of, or leverage in any way, DAB+
Heck they donât even tell you what the AM frequency is anymore. Fewer and fewer people would even know how to find RN these days in the capitals. At least itâs on FM in regional areas.
The only thing ABC promote is the Listen app, which is glitchy and awkward, like most streaming apps!
Time for ABC to acknowledge and leverage DAB+ in the cities, and promote the actual AM and FM frequencies! They need to do more to try to get on FM somehow too, in as many places as possible. AM-only is dead in the cities, or soon will be. Apart from the likes of 3AW and 2GB with glued on listeners, and the AM music stations like 4BH and 2UE that actually promote the heck out of DAB+.
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I actually think it would be worthwhile for the ABC to roll out Double J to the regions on FM, replacing RN on FM in some regional cities such as the Gold Coast.
It would be a better use of spectrum IMO.
RN can still be heard online, on TV and mobile app.
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Surely the performance of the ABCâs radio offerings has to be concerning people at the broadcaster - the ratings of their âlocalâ stations arenât great either.
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ABC Radio Melbourne on 5.8 hitting the lowest I can recall for it though I donât have figures for the most recent years. But looking back I can see it fell into the 6s a few times during the 1980s, e.g. rating 6.6 in Survey 4/1983 and then youâd have to go as far back as 1964 to see it rated 6.4 in Survey 3/1964. Though its ratings were constantly being challenged by having to air Parliament up until the late 1980s so its numbers were fluctating a lot from one survey to the next.
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To me Double J sounds just like Triple J, only slightly softer. Double J is a missed opportunity in my opinion - itâs too niche in appeal and not different enough from Triple J.
Double J isnât want the regional towns need and ratings (ie. People listening) would be miniscule. Even Triple J doesnât really rate well in most regions. What most regional areas need is a more mainstream music-focused station targeting adults, and one that doesnât feel the need to be seen as âhip and coolâ, and dare I say pretentious. Thatâs whatsâs lacking even in some capitals. For some smaller regional areas even ABC Country would be more welcomed than Double J.
Now if it was BBC R2 on FM, then yes.
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