Firstly to Sydney, and 2GB has, unsurprisingly, maintained its #1 position. KIIS has taken the position as the #1 FM station from WS, after going up 1.4% from last survey, with Smooth at 2nd place, followed by WS. Nova fell to 6.9%, whilst both 2Day & Triple M rose, with the former having a significant rise, going up 1.1% to 5.2%, the first time the station has rated above 5% since 2013. Further down the ratings ladder, Talking Lifestyle (which has become Macquarie Sports Radio during this survey) had a slight rise, going up 0.1% to 3.5%, whilst 2CH fell 0.3% to 3.4%.
In Melbourne, 3AW is #1, followed by Fox, Smooth & Gold. Talking Lifestyle/MSR had a slight rise to 0.3%. In Brisbane, 97.3 knocks Nova off the top spot, which is followed closely by hit105 & 4MMM. ABC Radio Brisbane had a big fall, going down 1.7% to 6.4%, placing themselves only 0.8% ahead of 2GB’s local “translator” station, 4BC. Talking Lifestyle/MSR fell from 0.9% to 0.5%.
In Adelaide, Mix 102.3 maintains its #1 position, way ahead of other stations, with 5MMM at 2nd place, followed by ABC Radio Adelaide, FiveAA & Nova. Cruise rates in-between Nova & hit107 with a 9.3% share. And in Perth, Mix 94.5 is once again #1, followed by Nova, hit92.9 & JJJ. 96fm had quite a fall, going down 1.5% to 7.5%, almost to the days of 2016 before they repositioned themselves as “Perth’s Real Gold”.
WOw hasn’t 612 ABC in Brisbane fallen! Breakfast down 2.5% 
On the subject of Brisbane, here are the stations in ranking order.
- 97.3FM: 12.9
- Nova 106.9: 12.1
- hit105: 11.2
- 4MMM: 11.0
- 4KQ: 8.1
- 4JJJ: 6.9
- ABC Brisbane: 6.4
- 4BC: 5.6
- 4RN: 3.4
- ABCFM: 2.8
- ABC News: 1.0
- Talking Lifestyle/MSR: 0.5
MSR = Macquarie Sports Radio
In Melbourne, SEN’s ratings improved from 2.7 to 3.1, a good sign but there is a long way to go.
Fox has 30% share in 18-24
At breakfast, Fox is unchanged, Smooth went up, while Gold, KIIS, Nova and Triple M all dropped.
At drive, Triple M’s Kennedy and Molloy dropped 1.3% while Hughesy & Kate, Will & Woody and Kate, Tim & Marty all went up.
Looking at the demographic breakdowns, in Sydney, 2Day managed to outrate Smooth & WS in the 25-39s, whilst in the 40-54s, there’s only a 0.1% gap between WS & Smooth after the latter rose whilst the former fell. In the 55-64s, WS is also narrowly ahead of Smooth, whilst both KIIS & 2MMM are ahead of 2CH.
In the DAB+ ratings, in Sydney, The Edge Digital managed to get over 106,000 cumulative listeners, followed by ABC Jazz at 95,000, MMM Greatest Hits at 81,000, MMM Classic Rock at 77,000 & Coles Radio at 76,000. In Melbourne, Coles Radio was #1, followed by ABC Jazz, The 80s, Easy Hits (who had a big jump in listeners), MMM Classic Rock & Aussie. In Brisbane, Smooth is #1, followed by Coles Radio, ABC Grandstand, Double J, The 80s, Triple J Unearthed, MMM Greatest Hits & MMM Classic Rock.
In Adelaide, The 90s is #1, whilst in Perth, Buddha Hits tops the DAB+ ratings, where there’s a big battle between Smooth & Easy Hits in the latter.
Hmm some interesting results. I had suspected 2day might improve with the music change.
96fm in Perth needs a rethink. I think the problem is they’re trying to keep a foot in both the KIIS and Pure Gold camps. I had a look at the playlist and it’s awful IMO. It’s like a lame version of a Triple M/Gold playlist with lots of overflogged songs. They need to pick a lane. Maybe the answer is to go softer AC - now there’s a gap as Mix in Perth becomes more “Triple M”.
Yikes ABC Brisbane! On the DAB front I’m not surprised to see Smooth on top, I hear it everywhere in shops and cafes - memo to 4BH owners, that could have been you! Speaking of Talking Infomercials, they bow out on the lowest ratings anybody has ever seen in Brisbane…
A lot of Melbourne stations stayed the same, particularly 3AW in Breakfast and Morning (exact same), with Steve Price and footy on weekends lifting.
Not quite. The station rated lower in Survey 7 last year, when they scored a 0.3% share.
Looks like 2Day Fm gains have come from WS Fm and Nova in survey 2.
As earlier predicted Will and Woody would be 1# off the back of Kyle & Jackie O.
Nova worst performing shift is the 9am-1pm shift when Greg Burns in all Markets.
2Day Fm beats Nova in mornings and now close in afternoons.
Survey says, people are not warming to Greg Burns in any market, dual programming does not produce ratings results for Nova.
KIIS now beats Nova on weekends in Sydney.
The Sydney fm market has changed, you can no longer be competitive with a tight playlist repeating your songs every 2-2.5 hours as you will get smashed by KIIS and probably soon by 2Day Fm.
Maybe it’s time for Nova to go to a more variety playlist like BNE / PER and axe dual programming.
I wonder if Comm Games had any effect - seemed like the only thing discussed on their breakfast show for 4 weeks!
I’ve noticed whilst looking through the ratings that Fox is now #1 in the 40-54s, beating out Gold 104.3. Also, Gold managed to be the (rather distant) #2 station in the 25-39s, beating out Nova & JJJ.
Here’s how the ratings stack up in the mornings & afternoons among the CHR/Hot AC stations in Sydney & Melbourne:
Sydney
Mornings (9am-12pm)
KIIS: 8.1
2Day: 5.9
Nova: 5.0
Afternoons (12-4pm)
KIIS: 8.6
Nova: 6.6
2Day: 6.4
Melbourne
Mornings
Fox: 12.4
Nova: 5.6
KIIS: 4.3
Afternoons
Fox: 14.5
Nova: 5.9
KIIS: 5.9
As you can see, Fox absolutely dominates over all the other CHR stations in Melbourne, one of the key reasons being that it is live & local.
ABC Melbourne continues to shed listeners. RN breakfast doing well in Melbourne and clearly people tuning in to Faine. Tipping 5:30-7:45 is rating quite low with a boost from news, AM and Faine for the last 75 minutes of the ratings.
But what about Nova 106.9? It was the official FM station for the Commonwealth Games and came second overall in the survey.
Great result for 2Day and this may be the start of a trend for them.
Indeed. With 2Day offering more variety and more music, the repetitive playlist of Nova is certainly starting to hurt it. Even though I would rather hear new music than old stuff from decades ago, I’m now leaning towards listening to 2Day more, to avoid the repetitiveness of Nova.
Nova need to shift their thinking and offer something better. They should be sticking to newer music but have a wider variety. “No Repeat Workdays” would work for those listeners who stay tuned to radio for long periods.
They lost their number one spot this survey; but the Comm Games didn’t dominate their programming like ABC Brisbane.
Steve Price claiming the evening number 1 spot in Brisbane, problem is he is second, Nova is number 1.
Don’t they always claim number one when they mean in either AM or FM but neglect to mention that?
Since they started networking Greg Burns into Brisbane and changing the playlist the ratings have started to slowly decline. Nova 106.9 was rating best 13-14% when they had Katie In the morning and Tim Wong See in the afternoon, all local shifts
It looks like the general decline in ratings is now starting to have an impact on Ash Kip and Lutsy.
Nova in Sydney rates the best when they have big Red Room promos and the worst when they do secret sounds / words etc
In regards to repition Nova could try a 9-4pm no repition free. Fresh 10 at 9am with a 100 minute marathon. Throwbacks if they must at 12noon and then repeat the high rotation songs at 4pm during KTM.
Indeed, it’s their poorest showing since scoring a 5.6 in Survey 1, 1987!