I’ll start by saying I agree it’s too early to see the impact of K&JO. I wish I could see that wave three data!
The three weeks comment reminded me that Jase and Lauren launched with only three weeks and one day of survey 2, and achieved a 1.6 increase. Off a higher base and very different circumstances.
Question for those smarter than me - have we seen radio listenership numbers decline in the same way we have in TV?
Anecdotally I’d say yes, because there are so many other audio options which are doing well (streaming, podcasts etc).
Comparing Survey 3 results for Melbourne, in 2024 the total average audience is 504,000. In 2014 the total average audience was 530,000. So a small decrease, but nothing insane. In those same surveys, total cume in 2024 is 4.5m, with 5 stations over 1m. In 2014 it was 3.9m with no stations over 1m. So that indicates that listenership isn’t decline significant, certainly nothing like TV, but habits have changed.
Maybe someone with some more time can do a more comprehensive analysis over multiple surveys and cities.
This is amazing, thank you
also i would think people are commuting less. radio isn’t an activity where you sit and stare at the radio. its background noise whilst you do other things and one of the biggest things is driving. WFH will impact radio because of this
I don’t know how much difference that would make. The roads are busier than ever, so there’s still plenty of people moving about in their cars. When I work from home, I’m actually more likely to put on the radio or music to create background noise.
Actually WFH increases my radio listening. I stream radio in the background all day when I’m WFH
A fair, if simplistic, assessment from Seven’s afternoon news; mentioned that KIIS breakfast lost 0.5 and who won AM and FM breakfast.
I know we can’t see the full story (just yet) but as a local, no one I know is even talking or discussing K&J.
It’s going to be hard slog breaking through the Melbourne breakfast market. And as history tells us, Melbourne prefer and support locally made shows on both radio and television. Watch this space.
Let me start off by saying that I am a Sydney sider and I love Kyle and Jackie O.
I know they were only on air for 30% of the survey in Melbourne but I bet the big bosses at ARN would be shitting harbour bridges over the lacklustre survey for KIIS 101.1
This was three weeks when the publicity for these two Sydney locals would have been at its absolute peak in Melbourne. This was as good as it gets.
It normally wouldn’t matter that much if the KIIS 101.1 breakfast show doesn’t make it big in the ratings, it never really has. What matters is the price tag of $200M that KIIS is paying the duo over ten years. The harbour city likes shiny things that sparkle. Sometimes Melbourians just think its just cheap plastic reflecting a fluorescent light.
As someone that does agency sales for a living, I find Google Trends can often be a helpful tool in comparing interests in various topics. As an exercise in relevence, I took the time period of the 29th of April (when K&JO launched) to today and compared the 2024 results (now) for Kyle and Jackie O vs. the 2023 results (a year ago).
Interestingly, in 2023, there wasn’t much interesting out of Victoria for K&JO, with only 13 searches from Victorians for every 100 searches out of NSW.
‘Kyle and Jackie O’ - Google Trends - 29th April 2023 to 4th June 2023
Where it gets interesting is looking at the most recent results and seeing that considerable rise in interest out of Victoria. It’s my personal belief that the show’s success has largely been due to the publicity it generates, effectively becoming a part of Australian pop culture (the ‘love them of loathe them’ factor).
‘Kyle and Jackie O’ - Google Trends - 29th April 2024 to 4th June 2024
Excuse my ignorance, but how do they get the data for the radio surveys?
Probably not, it is not a full survey and they are not having to pay two breakfast presenters $1m each or a daytime announcer either.
They will just have to lower their expectations a bit as it won’t be #1 breakfast by the end of the year.
I also think Nova threw a spanner in the works by poaching J&L, they are now starting with a much lower base than they expected. They were hoping to convert the J&L audience to KJ, but they have all gone to Nova. Basically KiIS 101.1 is now starting from scratch. Maybe they may pick up some Nova listeners who don’t like J&L???
It is going to be a long hard slug taking listeners from established heritage shows. IMO ARN will persist with it as it is cheaper to pipe in KJ than put another show into the Melbourne market unless the ratings drop to SEN level, but that is unlikely to happen either.
Question is… will they hold off launching into Brisbane?
I’d bet KIIS were all high-fiving themselves because they now have a breakfast showing with over 1 million listeners (based on cume). That’s the line they’ll be taking to advertisers rather than getting bogged down in the local numbers. Add Brisbane and Adelaide and they be able to bring that to 2 million.
IMO If Melbourne does not fire they won’t do Brisbane. R&K ratings have improved and KIIS 97.3 is ahead of Nova 106.9 in dayparts. However the changes to daytime programming and music on KIIS 97.3 won’t be reflected in the rating until Survey 5 or later.
I think advertisers are good at cutting through the bullshit. Melbourne is currently their biggest advertising market, a lot is on the line here.
Forever hopefully.
Actually I think another thing that might put the brakes on Brisbane is their failure to get their hands on the Triple M network. With them owning 97.3 and Triple M there was less to lose and if they pissed off a chunk of 97.3 listeners they could have picked those listeners up on Triple M. With only one station in Brisbane I would think they’ll be much more cautious.
ARN should blow up Rivet 94.9 and relaunch it as a Pure Gold station to offset the loss of listeners come survey 5 from the changes of daytime programming to KIIS 97.3. If only they could do a 4IP with River 94.9 and move it into Brisbane.
Completely agree.
If ratings had jumped: “Wow K&J already having an impact”
Ratings decline: “Well it’s too early to tell”
I would do the reverse. Put K&J on River94.9 and make it a CHR station once again. That way, leave KIIS97.3 back to what made it famous. Playing 80s and 90s tracks.
