The latest radio ratings have delivered a possible fatal blow to an embattled breakfast team amid intensifying rumours they are on the chopping block.
The latest GfK survey, released Tuesday, shows KIIS 97.3’s breakfast show dropping to fourth place, with market share plummeting 1.4 points to 10.6 per cent.
This places them behind Triple M’s Marto, Margaux, and Dan, who also saw a decline, falling 1.5 points to 11.7 per cent.
ABC’s Radio National has fallen to just 0.9% of the total Sydney radio market, the station’s lowest audience share since Survey 3, 2023, when it held 0.8%. Despite slight gains for Triple J and ABC Classic, this isn’t a good sign for the national broadcast in the country’s biggest city. In addition, ABC Sydney and ABC Newsradio both also lost listeners this survey.
Nationally, RN also lost listeners in Melbourne, held steady in Perth and Brisbane, and gained 0.5% in Adelaide, the city where it commands its highest share, a paltry 2.2% of the audience.
2DayFM stayed steady with the under 40s (down 0.5 with 10-17, up 0.7 with 18-24 and no real change with 25-39s), went up with 40 - 64 year olds and down with the over 65s.
The station needs an upward jolt in the ratings. A genuine upward jolt.
I suspect that 25 years ago the market knew what each station was offering. Radio was the place where 80% of people listened to music (and the other 20% was music video TV and recorded music - tapes and CDs) . Nowadays, most listeners would not know when a new format is launched on a radio station. Radio needs to tell potential listeners about what it is doing.
SCA have made no attempt to market the new sound, beyond the actual station and its website. Are there any billboards explaining that the newest hits are now the focus of 104.1? 2DayFM needs to get the word out that their reason for existing is to prioritise new music. I live in the city and I have seen nothing.
Without some marketing I reckon 2DayFM will be rating a 4.2% this time next year. If they are confident in the product, they should promote it. They should put their money where their hits are. Otherwise, it’s very hit and miss. There are potential listeners out there - they should hit them up. There is a chance they could hit this out of the park.
The problem with 97.3 isn’t the breakfast show. It’s the music and the format generally. The KIIS part needs to be removed and the station needs to reset back to an AC format. It’s so damn obvious.
97.3 Breakfast show listeners are drifting to 4BH and Triple M (and likely Smooth DAB) because they don’t like the CHR music at breakfast time, not because they don’t like the show itself.
Gold 97.3 or Smooth 97.3 would be rating 17% easily, just like 96fm in Perth
What I’d like to know is how long will Nova stand by and watch their investment in 97.3 sink further, while the fools in charge try to cannibalise Nova 106.9, albeit unsuccessfully
Is it weird that I get so much satisfaction from Jase and Lauren being the No.1 FM breakfast show in Melbourne?
I can’t imagine the overwhelming elation that Jase and Lauren must feel.
It is close the greatest radio stuff up in history. Fire Jase and Lauren and pay Kyle and Jackie $10M a year to broadcast into Melbourne (half their $20M annual salary). Then watch the $5M man and $5M woman bomb out whilst the sacked couple go on to own the market. Wow. Just wow.
If the 3MP and Magic formats were to merge, leaving a spare AM Frequency, I’d take the gamble and run a Country Rock format.
Launch when you get a Luke Coombs type big name country artist touring Melbourne, run ads with the focus on American country, including earlier Taylor Swift material (to bring in the Swifties).
Then run it low cost - the old computer in a cupboard - a see if you can hold a 2 or 3 share.
I feel the issue here, is Magic & 3MP only offer a musical point of difference, but lacks in personality.
They’re only delivering 50% of what they should be doing.
They need stronger personalities across the station - Jamie Row & Gavin Miller are great - maybe put Gavin on Magic1278 breakfast and make it all about a look into the classic hits history, with comps, guests, etc.
They just need “more bang” in Melbourne. Not simply a 24/7 pre-recorded jukebox on both stations.
… And the same can be said about 2UE and 4BH as well. A bit more “life” on both stations (on-air & on-ground) would make more of an impact.
Look at Brisbane ratings numbers and see that SENQ is rating 0.0.
3 years this month since the demise of 4KQ😕I still watch YouTube videos of 4KQ’s last few days on air sometimes
I give it 6 months and K&JO will be networked into Brisbane, as part of another cost-saving measure by ARN, to get rid of the KIIS 973 breakfast show.
It might not even matter to ARN if the breakfast ratings go down even further, as revenue is the most important indicator as to whether the show or format succeeds.
Gold FM these days is very different to Gold FM from 10 or 20 years ago. Magic seems ideally placed to pick up the listeners that have aged out of Gold FM’s playlist but that doesn’t seem to be what’s happening.
Astonishingly, Priceline Radio and Radio Maria Italia have no listeners from the ages 10-17, 18-24, 40-54, 55-64, and 65+ in Sydney, and no listeners in all age groups in Melbourne.
Mind you, I am surprised that it’s cume is even at 416,000.