https://radioinfo.com.au/news/radio-ratings-survey-4-big-swing-perth-puts-nova-top
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In Sydney, 2GB remains at #1 with a 14% share, down 0.8% from previous survey. Given the fallout of Chris Smith’s dumping in favour of Steve Price in afternoons, it’ll be interesting to see how the station performs in the coming surveys. Meanwhile, Smooth remains at #1 FM with 9.9% (-0.1), with WS sneaking in to #2 FM at 8.2% (+0.1), thanks to KIIS falling 1.2 to 8.1%. ABC Sydney bounced up 0.7 to 8%, whilst Nova went up 0.3 to 7.5%, 2MMM went up 0.5 to 6% & 2Day fell 0.9 to 4.7%. 2CH fell 0.2 to 3.6%, whilst MSR went up 0.1 to 0.9%.
In Melbourne, 3AW went up 0.5 to 15.6%, whilst Fox took over the #1 FM spot with 9.8%, thanks to Smooth falling 1.5 to 8.8% & Gold falling 0.9 to 9%. ABC Melbourne went up 0.1 to 8.3%, whilst Nova remained steady at 7.5%, 3MMM fell 0.2 to 6.7% & KIIS went up 0.6 to 6.3%. SEN went up 0.8 to 4.1%, whilst MSR fell 0.1 to 0.2%.
In Brisbane, Nova remains on top with 11.7%, followed by 4KQ & 97.3, who both tied for 2nd overall at 10.5%, one of them being an AM music station! 4MMM wasn’t far behind at 10.4%, followed by hit105 at 9.7% & JJJ at 8.2%. 4BC, being mostly a translator station for 2GB, managed 7.8%, beating mostly-local ABC Brisbane with 6.8%, which seems to indicate that people of Brisbane prefer Sydney talkback over local talkback. Further down the list, MSR hit 1%, after going up 0.2.
In Adelaide, Mix 102.3 remains at #1 with 12.1%, followed closely by FiveAA with 11.1%, Nova with 10.9%, ABC Adelaide with 10.2%, 5MMM with 8.9%, Cruise with 8.7% & hit107 with 8.3%.
And in Perth, Nova takes the top spot with a 14.1% share, as Mix 94.5 fell 2.2 to land at 12.1%, placing themselves not far ahead of JJJ with 11.5%. Hit 92.9 managed 9.1%, followed by ABC Perth at 8%, 96fm at 7.7% & 6PR with 7.6%. It will be interesting to see how 96fm performs in the coming surveys with the changes that had been implemented yesterday, with the return of Botica’s Bunch & the “Real Music” positioning statement. Lastly, 6iX went up 0.7 to 5.2%.
Bit of a reality check for Smooth in Melbourne. It fell in every timeslot on weekdays, including a drop of 2.2 in breakfast. What happened?
In FM breakfast, Fox rose to hit double digits, while Jase and PJ on KIIS also went up strongly, thanks partly to their 56 hour marathon last month.
Denis Walter still doing well for 3AW on afternoons, just ahead of Gold and Smooth.
Mixed results in drive with Fox, KIIS and Nova up, and Smooth and Triple M down.
MSR’s coverage of Cricket World Cup did not help the station’s ratings at night.
The stations in ranking order for Brisbane & Sydney.
Brisbane
#1. Nova: 11.7
#2. 97.3: 10.5
=#2. 4KQ: 10.5
#4. 4MMM: 10.4
#5. hit105: 9.7
#6. 4JJJ: 8.2
#7. 4BC: 7.8
#8. ABC Brisbane: 6.8
#9. 4RN: 2.8
#10. ABC Classic: 2.4
#11. ABC News: 1.7
#12. MSR: 1.0
Sydney
#1. 2GB: 14.0
#2. Smooth: 9.9
#3. WSFM: 8.2
#4. KIIS: 8.1
#5. ABC Sydney: 8.0
#6. Nova: 7.5
#7. 2MMM: 6.0
#8. 2Day: 4.7
#9. 2JJJ: 4.3
#10. 2CH: 3.6
#11. ABC Classic: 3.4
#12. 2RN: 2.6
#13. ABC News: 2.2
#14. MSR: 0.9
#15. Sky Sports: 0.6
The cume figures show they lost 38,000 people at breakfast, the average audience is down 14,000.
Whoa 4KQ. Wow, equal second. Is there another AM music station in the world doing this well? Albeit wherever I hear KQ in public it’s on DAB, not AM. But still, amazing result.
What it shows is:
- Triple M and 97.3 are missing the mark with the older music audience
- How dumb are Macquarie for destroying 4BH
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Looking at the demographic breakdowns, in the 40-54s in Sydney, there’s a close battle between WS & 2MMM, with only 0.3 separating the two. WS is also narrowly ahead of Smooth in the 55-64s, whilst Smooth outrates WS in every other age groups, as well as outrating 2Day in the 10-24s.
In Brisbane, 4KQ attracts 25% of 55-64 listeners, well ahead of other rated stations (2nd place of the rated stations, 4MMM, got 10.9% in that demo), as well as being ahead of “Other Stations” which was at 19.1%. ABC Brisbane rates ahead of 4BC in the under-25s & in the 40-64s.
In Perth, Nova is #1 in the 40-54s with 16.7%, with Mix 94.5 falling 5.4% to land at 12.9%, only 1.3% ahead of JJJ & 2% ahead of 96fm. Mix is still well ahead in the 55-64s though.
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Macquarie destroyed 4BH when it became 4 B Hyundai for a week.
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To be fair, it was when it was owned by Fairfax, before it merged with Macquarie.
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While there’s a lot of talking points from these ratings, want to point out two of them:
- MSR’s performance in Melbourne should be raising alarm bells - while SEN’s ratings climbed this time, MSR is almost in asterisk territory
- 2DayFM should be worried that their breakfast show is now being outrated by Triple J’s show
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It has become boring and predictible. Bland you might say. (Or blander).
Unexciting choice of oldies. Often unsuitable and unworthy new tracks. And that frequently simpering “Smooth style”. No sense of irony or much in the way of humour. Especially some of the weekend pre-records with their tired old platitudes. I know that’s hard to avoid when you can’t talk about something that’s actually going on that day. But… boring!
Just my two cents
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Oh yes that was absolutely horrendous.
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I tend to agree re Smooth. I still like it but it is sounding a lot more safe and predictable lately. They’re playing around 80% music from the 80s nowadays. Less 60s and 70s and the 80s stuff they do play is increasingly boring.
They need a slight rejig in my opinion a bit more towards urban AC like The Wave in LA for example. Or head back to where they were 12 months ago.
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Stoked for Jase and PJ!
That’s a VERY solid increase.
Guess we’ll have to see more 56 hour marathons! 
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A small decrease for Christian O’Connell, his ratings are certainly not awful but I wonder whether how happy Gold are around a year on, considering he wouldn’t have come cheap.
His show is better than other FM options in Melbourne I think.
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Would it be cheaper or on par with a proper duo I know he has Jack as well. It’s a solid show and fits the stations feel better than their previous offerings too
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What’s with those ratings increases for Macquarie Sports Radio in Sydney & Brisbane? Is it just because those two markets don’t have SEN (yet) or is it something else?
I agree.
Good to see a ratings increase across the board for 702, after they had two or three poor surveys in a row.
Taking a closer look at 2CH’s ratings, it seems like Chris Kearns’ local nights show is doing quite well (with the station now getting 6% in the evenings) while Tim Webster is doing fine in the morning, but there’s room for improvement elsewhere in the schedule.
I’m still of the belief that if 2CH wants any meaningful ratings increases in the long run, they need to do an external advertising campaign primarily targeted at listeners who miss some of the Classic Hits that WSFM used to play (with 101.7 primarily focused on playing 80s to now in 2019, with much less from the 60s/70s these days compared to around six or seven years ago) but find Smooth 95.3 just a little too slow and sleepy. Pair that up with a giveaway of cheap DAB+ receivers across town and you’ve got a campaign which has the potential to increase 2CH’s audience share up to around 5-6% overall, I think.
That in itself should be concerning, but it’s even worse than that. RN 576 and NewsRadio 630 are outrating Grant, Ed & Ash on 2DayFM! 
As for Smooth FM, I personally believe that the musical formats of their Sydney & Melbourne stations need to be slightly different to adequately cater for each market. With 2CH placing a certain emphasis on 60s and 70s Classic Hits with an Easy Listening edge, Smooth 95.3 can probably afford to focus a bit more on tracks from the 80s/90s. But with a lack of any AM music station in Melbourne, you’d probably want to hear a variety of tracks (well, ones which suit the Smooth format anyway) from the 60s to now on Smooth 91.5!
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Denis Walter data ranking No. 1, but MRN not saying it was No. 1 in their release?
Simply put, no. Some of the smaller NZ markets have AMs that do well (Coast was #2 on AM in Northland last year before adding an FM simulcast), but those don’t quite compare with a major metro like Brisbane.
FYI, KQ’s 10.5 is its largest share since S4/2004.
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ADAM LANG, MACQUARIE MEDIA:
“We are enormously proud of our national sports network, Macquarie Sports Radio,
which has shown further audience growth in this survey period”.
The delusion continues! 0.2 % in Melbourne. Hilarious.
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