A very ho hum survey.
Newcastle radio needs to be shook up.
Will ARN or Nova PLEASE make Billy an offer he can’t refuse for 2HD and NEW FM?
Triple M remains on top despite a decline of 1.3% to 17.4%, whilst Hit 106.9 went up 1% to 15.9%. JJJ is 3rd with 11.2% (-3.1), followed by ABC Newcastle with 8% (-1.5), New FM with 7.8% (-1.6) & 2HD with 7% (+0.9).
In the demos, JJJ is #1 in the 18-24s, with Hit #1 in the 10-17s & 25-39s. Triple M leads in the 40-64s, whilst 2HD is #1 in the 65+.
In breakfast, Triple M’s Tanya & Steve is #1 with 20.2%, followed by Hit’s Nick, Jess & Ducko at 2nd with 13.1%, ABC Newcastle’s Jenny Marchant & Dan Cox with 11.5%, and JJJ’s Bryce & Ebony at 11.4%. In drive, Hit’s Carrie & Tommy is #1 with 17%, followed by Triple M’s Molloy at 16.3% and JJJ’s Hobba & Hing at 15.6%. Sarah McDonald & Philip Clark on ABC Newcastle is #1 on evenings with 15.8%.
The “Other Stations” ratings is at 25.9%, up from 20.8% in the previous survey.
If that were to happen, ARN would have to sell off 2NM & Power FM in order to acquire 2HD & New FM, due to the 30%+ overlap between Muswellbrook & Newcastle commercial radio licence areas. If Nova were to be interested, there shouldn’t be any problems there. Under either ARN or Nova, I could see 2HD adopt a classic hits/smooth-type format, which is lacking in such a big regional market.
Apart from Geelong (due to a big overlap with Melbourne), Newcastle (as well as the Central Coast) is one major regional market where ARN would not have a radio presence.
I agree. Central Coast radio is more exciting than Newcastle radio at present, where at least SCA has serious competition with Nova-owned Star 104.5, who is #1 in the market.
2HD should do a 4KQ and that might make Triple M sit up and take notice.
And with 2HD on FM in much of its licence area (including overspill into the northern half of the Central Coast), it would be worth a listen.
Getting back more into the topic of ratings, looking at it in a more closer detail, the “Other Stations” figure on among the 55-64s is at an astonishing 48.7%, which is way up from 37.8% in just the previous survey! 
Also, ABC Newcastle’s overall share of 8% is its lowest since S4/2002, when it scored 7.9%. Mind you, at that time, KO & NX both had over 20% overall share, 2HD scored 16.3% & New FM was at 10%. The “Other Stations” rating was only 13.4%.
Agree, if only it was in proper FM stereo!
One of the few 3+ commercial FM stations markets where SCA are #1 and #2… Townsville is the only other one I can think of…
Usually SCA rank in the bottom half of the FM stations.
Looking at the Newcastle Triple M figures could the ratings decline be attributed to them moving broader with their music?
Maybe this is an opportunity for New fm to go more rock to fill the gap? Anyway New fm is a bit like 2day fm, what ever they do it just can’t get any traction. In the market.
At least 2Day has a good go at it, I don’t think NEW FM tries hard enough, comes down to how much the owner is prepared to spend to turn it around, which in Bill Caralis’s case, is as little as possible.
Yes I agree, New fm is really just a SRN network station that lacks relevance in Newcastle.
You would think with SCA’s one playlist fits all approach in place in Newcastle, Bill could research Newcastle and reprogram New fm to suite that market similar to what Win does with i98 in Wollongong. I think he is just happy to have two radio stations operating in that market, and is not concerned to much by ratings. If the ratings get really bad he could just stop paying for the surveys and not have his stations surveyed like 2SM.
I thought Power FM was the sister station of Nowra’s Power FM. Thanks again for sharing your wealth of knowledge @TV-Expert .
Grant Broadcasters currently owns both 2NM & Power FM, as well as 2ST & Power FM Nowra. Both pairs will soon be acquired by ARN when the transaction of the sale is to be completed on Tuesday, so they have always been & will continue to be sister stations.
Hence why I mentioned that they’re owned by ARN, even though they haven’t officially taken over the Grant stations (exc Geelong & JVs with Capital) yet.