I would say they didn’t include the AM stations as they didn’t want people to see that a station in an adjacent market had a high market share
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It’s the same in most markets. The over 50 music audience is not being catered for by commercial radio anymore. So the only radio that appeals is some community stations. But what if a market doesn’t have a community station like Coast or 94.1 on the Gold Coast.
Personally I think it’s time the ABC stepped in and filled this gap with a mainstream music station for over 50s. They could merge RN and News Radio and use one of those frequencies (most are on FM in regional Australia).
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Wollongong is a very good example of that. Due to Vox FM’s programming being all over the place, the only other options for the over 50s music audience is to tune to the Sydney stations, such as Smooth, WS or 2UE, as well as 2ST from Nowra.
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Hit 101.3 loosing the crown to Star 104.5 was certainly not unexpected with the changes made by management.
I was not surprised by Hit 101.3 loosing breakfast to Star 104.5 as they turned a good local show into a generic regional breakfast show that no longer sounds local on the Central Coast.
Also the music is way to close to Star 104.5. Before the music change they played more new music, and also played some 90’s rock.
That previous music format seemed to resonate better on the Central Coast and in Canberra which shared music logs at the time.
Basically Hit 101.3 loss of localism has been Star 104.5’s gain. I would not be surprised to see other Hit Stations decline in competitive markets too.
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We saw that in Mackay when the figures for that market were released yesterday, where Hit lost the #1 spot, and went down 6.1% to land at 3rd spot, whilst Grant-owned Star rose from 3rd place to #1, after they had poached the local Hit breakfast team after they were axed by SCA.
There are some parallels to be made between the Central Coast & Mackay, as well as the Gold Coast, where SCA stations are beaten by a more local-oriented competitor. With that in mind, it will be interesting to see the ratings for Townsville & Cairns when they come out.
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I also believe there are some parallels between Canberra and the Central Coast markets too. Hit 101.3 and Hit 104.7 when they shared the same logs both performed much better. They are both markets that had an appreciation of rock music in the past. That was the heritage of both these stations. They are certainty not rating as well with the current insipid playlists and lost of localism.
This is where Mix 106.3 has won Canberra, (joint venture of SCA / ARN) local drive, and not on a SCA stock standard music log.
It will be interesting to see how Hit perform in Cairns and Townsville.
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That’s what I liked about Star FM during the day in Mackay is they played a rock song around every third song. It just had a better mix of music then Hit.
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This is where Grant stations have a broader appeal. SCA Hit regional’s primarily focusing on middle age women, like their metro’s is way to narrow for these smaller markets.
IMO SCA was hopping the male listeners leaving Hit would boost Triple M. As we can see from the first lot of regional ratings the competitor has gained at the expense of SCA Hit and Triple M networks.
The Dubbo ratings will be very interesting with Hit becoming Triple M. Could Bill’s SRN Zoo do the impossible and become the number one station?
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In the most recent survey for Cairns, Star 102.7 was the #1 station in Cairns with Hit 103.5 in 2nd place and 99.5 Triple M third. During the next survey I’d probably expect Star to remain #1, with Hit possibly dropping to 3rd.
Triple M will most likely remain #1 in Townsville (The immensely popular local icon that is Pricey still does their breakfast show, right?) but I wouldn’t expect Hit 103.1 to remain the close #2 it was in 2019.
Indeed, although in the Central Coast market at least it’d be fair to say that SCA shot themselves in the foot with 107.7 a fair while before 2GO was rebadged as Triple M.
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Hit 103.5, actually. 
Yes, he’s still there.
That would’ve been around the time when Sarah & Paddy (the latter has since returned to breakfast at the beginning of 2020) were unceremoniously dumped from 2GO breakfast back in November 2017. That move resulted in 2GO slumping to an all-time low in the following year’s ratings survey, with Mandy & Akmal (the 2GO breakfast team for 2018) rating single figures, as well as being beaten by JJJ in breakfast.
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The morning figures for Gosford adds up to 67.3. My guess it that a chunk of the missing data would be for Ray Hadley on 2GB.
I agree with this as a possible reason.
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Just curious what you define as middle-aged women? Hit target up to about mid- to late-30s but mainly still 20-somethings, and that’s not really what they call middle-aged.
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I read in a post ratings interview Dave Cameron said Hit was targeting 25-54 females, and Triple M was targeting 25-54 males. These were the key demographics for both networks.
Hit use to be more 18-39 before the music changes.
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Interesting that the Sydney FMs show for the first time since the 2012 survey, while the AMs do not. I would assume 2GB accounts for a good bit of that “other” slice since it had nearly a 10 share the last time it showed here.
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Now remember kids, you can always spin a bad result into a good result with a little creativity! (via Facebook)
On another note, remind me how many duopolies there are in Gosford? 
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OMG is that for real?
If that’s the case, they can also claim to be the number 1 stations on 101.3 and 107.7 on the Central Coast.
Oh, and the number 1 rock station on the Central Coast.
Number 1 for Maz & Gawndy
Number 1 for Rob & Paddy
I could go on…
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The level of self delusion within SCA is breathtaking.
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Number 1 for coming last and pretending they didn’t.
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Yes it will be a sad day for Townsville radio listeners when he eventually retires,
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It would be interesting to see if he has the same kind of pull as Alan Jones, or Kyle and Jackie O… if Steve Price was to go to say Power 100, could he single handedly push Power 100 up at brekky and overall and push Triple M down at the same time?
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