Regional Radio Ratings

By my calculations 200,000 wouldn’t include much Melbourne overlap at all. With 125,000 from the current Sale licence area 75,000 would come pretty easily from Warragul, Moe, Leongatha and surrounding areas, not to mention South Gippsland (though less relevant given previous skepticism about reception down there).

Wish we could see a Geelong survey, I realise Melbourne stations may dominate but it’d be good to get a look at how well Bay and Krock do against them.

2 Likes

Not surprised TRFM does well - it’s the historical hit music station for the region and does well with recognition in Gippsland. You go into any shop or business and chances are they’re playing TR on the radio

99.5 has fairly shabby signal to the west so you’d imagine much of its audience in the Warragul area is probably centred on the Moe/Morwell area (which would probably listen to TR far more than the Warragul stations). There certainly is a divide in identity from ‘The Valley’ versus ‘West Gippsland’, with Moe and Morwell most definitely falling into the former category. Hence they probably listen to the Valley stations as their locals

Still, only 20% of the audience listening to the local commercial stations is pretty rubbish…

In other points, 1242 doesn’t seem to be dominating in Sale either. I can’t exactly recall how it rated as a ‘classic hits’ station as 3GV/Gold back immediately after the FM conversion of 3TR, but you’ve got to against the ABC for talk, an older music format must have some legs in a market such as this

1 Like

Orange is the latest market to get its ratings released: http://radioitsalovething.com.au/RIALT/media/RIALT/PDF/ORANGE-XTRA-INSIGHTS-PUBLIC-SURVEY-RESULT-WITH-CUME.PDF

Star FM is the #1 station with 32.5%, followed by sister station 2GZ with 24.8%. ABC Central West was 3rd with 11.9%, followed by JJJ with 6%, RN with 4.9% & BOG-owned 2EL with 4.6%.

In the demographics, Star is #1 in the under-40s, whilst 2GZ tops the over-40s. In the 9am-12pm slot, Ray Hadley on 2GZ got a 33% share, whilst John Laws on 2EL managed only a 5.7% share.

I always thought that the regional BOG stations are propping up 2SM in Sydney but are any Super Network stations making money? With shares like these in markets of little competition they must be barely sustainable?

Hello world*

*well, a very tiny percentage of it

2 Likes

Not that we’d ever see it, but it would be interesting to see what the ratings are like in markets where BOG are the only commercial stations

1 Like

I agree. I suspect that we would see better ratings in these markets. At least some of these markets appear to get a bit more money and effort spent on them, particularly in the larger areas such as Lismore and Tamworth.

Ratings were also not bad in Dubbo with 2 stations only up against Star FM.

It’s also worth noting that in recently surveyed of Orange, Coffs Harbour and Port Macquarie/Kempsey, the heritage stations converted to FM leaving the AM licenses to be bought for very little money and launch a new station (before Bill got his hands on them a few years later), so they haven’t had the same heritage launching pad which helps support a lot of AM stations

1 Like

Yeah, I’m the first to happily go Bill-bashing, but that last point is a good one. 2EL as an AM station is up against two FM stations as competition, so with that and little heritage value it’s probably no surprise it rates a distant third in the commercial space

On the flip side of course, rating lower than Radio National has got to be a real concern…

Orange is not the only market where Radio National outrates a BOG AM station, as it was also happening in Port Macquarie & Coffs Harbour.

3 Likes

EL was Easy Listening. The responses from Orange/Port Macquarie/Coffs Harbour are virtually the same. Factor in a survey from a WA station just proves that if you do not have a local (breakfast) presence you are behind the eight ball. Yes I am going out on a limb here but it is resonating in the 4BC experiment. Your station must be live and local as much as possible, particularly in breakfast in regional areas.

Tamworth would be an interesting market - other then some fortuitous reception from 98.1, all commercial options are BOG stations

(its a shame that the regulator hasnt seen fit to allocate another commercial licence in the region, but thats another story)

When the Tamworth LAP was last revised in 2000, it was originally proposed that a 3rd commercial licence be made available (on 92.1).

Do you know why? Did any other areas have proposals for stations that didn’t go ahead around the same time?

I dont believe the 2000 LAP was finalised - Comlaw still lists the 1998 version as the LAP in force -https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2005B00629

Yes, Gunnedah and Armidale were originally proposed to each have a 3rd commercial licence, on 95.9 and 104.3 respectively, both of which ended up as HPON services.

Again, along with Tamworth not sure WHY they didn’t go ahead in their original forms, but can only guess that the ABA (now ACMA) decided that a 3rd commercial licence was either not viable or in the best interests of the community.

Moree and Gunnedah also had community radio services proposed, on 104.5 and 104.7 respectively, neither of which were ever taken up.

or the owner of the other licences kicked up a stink.

In the cases where there is a duopoly under one owner, there should have been a competitor granted.

There should just be no narrowcasters on the main band, with the exception of temporary special event licenses. New commercial services and community stations should be using them instead.

Killing off the regional racing radio stations would be a good start.

4 Likes

Next stop, Wagga Wagga: http://radioitsalovething.com.au/RIALT/media/RIALT/PDF/WAGGA-WAGGA-XTRA-INSIGHTS-PUBLIC-SURVEY-RESULT-WITH-CUME.PDF

Star FM is the #1 station with 32.4%, followed by 2WG with 17.3% & ABC Riverina with 14.3%. Star is #1 in the under-55s, 2WG tops the 55-64s, while both 2WG & ABC Riverina tied for the top spot in the 65+.

The “Other Stations” figure is at 24.3%, a fair chunk of which would be towards local community station, 2AAA.

2 Likes

I Know a bloke who knows a bloke at 2WG & they have admitted that 2AAA get around a 15% share on local tracking apparently :wink: