In the last Sydney radio survey of 2016, Triple M was 8th in the ratings behind the ARN stations, the Nova stations, Triple J, 2GB and 702 ABC, so I wouldn’t exactly say that Triple M is one of Sydney’s most popular radio stations at the moment.
Personally, I doubt that Triple M’s recent heavy emphasis on sport and the decision to run an overnight talkback program will help their overall ratings much in the Sydney market this year.
I agree that automated music all night doesn’t make for great listening, but is there any reason why SCA can’t just have an announcer on (whether it’s live, pre-recorded or whatever) talking about the songs being played? There are other radio stations doing talkback in the midnight-dawn timeslot, so I’m not sure that Triple M needs to be joining in.
Comparing Triple M to Smooth FM is like comparing apples and oranges.
I’m not sure about everyone else, but I get the general impression from their marketing that Triple M Sydney (especially “The Grill Team” breakfast show) is primarily aimed at male bogans. TV ads like this and [this] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJv7NHTU71w) especially scream “this station is for male bogans” to me.
I’d probably say that the promotion and marketing for WSFM (since you pointed the station out, I’ll use them as an example) targets a broader demographic and perhaps not coincidentally, has usually rated better than Triple M in the Sydney market for a few years now. While I’d like to see some things changed with WSFM, I certainly wouldn’t say that Triple M are less targeted towards the male bogan demographic with their promotion and marketing…