Cumulative listening in GfK Survey 7 yielded positives (and negatives) for every radio network and surprising differences between states in similar shows at the same time.

The No 1 station for cume audience was Sydney’s smooth 95.3, and for breakfast audiences, Kyle and Jackie O on KIIS 1065, the same as in Survey 6. Across 2025 Melbourne’s Nova 100 and its breakfast duo of Jase and Lauren have both held No 1 but the last couple of surveys have seen the station and breakfast drop to 4th and 3rd respectively as the initial backlash towards K&J’s move into Melbourne, ousting Jase and Lauren from KIIS 101.1 abated somewhat.

Kyle and Jackie O were steady in their Sydney cumulative listening although their breakfast audience share dropped significantly. Contrary to that was Fitzy and Wippa with Kate Ritchie, who were steady with their Nova 969 breakfast audience share but had the most impressive cumulative audience gain of all.

SCA’s The Fox FM in Melbourne saw cumulative losses in station and breakfast listening, as well as a dip in the ratings. So too smooth 91.5 and Mike Perso. Smooth stations usually dramatically improve at the end of the year, post sporting seasons, and you could see that in Sydney, in breakfast with Bogart Torelli, but quite the opposite in Melbourne. Melbourne saw significant drops for most of the major players with the exception of Ross and Russ on 3AW. Ross and Russ are the No 1 breakfast show by quite a margin in Melbourne and their listeners are loyal as their cume numbers usually sit behind most of the major FM stations, showing less of a tendency to flick the dial. This survey, despite being marginally down in the ratings, they had a 20K cume audience increase, which suggests new listeners which is exactly what the station, which skews toward an older demographic, will be hoping to find.

Pictured main are Nat, Nath and Shaun who host breakfast on Nova 93.7 in Perth. This is their 50th consecutive survey win. They have a cume audience of more than 400,000 just for breakfast, and are the most listened to station and show outside Melbourne and Sydney. Again their breakfast ratings marginally dropped, but their cume audience keeps on increasing.

This was a particularly positive survey for Gold 101.7 and Jonesy and Amanda on breakfast in Sydney, who will shift to drive to make way for Christian O’Connell next year. The station’s cume audience grew by more than 100K! So too for Robin, Kip and Corey Oates on KIIS 97.3 Brisbane, to be replaced by Craig ‘Lowie’ Low. I suspect for both stations the difference between Survey 8 2025 and Survey 1 2026 will be marked. Not so for Hayley and Max on Mix 102.3 Adelaide who are also departing at the end of this year.

The ABC’s results were all over the place. Sharnelle Vella and Bob Murphy were up 1.4% in Melbourne with Craig Reucassel in Sydney down 1.1. Both however experienced significant drops in cume audience. But the most abundant evidence of just how different metro cities can feel about the same show from one survey to the next was evident in breakfast hosts Concetta and Luka at triple j. Sydney, down 25,000 cume audience with Melbourne up 40K. Brisbane down 20,000, Perth up 27K!

Additionally two of the most improved stations were Melbourne’s ABC Classic and Sydney’s 2UE, both perhaps giving smooth a run for their money.

The cumulative charts are below. Full GfK Survey 7 results can be found here, spin and DAB+.