There were several DAB+ debutants in the metro cities for GfK Radio 360 Survey 1, 2026 as GOLD launched into Adelaide and Brisbane and KIIS into Perth for ARN, plus SCA‘s HEART and HEART HITS also commenced across all.

SCA’s HEART Network was created to help listeners relax and escape and in that, be a competitor to Nova‘s smooth stations – and the impact, especially in Sydney, was immediate, attracting a cume audience of more than 100K across the two stations.

Due to the breakfast changes, and particularly Gold 101.7 listeners looking at breakfast alternatives now that Jonesy and Amanda have shifted to drive for Christian O’Connell, Sydney saw eight DAB+ stations attract a sume audience of 100K or more (I included smooth relax‘s 99K because it’s close enough). CADA is still No 1, KIIS 90s second.

Melbourne –

Gold 80s no 1 after a large drop for Coles Radio and other retail radio DAB+ stations. Double J neared 100K listeners. HEART off to a healthy start.

Brisbane – Coles Radio still the DAB+ station of choice in the city. GOLD, HEART and HEART HITS all get around 15K cume audience to start.

Adelaide – Coles Radio top there with smooth Adelaide just behind and not impacted by the new HEART stations (yet). HEART and GOLD debut with less than a 10K audience, 7K for GOLD.

Perth – KIIS saw 10K people check the station out, but this was largely a way to see how Kyle and Jackie O might fare in that market, so it will be interesting to see if ARN continue with it. HEART in Perth had a healthy 30K introductory audience. Smooth still rules on DAB+ however, and was up 12K to 85,ooo cume audience.

Full GfK Survey 1 results here.

See also: Cumes, Spin, Analysis