Amid the celebrations last week at Macquarie Media for 2GB having scored 100 survey wins in a row, there was a familiar lament.
Not unlike the late stand up comic and actor, Rodney Dangerfield who was famous for his one-liners with the recurrent theme, “I can’t get no respect,” Executive Chairman, Russell Tate felt compelled to have a dig at the media.
“2GB has simply dominated Sydney radio. Not just AM radio, not just talk radio, not just commercial radio,” he told the crowd of staff and selected representatives of the 4th estate, including radioinfo.
“It has dominated all forms of radio and all other stations across 12.5 years of unbroken and undisputed leadership – a fact which will probably surprise any regular reader of the press coverage generally given to ratings results. Such coverage is always ridiculously biased towards the commercial FM stations.”
Macquarie part-owner John Singleton has been saying pretty much the same thing for 20 years or more, adding that stations like 2GB and 2CH that target older demographics are often overlooked by young media buyers in favour of the type stations they prefer to listen to.
Alan Jones, who had racked up 103 consecutive survey wins on top of a further 83 at 2UE (79 consecutive) plus 16 non-consecutive at 2GB, also lashed out at some media outlets in an interview with Chris Smith on the Afternoon show “They are Radio surveys, not FM surveys or AM surveys. There have been media people who have presented ratings results at the end of each survey as if it was a contest between FM stations.”
For the record, radioinfo was the first media outlet in Australia to headline it’s Survey 7 results story with 100 Wins for 2GB.
Read the whole of Mr Tate’s speech below.
2GB celebrates 100 consecutive Survey wins
Speech by Russell Tate to staff and media 08.11.2016
We generally don’t do too much celebrating around ratings successes at Macquarie Media. Since I’ve been part of the management team anyway, and that’s 7 or so years and 50 or so surveys, another win for 2GB has generally meant another stack of luke-warm pizzas in the Boardroom, and only occasionally a beer or two after work. That is not to say though that we have ever taken a survey win for granted or that we’ve ever become blase. Eight times a year it’s generally more a sense of relief that once again no-one’s come close to knocking us off, we’ve retained our Number 1 position in this most competitive of markets, and we can just get back to the job of producing great content and making a few bob along the way.
Today though is different, in fact it’s a lot different. Because today we celebrate not just another ratings win for 2GB, we celebrate the station’s 100th consecutive ratings win! And we also celebrate a couple of incredible personal milestones by Alan and Ray.
Our 100 consecutive wins have spanned 12.5 years. Neither 100 consecutive survey wins, nor 12.5 consecutive years at the top, has ever been achieved by a station before in the Sydney market, and as far as we can work out in the last 50 years at least, it has not been achieved in any market. For all of that time 2GB has simply dominated Sydney radio. Not just AM radio , not just talk radio, not just commercial radio, it has dominated all forms of radio and all other stations across 12.5 years of unbroken and undisputed leadership – an extraordinary achievement.
And I want to take a minute or two to demonstrate just what that success looks like. Because 2GB has not just beaten all other stations for 100 consecutive surveys. It has actually smashed them, a fact which will probably surprise any regular reader of the press coverage generally given to ratings results. Such coverage is always ridiculously biased towards the commercial FM stations whose average audiences, as the following graphs demonstrate, have been and remain dwarfed by 2GB’s audience size.
To further demonstrate the currency of 2GB’s lead over all competitors, this very latest survey has our average audience;
187% ahead of 2DAY FM
44% ahead of KIIS
164% ahead of TRIPLE M
78% ahead of NOVA96.9
35% ahead of smoothfm
89% ahead of WSFM
On average 2GB’s average audience is 84% higher than the above group of stations.
Today, every one of our presenters and every single person who has worked in, and in direct support of, 2GB’s on-air teams, both programs and news, over the last 12.5 years can stand up and take a bow for the part you have played in this achievement. Everyone currently on those teams will receive a personalised recognition of your contribution and we will all celebrate the station’s success over a few drinks tonight.
But three people in particular have been absolutely fundamental to today’s achievement.
The first of them is my dear friend John Singleton who as the then owner of 2GB , and having tried all sorts of presenters and talent combinations through the 1990’s to get the station onto the ratings scoreboard, had the forsesight and guts to poach from the then dominant 2UE a youngish football commentator who also filled-in occasionally for John Laws.
Ray Hadley joined 2GB on Christmas Eve 2001, just as Alan Jones was also leaving 2UE for a destination unknown at the time. Ray went straight into Breakfast on 2GB, but only for a short time because within a couple of months Singo had also managed to sign one Alan Jones who moved into the breakfast spot he had been winning for 2UE. Ray moved to mornings and the first lines of a new chapter in Sydney radio history had been written – all thanks to Singo and his determination to do whatever was needed to get 2GB not only on to the ratings scoreboard, but on a very fast trajectory to the very top of the scoreboard.
Alan who had already won 83 surveys (79 consecutive) during his time at 2UE went back to No.1 in breakfast after just a couple of surveys at 2GB, and Ray who was up against John Laws in mornings spent most of 2002 and 2003 battling it out with Laws for the No. 1 spot in mornings before he cemented his hold on the top spot in March 2004. He hasn’t been beaten since.
So today it is 100 consecutive to the station, 100 consecutive for Ray and its actually 103 consecutive for Alan. Their individual program dominance is no less impressive that the station’s overall ( graphs) . Fantastic achievements, records never reached before, and as a post script I should also add that in Ray’s case he also contributed significantly during all this time to the station’s overall success via his weekend programs which had him working during footy seasons for at least 6 days a week and more often 7 days.
In Alan’s case, as I mentioned, he was actually going pretty well before this 100 surveys even started. At 2UE he had already, prior to 2002, notched up 83 survey wins in Breakfast (79 consecutive), and a further 16 at 2GB. So Alan’s overall scorecard today reads a total of 199 survey wins, the last 103 of them consecutive. One survey to go in 2016 which you would think just might bring up his double century.
And for Alan, for Ray and for the station, whilst we pause today to give ourselves a bit of a pat on the back, this story is by no means over yet. Ray is here till at least 2020, Alan reckons he’ll be right to 2050, and very importantly they are backed up an incredibly talented line-up across all 2GB programs who have already played a huge role in the station achievement we’re celebrating today. Chris Smith (No. 1 in Afternoons), Ben Fordham (No. 1 in Drive), Ross Greenwood (Early Evening), Steve Price and Andrew Bolt (No. 1 in Nights) and Michael Mclaren (No.1 Overnight) combine to extend the morning dominance established by Alan and Ray throughout the rest of the day and night.
So we’ll celebrate today and starting tomorrow set out to do it all again as we lift the bar higher and higher for whoever thinks they might one day take this incredible record from us.