GAME ON!
In the aftermath of Survey 5, as the unprecedented shake up of radio continues, once again radioinfo went in search of broadcast wisdom and tracked down Three Wise men of FM. SCA’s FoxFM Content Director and Head of Today’s hit Network, Dave Cameron, Nova Entertainment Group Programme Director, Paul Jackson and ARN National Content Director, Duncan Campbell.
There were two huge outcomes from Survey 5, One eagerly anticipated: the impact of Hamish and Andy’s return to Drive would have. The other, no one anticipated – at least not this survey: smoothfm topping the FM ladder for the first time in Sydney. For ARN’s part, Duncan Campbell was happy to declare Survey 5, “another consistent result.”
SCA’s Dave Cameron was understandably cock-a-hoop at what Hamish and Andy had achieved on their first outing, “It matches our expectations or even better, to be honest. Just the simple fact of them only being on for 50% of the last survey period and having an immediate impact in the Drive shift I think is an amazing result.”
“Do you think that’s big?” says Paul Jackson of H&A’s 2.7 share gain in Sydney. “You’re asking somebody who doesn’t really care. We’ve got the number one show (9.6, Nova) and the number two show (8.2, Smooth) in Drive.
“2Day FM was a hugely underperforming radio station so to bring in that number (6.5) is just an okay position. If I had spent that much money marketing it, the TV and all the other media stuff, you might well have hoped for a better return than that,” says Jackson.
Duncan Campbell’s critique was not quite so harsh but sceptical nonetheless. “There was always going to be an impact for Hamish and Andy it was never a question. In some markets its been quite a big impact in that particular slot. But the corresponding impact 10+ hasn’t been there really. And commercially that’s what’s important.”
Cameron had his own advice for Jackson and Campbell, “Probably everywhere where we’ve gone up I would suggest that our competitors would be worried about that.
“If I was ARN, I would probably be worried about the decline of the Sydney Breakfast show. I’d be worried about the decline of the KISS brand in their two biggest markets in early days and probably the immediate impact on their drive show.
“You’d probably be wanting to take a pretty close look at that Nova Melbourne breakfast show which is pulling figures lower then they have ever seen before. Fifi and Dave (Fox) are a clear two points ahead of that show. In Sydney you would start with how that breakfast show is performing after three years in the market,” says Cameron.
In truth, when Paul Jackson said of the H&A results that “You’re asking somebody who doesn’t really care,” he wasn’t so much being dismissive of them, but rather given the results for smoothfm in Sydney, he couldn’t care much about anything except perhaps for the glass of champagne someone had poured for at 11:15 that morning. He was definitely in a celebratory mood.
“I think this is one of the best and finest days in my radio career,” declares Jackson, “I’ve been a bit of a broken record in the last year or two saying in year three we would go to number one. I wasn’t necessarily expecting it to be today but I’m delighted that it is.”
Even Duncan Campbell, who was not surprised by the H&A impact admits he didn’t see the smooth result coming, “I guess that’s the only one that’s difficult to explain.”