Grant Johnstone is the Chief Marketing Officer for the ACE Radio Network. He’s worked for the network for more then three decades as a program director, station manager and his current role, and still loves radio so much he does an on-air shift Saturdays on Magic 1278 (main picture).
After GfK Radio 360 Survey 6 was released yesterday, Grant fielded quite a few phones from myself, and others, about the success of 4BH in Brisbane.
He was asked if he was surprised?
Grant was not.
BBQ Bob Gallagher
While there’s been ups and downs, as happens in radio surveys, since ACE took 2UE and 4BH from Nine Radio at the start of 2022, and enticed BBQ Bob Gallagher (pictured above) out of semi-retirement onto 4BH breakfast, the station has gone from an audience share of 1.9, and 1.5 on breakfast, to 11.2, for both, in Survey 6 2024.
Grant called BBQ Bob around lunchtime on release of the results and asked him how he was celebrating.
Bob, who doesn’t have a producer, said he was busy prepping for the next day, and calling winners of a campaign supporting small business.
While the Brisbane results made people sit up and take notice, I was also calling Grant because the network’s Melbourne figures had caught my eye too.
While 3MP and Magic 1278 might be low hanging Melbourne fruit, or as Grant said, ‘still swimming in the shallow end’, both stations were up Survey 6. 3MP had had an additional 22,000 people tune in. Magic 64,000, more than any other station in the country.
That said to me that people were checking out what was happening in Melbourne radio, no real surprise as there’s been a lot of hype, but in their surfing of the dial some had found 3MP and Magic. They’d liked what they’d heard and stuck around for a while. 2UE in Sydney also accumulated 26K additional listeners.
Scott Menz (pictured above) on Magic breakfast picked up the most listeners, 32000 of them, this survey too.
Those numbers, a key indicator of audience growth, says watch this space. For Grant and for ACE now it’s ‘how do we grow on what we’ve got?’
I’m just going to share something else special about the ACE Radio Network I discovered in my travels.
Mark Taylor Ace Radio Network CEO
Mark Taylor (not the cricketer – he’s used to that comment) is the CEO of the network, and General Manager of 3MP. He’s 9 years into the CEO role and 35 with ACE. He and Grant are best mates and some time sparring partners over which of their two Melbourne stations plays the better music.
Mark also has an on-air show, on weekend afternoons, on 3MP.
The GM and CEO.
For Grant, Mark, BBQ Bob, Scott, the regional stations and staff, and owners Rowly and Judy Paterson, they are all allowed to be unique, grow and expand their interests and yet also be part of a genuine family business.
Doesn’t that sound like a great place to work?
I asked Grant why he didn’t send me a media release to celebrate ACE and the survey results this week?
He said:
“It’s about the best use of our time. We celebrated internally and of course we become irrelevant when we stop talking about it. But we are more dedicated to treating every listener as if they’re worth it. We respond to every person that reaches out to us, on the phone, via email or on our socials.
Our focus is on the audience and hugging them to us.”
After a relationship was built with LiSTNR all ACE radio stations became available to stream and on digital channels at the start of this financial year. Now it’s even easier to listen.
These formerly ‘daggy’ classic hits / easy listening AM metro stations are seeing a revival of Kate Bush like proportions.
They’ve progressed from swimming in the shallow end, to running up the hill, and perhaps someday soon, particularly in Brisbane, reaching the summit.
Jen Seyderhelm is a writer, editor and podcaster for Radioinfo.