Results for Newcastle survey 1 have been released, showing a significant fall for Austereo/RGCapital’s KO FM and an equally significant gain for Caralis Supernetwork’s 2HD.
Former top station KOFM dropped 5.1 share points to 20.7%, moving to equal first position with stablemate NX FM.
2HD moved into second place with a gain of 6.1 share points to 19.5%, followed by ABC1233 on 8.5% (down 0.7), then NewFM with 7.4% (up 0.1). Triple J dropped 1.3 share points to 5.4%, followed by ABC Classic FM, Radio National and NewsRadio.
The result was heartening news for General Manager George Liolio, who recently resigned and will leave later this month. He told radioinfo: “It is a great credit to the staff and the way they have recently united together under Kev Kellaway to achieve a great result.”
Liolio especially commended new breakfast announcer Cameron Williams and John Laws, who both had significant lifts in their timeslots. He also explained that the station recently added more music to the predominantly talk format, which Liolio says is another reason for the ratings success.
“I feel am leaving the station in good shape,” says Liolio, who is planning a holiday before announcing his future plans.
KO/NX FM Group PD Mike Byrne told radioinfo:
“Nobody ever complains when they go up in a book, but it must be noted
that KO FM has been solidly trending up since survey 2/2002 while 2HD
has been trending solidly down during the same period. Now in just one
survey, and despite no changes to either station’s format or line up and with absolutely no marketing from 2HD, all trends have been erased.
“Any observer of the craft will see through this result as an anomaly. For us it’s business as usual with both Austereo stations in Newcastle, we’ll continue to fine tune the product and maintain the strong marketing push for both NX FM and KO FM.”
A demographic analysis shows NXFM dominating 10-17 year olds with 58.9%. Triple J increased its share of the 10-17 demo by 4.9 share points and, surprisingly, 2HD also gained 5.7 share points in this demo.
18-24s was also dominated by NXFM (46.2%), with Triple J losing 9.4 share points in this demo and NewFM & KOFM both gaining some share of 18-24 year olds.
NXFM leads 25-39s with a share of 33.1%, followed by KOFM (24.1%) and NewFM & Triple J.
2HD’s major increase came from the over 40s, with the station lifting 40-54s by 8.2 share points and 55+ by 7.9 share points. KOFM still leads 40-54s with 32.5%, followed by 2HD on 17.9% and NXFM on 16.6%, while 2HD (37.8%) leads over 55s ahead of ABC1233 (16.2%) and KOFM (14.4%).
2HD had the biggest breakfast increase, up 7.8 share points, while KOFM’s David and Tanya dropped by a similar amount, narrowly holding on to the lead in that timeslot.
2HD’s John Laws jumped 6.9 share points in mornings, putting him ahead of KOFM in that shift. Afternoons and Drive were won by NXFM, ahead of KOFM and 2HD. NXFM won evenings with 25.9%, ahead of 2HD (20.2%) and ABC 1233 (15.2%).
Weekends was a close race, with the top three a point away from each other. KOFM scored 19.5% on weekends, followed by 2HD on 18.4% and NXFM on 17.8%.
NX FM has a cume of 163 000 weekly listeners, while KOFM’s cume is 143 000, 2HD’s is 101 000, NewFM’s cume is 91 000 and ABC1233 has a cume of 63 000 weekly listeners.
The survey, conducted by Nielsen Media Research for Commercial Radio Australia was in the field between January 18 and April 17 2004.
NX/KO General Manager Steve Smith told radioinfo:
“Observers of ratings would know that the listening habits of people to any radio station do not rise or fall as dramatically in a single survey as what the first survey of 2004 would indicate. We are confident that the product offered on both stations is as well-loved and as much listened to as it has been consistently for over many years.
Anomalies aside, Radio Newcastle’s KOFM and NXFM are still equal Number 1 stations, making them the most powerful radio combination in Newcastle.
KOFM’s Holiday a Day, and Your Favourite 500 Countdown, NXFM’s Pash Off, and the intriguing ‘NX Crew Says It’s You’ had both stations promotionally active in the survey period.
KOFM’s David and Tanya provide great fun at breakfast, and Steve, Kim and the NX Crew keep our listeners laughing and entertained with cheeky challenges, and the music on both stations is focussed on what our listeners tell us they want.
For full share figures click the Nielsen Ratings tab in the left margin.