Tom Malone has a 10 year plan of regeneration of the Nine Radio network, so he is not too worried about whatever results come in when the first radio ratings since COVID are released this month.
He told the Mi3 podcast this week that advertisers need to follow the money trail to higher-spending 35-65 year olds and refocus away from the 25-54 demographics, and says Nine Radio’s stations will prove the value of those demographics.
“This is a 10-year plan. There will be a period of unsettlement, no doubt, as people adjust. The aim is to retain most of the existing audience but also grow the audience. Share will bounce around a little bit – but that’s what happens with share.”
Speaking about the changes in breakfast shifts on 2GB (Jones/Fordham) and 3AW (Burns/Howcroft), Malone told Mi3:
“We’re seeing the end of a long generation of very successful broadcasters. But what that means is the audience has grown older with them as well, and we’ve ceded ground to a lot of the music stations – who are really doing talk shows in breakfast so we needed to re-establish ourselves, because what we do better than anyone is local, relevant, contextual content…
“There have [also] been significant changes across the network: Moving Dee Dee Dunleavy into afternoons in Melbourne. We’ve got [3AW] nights back with Denis Walter in Melbourne. In Sydney, the only show that’s the same is Ray Hadley in the mornings, we’ve got new breakfast, afternoon, drive, sport, money, nights. So for an industry that doesn’t like change, it’s been significant.”
Nine has also launched new breakfast and drive shows in Brisbane.
Today Nine Radio also announced a new buying system and another ‘superbrand’ focussed on Money.
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