There’s a lot to love about old school hits with most states surveyed in GfK Survey 4, 2023 having an 80s or 90s throwback DAB+ stations top of the ratings.
Sydney
KIIS 90s retained top spot (153K listeners 10+, down 10) with Smooth Relax and CADA close behind (Smooth down 2, CADA up 18). CADA will be very happy with their results with Kian & Yaz with Avneesha on top in breakfast (68, up 18). For other states and territories CADA isn’t resonating but in Sydney it’s working.
Other stations up over 100K listeners were iHeartAustralia (125), Coles Radio (116) and ABC Sport, up 19 to 111. Sport wasn’t up generally in other states with the same station in Brisbane seeing a big drop from last ratings.
Melbourne
Melbourne’s affection for Nova’s smooth brand continued with Smooth Relax the leader (steady, up 1 to 134K listeners 10+). Others in a similar vein over 100K listeners were Gold 80s (up 6 to 118), KIIS 90s (steady at 102) and SCA’s Oldskool 90s Hits up 29,000 listeners, nearly cracking 100K.
TikTok Trending was down 27 to 85, after a great Survey 3, also continuing to fall was MMM Tradie Radio, down 18 to just 23.
Breakfast was evenly spread among R&B Fridays, Gold 80s Dance Hits, Smooth Relax and TikTok Trending.
Brisbane
Both Brisbane and Adelaide were the only states with small DAB+ growth, both up 3. Brisbane has Nova on top in the radio and DAB+ with Nova 90s up 6 to a 73,000 audience 10+. Next was R&B Fridays (steady, down 1 to 61) and Smooth FM Brisbane (also slightly down to 59).
iHeartAustralia entered with a very healthy 30 first survey, ABC Sport was surprisingly down 15 to 27, especially mid AFL and NRL season.
Nova 90s and Smooth FM Brisbane were best in breakfast.
Adelaide
Adelaide DAB+ listening was also slightly up and listening was fairly evenly spread with Smooth FM Adelaide on top (down 6 to 39K all audiences 10+), and NOVA Throwbacks and Mix 90s close behind. Smooth was also the leader in for digital breakfast (13K), NOVA, Mix and Coles Radio all close behind with 10K.
Perth
Smooth FM Perth via DAB+ reached 100K listeners this survey (up 2) with digital listening down around 10K audience 10+. Oldskool 90s Hits was next and continued healthy results across the nation, up 4 to 64.
Smooth had 42K listeners on breakfast, more than double anyone else.