Comment from Peter Saxon.
By this time next year Dave Cameron will have clocked up more than 30 years at SCA. Starting out as a jock on FOX in Feb 1993 he has quietly crept up the network totem pole taking up ever more senior roles in each of the metro markets as, one by one, his superiors vacated the top positions – the totem pole having become much greasier in recent years.
Finally, in the summer of 2020, just before COVID-19 sailed in on the Ruby Princess, Dave Cameron was presented a key to the C-Suite to be made Chief Content Officer.
On one level, he took the reins at time of enormous growth possibilities for audio – a medium that a radio business such as SCA, is in a unique position to exploit – and the company has done just that with the development of new streams of audio and podcasting through its LiSTNR platform.
On another level, he inherited a once all-conquering network of radio stations yet to fully recover from its heyday before the defection of Kyle and Jackie O to KIIS and the controversy surrounding the tragic suicide of a Jacintha Saldanha, the London nurse who fell for a prank call from the HOT30 Countdown hosts at 2DayFM and unwittingly patched it through to the (now) Princess of Wales’s room.
Cameron had his work cut out for him, given the parlous state of some of the radio properties he was handed. Some had had their brands changed and changed back again. Others, like 2DayFM had more changes of talent than Australian Prime Ministers over a similar period.
To make matters worse, soon after he was given the job, COVID severely disrupted listening habits, changed normal commuter patterns while driving FM music listeners towards AM news/talk stations.
Despite all that, Dave Cameron has emerged in Survey 2, 2023 with a slate of results far better than those over which he presided in the corresponding survey of 2020, three years ago.
Of SCA’s 10 stations in the major metro markets, all but one has gone up or stayed steady in either share or rank or both.
On top of all that, last Tuesday, SCA reached its highest national audience cume result ever at 6.133 million weekly radio listeners.
|
Share | Rank Survey 2, 2020 |
Share | Rank Survey 2, 2023 |
|
| Syd 104.1 2DayFM | 5.1 | 8 | 5.8 | 7 |
| Syd 104.9 Triple M | 5.4 | 7 | 6.1 | 6 |
| Mel 101.9 FOX FM | 8.1 | 5 | 9.3 | 4 |
| Mel 105.1 Triple M | 5.0 | 9 | 6.1 | 8 |
| Bris B105 | 10.5 | 1 | 12.7 | 1 |
| Bris. 104.5 Triple M | 9.9 | 4 | 9.5 | 4 |
| Adel HIT107 | 8.1 |8 | 8.4 | 7 |
| Adel SAFM/5MMM | 9.6 | 5 | 12.0 | 1 |
| Per. MIX94.5 | 12.6 | 1 | 13.1 | 2 |
| Per HIT / 92.9 Triple M | 10.1 | 4 | 6.1 | 5 |
On a day that SCA reached our highest national audience cume result ever at 6.133 million weekly radio listeners, we are absolutely thrilled to have also achieved the outright No.1 stations in Brisbane with B105 and Adelaide with Triple M for the first time ever, both driven by record results from their respective breakfast shows Stav, Abby and Matt and Roo, Ditts and Loz.
In addition, today is a great result from SAFM’s new Breakfast show Bec and Soda, which now gives SCA the title of the No.1 and 2 FM Breakfast shows in Adelaide.
The Fox continues to be the most listened to station in Melbourne with just under 1.3 million weekly listeners powered by Fifi, Fev and Nickincreasing again at Breakfast.
In Sydney, both 2DayFM and Triple M have delivered the city’s biggest ratings increases, with Hughesy, Ed and Erin recording their best ever result for Breakfast, 2DayFM overall up again to 5.8%, and some fantastic momentum for Triple M’s brand new Breakfast show Mick and MG in the Morning, which has increased again to power Triple M Sydney to a 6.1% share.
Perth’s Mix94.5 has cemented its position as the No. 2 station in the market with strong increases today, and Carrie and Tommy on Hit national Drive have delivered outstanding results across the country with strong increases in Sydney, Brisbane and Perth and a total audience cume increase of 123,000. And Triple M also delivered outstanding Drive results with The Marty Sheargold Show winning men nationally 3-4pm and The Rush Hour shows nationally 4-6pm also claimed No. 1 with men 25-54.
Overall, today’s radio survey results have delivered some spectacular record wins for SCA’s Hit and Triple M networks, on top of continuing to dominate the critical 25-54 All People demographic nationally.
Coupled with LiSTNR’s Australian Podcast Ranker results yesterday returning Hamish & Andy to No.1, and LiSTNR again as the No.1 sales representation network reaching a new record of more than 8 million listeners, SCA continues to drive the Australian live and on-demand audio market as the country’s biggest audio content creator.