If Kyle Chalmers is Australia’s hero from the 2016 Rio Olympics, Smooth 95.3 is the hero of survey five.
Outright number one Commercial FM station in Sydney and second overall, yes ahead of the ABC.
Smooth had a 9.6 share All People 10+ with the nearest FM station KIIS 1065 with an 8% share.
“One of the great surveys of all time for many a radio station,” says Nova Entertainment’s Paul Jackson.
“To be that far ahead of the marketplace for a winning number is off the scale.
“I don’t think many people would have predicted that.”
Smooth was also outright number one in drive in Sydney.
“We are offering something different and people obviously love it,” says Paul.
Smooth had a strong result in Melbourne too. Therefore, given those results in a talkback market, the question has to be asked how would Smooth go in music dominated cities like Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane?
“I think you just have to look at Sydney and Melbourne to answer that. There could well be a huge gap there,” says Paul.
“It would probably be the number one radio station, but that’s not to be at this stage.”
ARN’s Duncan Campbell was happy with the result for KIIS in Sydney, “…but I’d just like WSFM to be stronger.”
“For Smooth it’s been their year and we are counter-programming as effectively as we can and we will continue to do that,” he says.
“Our goal is the have the number 1 and number 2 FM stations in Sydney.”
The good news for ARN from Survey Five was Gold FM in Melbourne moving into equal first alongside FOX with an 8.6% share.
“It’s a very good result,” says Duncan.
“Gold’s probably the quiet achiever for us, it’s a very strong station we just have to work on KIIS in Melbourne.”
Despite a small gain of 0.2 overall and a big rise in Breakfast (1.1) the station remains last among the commercial FM stations in that market and 8th overall.
“KIIS still remain the key focus for us,” says Duncan.
FOX has been brought back to the pack to share #1 FM with GOLD, dropping 1.1.
“Obviously, I would like it if we weren’t equal,” says SCA’s Gemma Fordham. “But we are still number one and I’ll take it. The cume number is still massive for FOX, so it’s still a strong survey given results for the last few have been astronomical,” she says.
The good news for SCA was in Sydney with 104.1 2DayFM’s Rove and Sam moving out of the 3’s, to a 4.1% share.
“The Rove and Sam result today I am very pleased with”, says Gemma.
“I say that every time we do these (surveys) it’s about consistent growth for these guys and they have had five surveys in a row where they have done that.”
Triple M were down slightly in Sydney and Melbourne but still smashing the demo which is what Triple M wants.
“Correct”, says Triple M’s Mike “Fitzy” Fitzgerald.
“As I always say we just play for men and we are the number one Commercial FM station for men, with the Grill Team rising from fifth to third, so a really strong rise there.
As long as the breakfast show is playing between a 6.5 and a 7.5 they are in good in shape.”
Triple M was slightly down in Melbourne but again Fitzy is happy.
“To use a footy analogy we just want to win a flag we just don’t care by how many goals.”
In Adelaide it was a good result for Triple M in Drive.
“Yeah those boys bounce around a little bit from time to time but they have a wonderful chemistry”, says Fitzy.
“Plus Matty (Matt O’Reilly) identified a couple of things that were missing from the show a couple of surveys ago, like music, so once we got the balance right they’ve come back up again.”
More good news with SCA in Adelaide with Hit 107 gaining some ground.
“The whole product there is sounding a lot stronger than it has in awhile,” says Gemma.
The Hit stream remained steady in Brisbane and Perth with but Brisbane recorded the highest cume they have had in over three years, “…the team are pretty stoked about that”, she says.
And Duncan Campbell is pretty stoked with the result for ARN in Adelaide.
“Thanks to the new CD down there, Sue Carter along with our consultants we are back to number one with Mix,” he says.
“It’s a very quick turnaround in Adelaide.”
The station climbing by 1.9 to take a firm grip of #1 – 3.2 ahead of second placed FIVEaa.
Nova dropped in share in both Perth and Adelaide.
“We have had some of our best surveys of all time in Adelaide this year and not every single one will deliver a dizzying high but there are still some really good numbers with the number 1 cume in breakfast.
“We have the highest FM cume in breakfast and we’ve still got over a 10 share…,” says Paul.
“I still call that a very good days’ work.”
Raw figures here, Analysis here.