Key points from the networks and each city.
For the full survey figures, click to see the charts here.
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The Networks
SCA
The good news for SCA is that in Sydney the 2Day ship seems to have steadied on a 4.0 share overall while their new breakfast show has crept up 0.3 to a 4.1 which suggest that they have stopped bleeding audience to the entity that they prefer to call “the previous talent” which has enjoyed a big gain, but seemingly not at the expense of 2Day.
Triple M also edged up in Sydney with their hard working Grill Team consolidating their unique male oriented position in that market.
Things were not so rosy in Melbourne where Fox took a -1.2 hit, reflected across the board except in breakfast where Fifi and Dave shed just 0.7.
More worrying perhaps is that 3Triple M went down for the second survey in a row and is now down to a 6.4 share with the Hot Breakfast on 7.4.
4MMM in Brisbane did no better, dropping 1.2 overall, the same as their Grill Team, much touted since the inclusion of Ed Kavalee.
On the other hand, B105 enjoyed a small uptick.
Adelaide, which continues to confound programmers all over the country, returned a relatively steady result for SCA with the Ms going up 0.5 while SAFM shed just 0.2 overall.
In Perth where every commercial FM station went down, the SCA properties, Mix 94.5 and 92.9 dropped 0.5 each, but Mix retained its number one spot.
Nova Entertainment
Another good result for smoothfm with Sydney’s 95.3 dropping a little while Melbourne’s 91.5 gained a little bringing both stations in, level pegging on a 6.7 share in each market. Symbolically, it couldn’t be better.
The Nova brand had a relatively steady survey, going up a bit in Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide and down a bit in Melbourne and Perth – the overall trend still pointing upwards.
The standout, though, is perhaps Brisbane where Ash, Kip and Lutsy put on 1.2 in their breakfast show to take out the number one spot. Although the station is number two behind 97.3 Mon-Sun, Nova 106.9 takes the lead Mon-Fri.
ARN
There’ll be plenty of kisses flowing to Kyle and Jackie today whose breakfast show has put on 1.6 leap into double figures to 10.9. Their performance was only eclipsed by KIIS FM’s Drive presenter, Tim Ross, who put on 1.8, helping the station to a 9.6 share overall.
With those figures, no one in management will be too glum about Jonesy and Amanda in the next studio slipping by 1.1 at WSFM – which shed 0.6 to come in at 7.5 overall.
In Melbourne, it’s happy days all around with both Mix and Gold picking up audience. In Gold’s case, it was only a modest rise from Brig and Lehmo in breakfast pumped up by biog gains in daytime and weekends that propelled the station to go up 1.0 overall to an 8.8 share.
At Mix 101.1 it was the opposite. A big gain in Breakfast with Chrissie and Jane but ordinary results for other shifts. Still, enough for the station to put on 0.4.
In Brisbane, both ARN stations lost ground although 97.3 manged to retain number one spot (just) ahead of s surging NOVA.
4KQ dropped by just 0.1 while maintaining a steady and respectable 8.0 share.
Adelaide was a ripper for ARN with Mix 102.3 powering ahead in first place with a 15.1 share, while Cruise1323 put on 0.8 to return an 8.5 share overall.
Talk: Fairfax and MRN and FIVEaa
It can’t be a good day at Fairfax headquarters. For as long as anyone can remember, 3AW has occupied a place comfortably atop the Melbourne radio ladder. Until today.
The bounce expected for AM stations since last survey, now that it’s footy season and parliament’s in full swing, failed to materialise for AW (All sport station SEN gained 0.6).
In fact, the once unassailable station slid another 0.6 to bring it down to an 11.3 share overall to finish second behind ABC774 on a 12.9.
Things were only slightly better at Sydney’s 2UE which at least had much less to lose and everything to gain. Yes, it too went down but not by much. More importantly their breakfast shift with John Stanley and Garry Linnell held steady on a 4.1 share which is above the station’s Mon-Fri figure of 3.4.
While strong performances in Weekends and Nights helped keep the station afloat Mon-Sun , the weekday day shifts must be of concern.
Better news out of Brisbane and Perth where 4BC and 6PR both enjoyed healthy gains.
In Adelaide, Nova Entertainment owned FIVEaa has gone up one position to be number two in the market despite shedding 0.7 share points. How can this be? Clue: ABC891 dropped more.
2GB: As expected, the old warhorse bounced back to post a 13.1 overall and a handsome 14.3 Mon-Fri with Alan Jones, Ray Hadley, Chris Smith, Ben Fordham et al enjoying gains across the board.
ABC
Local Radio
If you ignore the triumph in Melbourne, you could still say it was a good survey for the ABC. Steady in Sydney, up everywhere else except Adelaide where it gave up 1.7 in share to hand over second place to FIVEaa.
But no one in management will care, for this day in Melbourne 774 has defeated the mighty 3AW and taken the top spot for itself. If only it could sell advertising…
triple j
triple j also had a great survey with outstanding results in Perth whicj lifted by 1.6 to take a 12.8 share of the market placing it in a clear number two position behind Mix 94.5.
The j’s also enjoyed rises (albeit more modest) in Sydney and Adelaide but small drops in Melbourne and Brisbane.
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The Cities
Sydney
Market leader 2GB gained 0.5 share points to 13.1%, followed by KIIS, which moved into second place overall in the Sydney market. KIIS rose 1.2 share points, the bigest gain in this market, to score 9.6% overall, pushing ABC702 into third place. ABC702 slipped 0.1 to 9.5%.
KIIS took leadership in the 10-17 demographic, Nova won 18-39s, WSFM won 40-54s, 2GB won the over 55s.
2GB won breakfast ahead of ABC702 and a gaining KIIS, 2GB won all the other timeslots in the market.
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Melbourne
ABC774 pushed 3AW out of top spot in Melbourne and is now number one. ABC774 gained 1.1 share points overall, bringing it to 11.7%, ahead of 3AW, which dipped 0.6 to 11.3% and moved into second place.
Gold moved up to third spot with a rise of 1.0 share points to 8.8%, overtaking Fox, which lost 1.2 to 7.3% and dropped into fifth place behind Nova, which was down 0.4 to 7.5%.
Fox won the 10-17 demographic, Nova won 18-39s, Gold won 40-54s, 3AW won the over 55s.
3AW won breakfast and mornings, Gold won afternoons, ABC774’s Rafael Epstein (pictured) won drive, ABC774 also won evenings and weekends.
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Brisbane
Nova and 97.3 are jostling for position at the top of the Brisbane market. 97.3 retained top spot, despite a drop of 0.8 share points to 12.6%. Nova is closing in on the market leader, up 0.5 to 12.4%, in second place.
Third placed B105 gained 0.4 to 10.5%, followed by ABC612 in fourth place on 9.3%, a gain of 0.3 share points. Triple M suffered the biggest fall of the survey, down 1.2 share points to 8.2%, in equal fifth place with Triple J, which also fell 1.2 share points. 4BC gained 0.8 to 6.7% overall.
B105 won the 10-24 demographics, Nova won 25-39s, 97.3 won 40-54s, 4KQ won 45-54s and ABC612 won the over 65s.
Nova won breakfast ahead of ABC612, 97.3 won mornings and afternoons, Nova won drive, ABC612 won evenings and 97.3 won weekends.
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Adelaide
Mix 102.3 galloped ahead of other stations in Adelaide with a gain of 1.7 share points moving the station into number one position with 15.1%. Second placed 5AA slipped 0.7 to 12.3%. Previous market leader ABC891 lost 1.7 to score 12.0%, in equal third place with Nova, which gained 0.4 share points.
Nova won the 10-39 demographics, Mix won 40-54s, ABC891 won 55-64s and 5AA won the over 65s.
ABC891 won breakfast ahead of Mix102.3. Mix won mornings and afternoons, Nova won drive, ABC891 won evenings and Mix won weekends.
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Perth
SCA’s Mix 94.5 retained its lead in Perth, despite a drop of 0.5 to 14.4% overall. Triple J moved up strongly with a gain of 1.1 to 12.8%, putting the ABC’s national youth network back in a strong position in this market in second place.
Third placed Nova dipped 0.4 to 11.6%, followed by ABC720 on 11.1%, up 0.4 share points. In a volatlie market, 96fm lost 1.2 share points to 10.4%. 92.9 lost 0.5 to 7.9% while 6PR gained 1.6 to 7.6%.
Nova won the 10-17 demographic, triple j won 18-39s, Mix won 40-64s, and ABC720 won the over 65s.
ABC720 won breakfast ahead of Mix. Mornings and afternoons were won by Mix. Triple J won drive, ABC720 won evenings and Mix won weekends.
Well “Olympus Has Fallen”! No real surprise to those who are keen and informed students of surveys and programming. 3AW has been on the slide for 2 years and everyone has been in denial about it. Funny that would be about the same time a new FRN head honcho came in.
The “wise man from the south” (that what be the self-professed Group Content Director) now has something he can claim as his very own. No he is NOT the man that took 3AW to number 1, he is the man who took it FROM number 1. FRN’s current Management group have a fantastic track record of success: taking 3AW from No.1, taking 6PR to last in the ratings, taking 4BH (MAGIC 882) and 4BC to last and second last in the ratings respectively and to top it off they have taken 2UE nowhere during their current reign! Facts clearly indicate that they have absolutely no track record of success whatsoever. There has been no MAGIC with FRN’s ratings. Programming has clearly failed but that is not a worry; in steps a new National Sales Director to the rescue! He has completed a re-invigoration of the national sales leadership team and they are so excited. Must be funny stuff in the Corporate water to get so excited when there are no significant ratings and you are so far behind on budgets, down on last year and previous years significantly and losing market share. Can’t see the happiness in that, maybe if one was delusional they could be. Seems to be a necessary trait these days to be employed by FRN along with the ability to blow wind up each other’s back sides. Ah yes, the masters of spin.
Must give credit where credit is due though. The ability to convince a Board that all is great when Ratings, Revenue and Profit are all going backwards requires real talent and clearly a Board with members that are putting way too much faith in certain individuals.
Isn’t it time that an intelligent Fairfax board member (assuming that there is one) asked some serious questions about the operation of FRN? Just ask someone to prepare the trends for the last 5 years and in particular the last 2 for Revenue, Ratings and Profit for individual stations and Group total that will surely tell the story. Another good indicator to look at would also be staff churn as these stats just do not look good. Where is best practice at Fairfax haven’t they ever heard of Exit Interviews or are they afraid of the truth?
Clearly the blame game will commence soon. You can hear it now we cannot achieve the Revenue budgets because we don’t have good ratings and we don’t have ratings in the right demos. This begs the question who will get the blame when everyone goes into self-preservation mode? Will the axe fall on the Group Content Director for failure to deliver on ratings or will this present an opportunity to axe the National Sales Director who has also not delivered any significant revenue increases only decreases since his appointment?
The other alternative is that the FRN boss might “man up” and accept responsibility as this demise has all occurred under his watch. Surely he must have sleepless nights continually failing to deliver except for a brief moment in the sun when he got lucky via the strong performance of 2 out of his 7 stations. The numbers do not stack up so maybe he should walk now before he gets clean bowled.
One would also suggest that Fairfax do not have their stations valued now as if you base it on the current earnings ratio they would be lucky to get $100m? Fairfax should have considered other options, the shareholders would be so disappointed in the management of their assets.
Hello anonymous 'Mike',
What a crock of nonsense. 'Olympus has fallen'? Hardly. For anyone prepared to have an unbiased look at the results it is obvious 3AW remains a mighty force with the Melbourne audience. As 3AW GM Shane Healy said yesterday "We do like to be No. 1 overall though; we don't take defeat too happily. In my 12 years here, this is only the third time we've been pipped in more than 100 surveys. I say well done to the ABC but I hope to resume the mantle in survey three and I expect we will."
The new line ups at FRN stations 2UE, 4BC and 6PR have all delivered growth this year and that is just the beginning. FRN music stations 96fm, Magic 1278 in Melbourne and Magic 882 in Brisbane are in great shape and getting better by the day. That could not be said in early 2012 when only one station (3AW) could claim #1. FRN teams and stations across the country are backing themselves and fighting hard.
So Mike - while attempting a view outside your own spleen seems to be challenging can I just suggest you ‘man up’ and give it a roaring try.
Best regards,
'Adam'.