Monday January 20, 2025 is the first day of the GfK Radio 360 Survey 1 radio ratings period. That is usually when all the capital city radio talent returns, if they haven’t already. During a survey period only births, deaths, illnesses and emergencies mean that you would take a normally rostered day off. This year though, NOVA Entertainment is breaking the mould starting one week later than everyone else. I will add their metro talent, including Nova 100‘s Jase & Lauren, worked an additional week than everyone else last year, wrapping up on December 20.
There are pros and cons to this move. Bedding in a new show early gives a new show time to find its footing, as we’ve seen with 2SM’s Chris Smith and Ron Wilson and Mark Levy on 2GB. Nova are doing this with it’s Brisbane 106.9 team with the new face of Nikki Osborne joining Ash Bradnam and David ‘Luttsy’ Lutteral on January 20.
For the other networks this week we’ve seen enticement to listen with KIIS and Gold promoting $100K giveaways:
And a countdown for SCA’s The Fox FM:
Nine Radio just has a couple of lines on its respective websites:
It’s all been, so far, relatively low key.
The Survey 1 rating period is six weeks long and is the only one to stand alone in the year without an overlap. With all the other Nova metro breakfast shows, as well as Chrissie Swan, Ricki-Lee, Tim & Joel and Ben, Liam & Belle all returning on Tuesday January 28, they are six days short of everyone else. Come Survey 1, Thursday March 27, if this makes a difference, it certainly won’t happen again. But, if Jase and Lauren retain No 1 FM breakfast in Melbourne for example, then perhaps some of the other networks too might embrace some creativity and flexibility around their star’s schedules.
Jen Seyderhelm is a writer, editor and podcaster for Radioinfo. Email: [email protected]