Comment from Peter Saxon.
Back in 2018, three surveys into GOLD104.3’s all-in bet on Christian O’Connell, things weren’t going well. In his first survey, the English import was up by +0.7 in Breakfast but the next two were down by -1.3 and then a further -0.7.
With, his reputation on the line (together with O’Connell’s), ARN Content Supremo, Duncan Campbell, seemed sanguine about the results. He told radioinfo, “GOLD having very strong cumes means we don’t have a systemic issue with the radio station. It’s a strong station and people are listening to it. We just have to create a greater stickiness so we can convert that cume into greater share.” Which is pretty much what happened.
Much of the cumulative audience that was sampling GOLD’s new Breakfast show, eventually ‘stuck’, spending more time listening and, thereby, contributing to share. The latest GFK Survey, 2, 2022, the Christian O’Connell Breakfast Show posted a 10.3 share to place it in second spot behind Ross Stevenson and Russel Howcroft on 3AW.
Meanwhile, in Sydney at the top rating station, 2GB, where, historically, they’d never dignify cumes as any sort of proper measurement, Nine Radio’s content supremo Greg Byrnes has been waxing lyrical of late about the number of the slippery little suckers that have attached themselves to the network’s ratings.
Unperturbed with the modest results for 4BC Brisbane and 6PR in Perth (both stations lost ground in audience share, landing on an identical 6.9 share in their respective markets) Byrnes plays the cume card. “Our cume remains impressive,” he insists, “In Perth our cume is still up about 200,000, so that’s well ahead of our five-year average over there. Certainly, TSL, we can probably do some more work on.”
On the other hand, Ben Fordham had a blinder on 2GB Breakfast with an 18.9 share. But what impresses Byrnes more is the cume figure of 519,000, between 5:30 – 9.00 am (Mon-Fri) “That’s the best Survey 2 on record cume-wise. I don’t need to explain to you how impressive that is.”
More like frightening, actually. If those younger demographics that are sampling Fordham’s show decide to stick around, he could end up with an audience share anchored in the 20’s.
3AW’s Breakfast cume is even more impressive at 553,000 for the same time period but not as impressive as for the nation’s number one show in Australia, cume-wise, Kyle and Jackie O with 630,000 listeners tuning in each week. However, Ross & Russel commands an 18.9 share to K&J’s 11.3.
Peter Saxon
Main Pic: Christian O'Connell and Duncan Campbell - supplied.