102.9 Triple M is still the leader in Newcastle in GfK Survey 2, although down overall. Tanya and Steve (pictured) were steady on breakfast with a quarter of the 10+ audience. SCA‘s other station in the region Hit 106.9 is gaining ground in second (+1.9 to 15.2), as is triple j and the Super Radio Network‘s 105.3 NEWFM.
There are a few other details of note. Firstly this survey was conducted over five separate time periods, which did not include the Olympics. As a result ABC Newcastle and 2HD saw losses on breakfast for the ABC’s Jenny Marchant and Dan Cox (-3.5 to 6.5) and John Laws on 2HD mornings (- 3.7 to 6.3). Triple M was down much the same in mornings too.
triple j picked up some of those morning listeners and had a good overall survey, up 1.1 to 11.1 for all audiences 10+. Their biggest growth was in audiences aged 40-54, which will not be what they were expecting. On the other side of the coin Triple M nearly doubled its listeners 18-24 (+10.4 to 23.2).
A note down the bottom says listening figures included streaming which means 2HD and NEWFM were unable to be included. If or when this option becomes available for listeners, especially for NEWFM, the race might tighten significantly at the top.
Cumulative listening was mostly steady with the largest loss for Triple M and gain for Hit.
A final acknowledgement for ABC Classic. While a 2.7 audience is small by comparison, the 0.9 increase is significant and seems to be consistently repeated in almost all surveys metro, provincial and regional that I’ve looked at this year. Across Australia they are gaining more and more listeners especially in over 40s and, for Newcastle, evenings, weekends and breakfast where Megan Burslem‘s numbers doubled.
