As networks go, the best result went to the audaciously named Macquarie Media Network with 100% of their stations posting gains. Sydney’s dominator 2GB went up 1.2 while its stable mate 2CH was, well, stable with a modest 0.1 rise. But up is up and CEO Rusell Tate along with major share holders John Singleton and Alan Jones can’t be anything but thrilled with the results as they eye Melbourne as a real networking opportunity. But for those with somewhat larger networks the blessings were more mixed.

dmg has much to celebrate with the performance of their Nova network. Every station gained share in all five metro markets. But despite a 0.3 gain for vega 91.5 in Melbourne to reach a 4.3 share, that two station network remains a basket case with the Sydney end dropping 0.9 to just 3.7 now that the station has eschewed personalities for more music.

By counting the ups against the downs across all the stations in the dmg network, including 5AA which had a negligible 0.1 drop, the net gain is 5.0 – which should please new partner Lachlan Murdoch.

Note: We by no means suggest that adding the gains against the losses to arrive at a kind of ASX result is a scientific way of measuring Radio network performance. After all a small gain in Melbourne and Sydney can offset a larger loss in Adelaide or Perth due to relative market size. We are merely using this simple method as a rough guide to network trends.

Austereo fared relatively well through it’s Today stream posting a strong gain from flagship 2Day FM and putting to rest any fear that the Sandilands gaffe would have a lasting effect. Their other eastern seaboard stations Fox and B105 remained steady with a 0.1 gain offset by a 0.1 drop between them. But any planned party is soured by a bothersome 2.5 drop suffered by Mix 94.5, the hitherto unassailable Perth outpost along with a 0.8 fall by the spiritual birth mother of Austereo, SAFM.

All up as a network, Today retreated 2.0 share points – albeit going up in more valuable markets than those where it went down.

Over at Triple M things are kind of interesting. In both Sydney and Melbourne, Triple M stayed dead steady. Oddly, this was despite Sydney’s Grill Team breakfast dropping 0.5% to a lowly 2.2. In Melbourne, the opposite occurred, Eddie McGuire’s Hot Breakfast surged 0.7 to 4.3, yet failed to lift the station overall.

While the M’s in Brisbane lost 1.0, its sister in Perth gained 0.9 and Triple M Adelaide increased by a mere 0.1, making the overall loss/gain for the network 0.0.

Among the eight ARN stations, the prize for the biggest gain went to 4KQ, up 1.4. And the biggest loss went to Adelaide’s Mix 102.3, down 1.1. The other gains and losses were marginal across the network. The overall loss gain for the whole network is +0.4.

Things over at Fairfax are looking a little more grim. The only stations to gain were their easy music stations MAGIC in Melbourne and 4BH in Brisbane. Between them they managed to lift the network’s share by 1.4 but Fairfax’s lone FMer, Perth’s 96FM dropped 0.5 to bring the overall gain back to 0.9.

From here on its all bad news for Fairfax with each of their talk stations falling significantly. Moreover, the biggest falls were in the biggest markets. The good news is that 3AW is still a clear number one in Melbourne, but the bad news is that 2UE in Sydney has fallen to a 6.7 share overall without the resources to make any sort of dent in main rival 2GB’s audience.

While the Fairfax talk stations by themselves dropped 3.8, the entire networked fell only 2.9 after taking into account the gains made by MAGIC and 4BH.

Leaving aside their more esoteric stations, The ABC’s AM metro network had gains in Sydney and Perth and losses in the other markets to post an overall loss of 1.4. Meanwhile Aunty’s FM youth network, triple j, bled audience in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to lose 3.5 overall.

All up, the ABC is the biggest loser among the networks with a 4.9 decline in share.