Ratings results for the revised LaTrobe Valley and East Gippsland regions have been released. The results are good news for local commercial stations and give a new picture of listening habits in the regions since the introduction of additional FM licences recently.
In East Gippsland the market leader was Ace Network’s 3TR FM on 29.7% (down 7.4 on last survey). The station recently moved to its new FM frequency, creating a new sister station, 3GV on the old AM frequency. 3GV scored 18.3% in its debut survey, just behind local ABC station 100.7 on 18.7% (up 1.0 on last survey).
3TR FM topped the breakfast timeslot (26.9%), followed by ABC 100.7 (24.5%). Local commercial stations had a cume of 73,500 listeners per week.
Other FM and Other AM stations in the area scored a total of 3.9%.
As parts of the regional can also receive Melbourne stations well, there is some cross-market listening measured in the survey. Well listened to Melbourne stations include ABC774 (6.4%, down 4.1), Magic 693 (4.0%, down 0.3), Triple J (3.8, down 5.6), Sport 927 (1.1%, down 0.5) and Gold FM (1.0%, down 0.3).
As a result of the new local stations, overall Melbourne market listening has decreased and local station listening has gone up. Most affected by this trend was Triple J.
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In the revised LaTrobe Valley region (now without the town of Moe) 3TR FM scored 30%, the same figure as in the previous survey. 3GV was 13.4% and local ABC 100.7 was on 10.4%. 3GG scored 7.0%, down 10.4 share points from last survey, and SEA FM debuted at 7.1%.
Breakfast was again won by 3TR FM (27.7%), which also dominated daytime and evening listening. A total cume of 30,700 listeners, 72% of the market, were tuned in to local commercial stations during each week.
Melbourne’s ABC 774 is the third most listened to station in the market at 10.6%, just ahead of local sister station ABC100.7. Other Melbourne stations of interest include Magic 693, which scored 6.3% (down 1.9 on last survey) and Fox FM on 1.4% (down 1.0) and Sport 927 on 1.6% (down 0.9).
Interestingly, Mix 101.1, which was 2% last survey, seems to have lost local listeners to the new stations, now scoring only 0.1%. Triple J also lost 5 share points to 4.5% now that the new local FM stations are offering a younger alternative.
These latest figures must be interpreted with the knowledge that RG Capital stations, SEA FM and 3GG were only on air for a few weeks before the survey period began, and that the ABA recently revised the region’s service areas, making direct comparisons with earlier results difficult.
RG Capital’s Group PD Rod Brice told radioinfo:”RG Capital is likely to survey our new service area some time in the future, once our new stations have been on air for a while and transmission issues have been addressed.”