ABC Radio Melbourne suffered a huge drop in the first ratings survey of the year, shedding 2.7 ratings points across the week, and enduring a massive 4.2-point drop in the breakfast shift (Sammy J) and 4.4 points in mornings (Virginia Trioli).
The result is further proof, as if it were needed, that Melbourne radio listeners tend to treat the ABC as something of a foul-weather friend: when things are tough, that’s where they go, but for summer-time easy listening they flick the dial elsewhere.
Sammy J was a big mover in the first radio survey of the year, but in the wrong direction.Credit:Joe Armao
Talk radio rival 3AW (owned by Nine, which publishes this masthead) also dropped, but by a smaller 0.7 points. It remains the most-listened to station in the city with a commanding 15.9 per cent share across seven days, rising to 16.5 per cent on weekdays (down from 17.1 per cent on last year’s final survey result).
The big winners in this survey, which covered the period from January 16 to February 26 and so largely missed the unfolding drama of floods and war, were the music-led FM stations Fox, Gold and Nova.
In a welcome spot of bright news for the ABC, even Triple J enjoyed a lift, increasing its seven-day share of the listening audience from 4.5 to 6.3 per cent. The station’s enormously popular Hottest 100 countdown, and the mammoth coverage of its winning track, a cover of Tame Impala’s Elephant, fell within the survey period.
Was this perhaps a Wiggles-led recovery for the youth broadcaster, as pop’s premium songsmiths, Nostalgia and Irony, pulled out all the stops?
Across the board, the total radio audience remained more or less static, with an average 533,000 listeners tuning in at any time, down just 3000 on the last survey. But the shift in what they were listening to was quite stark.
ABC’s Monday to Friday breakfast show shed 30,000 listeners on average, down from 106,000 to 76,000, a survey-to-survey decline of 28 per cent. Mornings dropped from 113,000 to just 71,000, a decline of a staggering 37 per cent.
Neil Mitchell’s mornings show on 3AW also dropped, by 7 per cent, to an average 142,000 listeners – precisely double the audience for Virginia Trioli’s show.
(NB: the ratings survey produces audience figures corresponding to time slots rather than programs, so the correlation to individual programs is indicative rather than exact.)
Gold FM’s Craig Huggins has been with the same station since 1991, when it was called KZFM.Credit:Gold FM
The biggest lift was enjoyed by Craig “Huggy” Huggins, one of radio’s quiet achievers (if a person who talks for a living can be considered quiet, that is).
The 31-year Gold-FM veteran (he joined in 1991 when it was still called KZ FM) saw his morning show audience lift by 15,000 on average (to 107,000) for a 2.5-point boost to a 13.3 per cent share of the market.
Someone give that man a hug.
Email the author at [email protected], or follow him on Facebook at karlquinnjournalist and on Twitter @karlkwin
Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.
Most Viewed in Culture
From our partners
Source: Read Full Article