Radio Ratings Survey 4 wrap-up

22 June 2010

The battle for Brisbane hots up. Classic Rock crawls back - in Sydney at least. Nova’s Merrick, Dools & Ricki-Lee breakfast show fails to fire. It’s all in Book 4 of the Nielsen Business Radio Ratings Survey that was released today. Check out our radio wrap-up which covers survey period over April, May and the start of June.

Sydney
In its first full survey as Classic Rock (having changed from Vega halfway through last survey), the station has started on the road to recovery, rising 1.0 to 4.5 in overall share. It rose the same in the 40-54 demo and a 0.3 in 25-39s in addition to a bizarre 6.3 boost with 10-17s to 10.0.

2DAYFM fell 0.5 to 9.7 in overall share and saw it huge leads of the past in 10-17s and 18-24s slide notably, falling 4.3 (to 22.9) and 4.2 (to 17.6) respectively. The Kyle and Jackie O Show remained top FM brekkie, but did fall 1.3 to 10.2.

Nova969 stole many of those ears, gaining 3.7 in 10-17s (to 17.3) and 2.0 in 18-24s (to 18.4), overtaking 2DayFM in the latter demo. But they did drop in 25-39s (down 1.5 to 9.6) and 40-54s (down 2.1 to 3.9). Overall Nova dropped 0.4 share and most tellingly, the Merrick, Dools and Ricki-Lee brekkie show dropped 1.2 to 6.3 overall.

Triple M and its breakfast show The Grill Team remained steady at 5.3 and 4.9 respectively. It dropped 1.6 in 18-24s (to 4.3) and 0.5 in 40-54s (to 6.2) but remained steady in 25-39 (up 0.2), securing second place in that demo.

On the AM dial, market leader 2GB still leads with 14.7 overall (dropping 0.9), led by Alan Jones on breakfast with 17.2 overall. 2UE jumped to 6.1 overall (rising 1.2) overall while ABC702 remained steady at 11.5. Triple J improved slightly to 4.7 overall (up 0.2) with brekkie holding steady at 3.2.

Melbourne
Classic Rock’s Sydney luck didn’t extend to Melbourne – the rebranded station remained in the low-threes (dropping 0.1 to 3.3) and its brekkie slot fell to a depressing 2.3.

FOXFM maintained its dominance of the FM dial with 13.2 overall (down 0.3). Interestingly, Gold (holding steady at 7.2) overtook Nova100 (which dropped 0.7) and continues to beat Triple M (which jumped 0.8 to 6.0) and MIX101.1 (up 0.4 to 5.3). Triple M’s Eddie McGuire’s Hot Breakfast regained ground it lost in Survey 3 slip to earn 5.6 (up 0.8).

Talk AM station 3AW lead overall share with 14.8, with its breakfast show bumping another 0.9 to 19.4. ABC774 overall stayed the same (dropping just 0.2 to 12.9), but did drop 1.8 in its 40-54s, while Melbourne’s newest AM station MTR 1377 debuted with a dismal 1.7 overall share. Triple J lost what it gained last survey, dropping 1.2 to 3.9 share.

Brisbane
Brissie remains the most exciting market to watch with last survey’s three-way tussle becoming a four-way battle this survey with a strong performance from ARN’s 97.3FM.

With a 0.2 rise to 12.3 share overall, B105 reclaimed the overall lead from sister station Triple M, who dropped 1.4 overall to 10.9 to fall back into fourth place, beaten by 97.3FM (second with 11.7, up 0.5) and Nova106.9 (third, although it did drop 0.6 to 11.1). Interestingly the battle continued across the day with 97.3FM beating the previously-invincible Triple M across the workday after the rock station shed 3.2 over mornings and 3.3 across afternoons.

B105 fortified its lead in breakfast, rising 0.4 to 12.2 while Nova’s brekkie show slid 0.7 to 10.7, just behind Triple M (10.8) and 97.3FM (at 10.1).

Adelaide
DMG AM talk station 5AA increased its hold as overall leader (jumping 0.8 to 14.7), although the battle for FM’s top spot is proving far more interesting with MIX102.3 (up just 0.2 to 13.1) narrowly outrunning SAFM (up 0.6 to 12.7). ABC891 slots in at fourth, holding steady on 11.9, and then it’s Triple M sliding to 9.1 with a 0.5 drop, and Nova91.9, which continues to tumble, dropping 0.8 to 7.9 (it was sitting at 10.3 in Survey 2.)

Perth
Frontrunner MIX94.5 maintains its market lead with 16.0 overall. It jumped 1.2 in 10-17s and 1.5 in 18-24s, but dropped 2.7 in 25-39s (losing the demo to sister station 929) and a hefty 4.6 across 40-54s.

On the AM side, ABC720 jumped 0.8 to a healthy 11.8 overall share. 92.9 rose a little to 11.6 overall (up 0.2) as did Nova93.7 with 9.7 (up 0.1). 96FM slots inbetween (just), dropping 0.8 to 9.9.

Survey Period: Sun Mar 28 - Sat May 1 and Sun May 9 - Sat Jun 12, 2010 Nielsen Business Radio Survey 4, 2010, Share Movement by demographic P10+, Metropolitan Markets; Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Sun Mar 28 - Sat May 1 and Sun May 9 - Sat Jun 12, 2010