It’s the morning after the day before, when the survey the industry (and non-industry folks) had been bracing for finally landed.
All eyes were on ARN’s performance in Survey 2, the first book to show the early audience reactions to the sudden implosion of The Kyle and Jackie O Show.
The question hanging over the market was simple: what happens to KIIS without its two biggest stars?
The answer? Not much.
KIIS FM’s breakfast share landed at 11.7, down from 12.7 in the previous survey. A drop, yes, but not the kind that signals a mass exodus.
A little context: The survey only captures four weeks of listening, with the duo still on air for roughly 60% of that period. But it’s still given the market a hint at how the network’s transition phase may continue to play out.
Read more: Radio ratings survey 2: Sydney
Read more: Radio ratings survey 2: Melbourne
Beyond KIIS, the picture across ARN’s broader portfolio is more nuanced – particularly within the Gold network, where results landed as something of a mixed bag.
In Sydney, the breakfast race has tightened. Triple M and Gold now sit level on 5.5%, but the paths they took couldn’t be more different. Triple M edged up 0.5 points, while Gold slipped 0.6.
For Gold 101.7, the transition is still playing out. Christian O’Connell now finds himself tied with Triple M’s Beau, Cat & Woodsy on 5.5% – a notable shift from the Jonesy & Amanda era, when the station regularly pushed toward the top tier of FM breakfast.
Mediaweek sat down with ARN’s Chief Content Officer, Kerri Elstub, and Director of Content – Metro Radio, Dave Cameron, to unpack the numbers… and what comes next.
Christian O’Connell.
Mediaweek: The person I want to start with is Christian O’Connell.
He’s still solid in Melbourne, recording 10.5% this book, but it’s different in Sydney, where he’s sitting at 5.5% – equal to Triple M’s Breakfast team. Are there any worries there?
Dave Cameron: No. Make no mistake: you don’t change lineups without some turbulence and audience churn. But here’s the thing we’re seeing in Sydney, and every programmer will tell you this: the first thing you look at when you put in any brand-new show is the show’s cume.
Has the audience left? Is the audience still there? And I can, in black and white, say the audience has actually grown today when you talk about the cume figure.
Cameron’s correct. O’Connell’s cume increased by 2,000 this book, now sitting at 373,000.
Dave Cameron: So what that means is they’re hanging around, but not as much right now because they don’t know the show. It’s a bit unfamiliar to them, but they’re still there because you can see that that cume has stabilised now in only his second survey.
The upside is that all that is needed for Christian to form is relationships with the audience. He did the same thing in Melbourne, where, within 18 months, he’d captured the audience’s engagement and companionship, and that will happen in Sydney too.
Kerrie Elstub: You don’t change and move on from a 20-year relationship overnight.
Elstub is, of course, referring to the decision to move Gold’s former Breakfast duo of Jonesy & Amanda into the Drive shift.
They love Jonesy & Amanda, so we know it’s going to take a bit of time. It took Christian 18 months to get to number one in Melbourne.
Dave Cameron: Look, the jewel in the crown today really is Gold Melbourne.
It’s an absolute juggernaut station, and I don’t want to glide over how powerful that is.
It’s the number one FM station (claiming a 13% share overall), and then there’s Jonesy & Amanda now in the Drive shift, who recorded a 8.9% share, which is just a smashing result for only their second survey in a new timeslot.
Jonesy and Amanda.
Mediaweek: OK, lots of talk about cume here. But do advertisers and brands understand what it is?
Dave Cameron: The currency that’s used commercially in Australia is share, but you can only get share once you build cume. You can’t have share without cume. It’s the foundation on which to build a share around.
So yeah, they absolutely get it.
Just back on Christian: the thing is, half the agencies in Melbourne are also in Sydney. So there’s communication between these agencies, and they know of Christian’s success in the Melbourne market.
Mediaweek: What do you think KIIS FM’s numbers show about the brand as a whole?
Given the current legal drama surrounding ARN, Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O Henderson, Mewdiaweek was told we couldn’t address the elephant in the room directly.
Kerrie Elstub: I think it shows that both our brands are incredibly strong. I think it shows that KIIS is more than just one show.
It’s an entire network.
And speaking of KIIS Breakfast, I really would just like to give a shout-out to Brooklyn, Nat, Intern Pete, and Mike-E, who have done an incredible job of wading through the publicity and the storm, turning up every day and delivering a great fill-in breakfast show.
Dave Cameron: Today’s result isn’t necessarily the result of any kind of turn that I think we will see over the coming weeks and months. We are fully prepared for the roller coaster of ratings that comes with changing shows.
It’s like open-heart surgery on your radio station. We are fully prepared for it. We are well advanced in our thinking, not to say that there are any forthcoming announcements for quite a while.
But we also know that, let’s be realistic, there’s going to be some audience share, and a little bit of cleansing. And then we are very much moving into a spot where Kerry and I have revealed what KIIS’s future looks like. And it’s exciting.
Kris Fade
Mediaweek: One name touted to take over the Breakfast show slot is Kris Fade. Have you spoken with him?
Kerrie Elstub: Honestly, if I met with all the people that the media is reporting that Dave and I are meeting with, I wouldn’t be sleeping. But all I would say is that Dave and I are having a lot of conversations and meetings, and the media is not always getting it right.