Melbourne Radio Ratings:
• Covid creep continues as 3AW climbs – Ross & Russ hits 28.4%
• Gold 104.3 still #1 FM and FM breakfast with Christian O’Connell
• Fox again hammered as 10+ share slips to new record low
UP: 3AW + 3.7%
DOWN: smoothfm -1.0
3AW 20.6% (16.9%)
Cume: 958,000 (+118,000)
2019 results: Best/worst
Best 10+ 15.6% (13.9%)
Best breakfast 20.6% (17.3%)
Another huge boost to listening with virtually all of the survey period covering the continued Melbourne lockdown. Station busted above 20% and the breakfast show with Ross Stevenson and Russel Howcroft climbed to an incredible 28.4% (+2.3). Breakfast share is now more than double ABC breakfast share and nearly four times the best FM breakfast share. All dayparts posted huge growth with Neil Mitchell now over 20% as is evening where share lifted 5.3 to 20.4%. 3AW now has the second-best cume in the market, only behind Gold. Station has a 50% commercial share of 65+ and growing pieces of all younger demos too.
Gold 104.3 8.9% (8.7%)
Cume: 1,023,000 (-15,000)
2019 results: Best/worst
Best 10+ 12.5% (9.0%)
Best breakfast 9.5% (6.8%)
Christian O’Connell’s run of #1 FM survey wins now extends to 12 months after he first overtook Fox FM in this survey in 2019. The station’s stretch at #1 now extends to over 12 months as it led Fox in Survey 6, 2019. Gold breakfast has no close competitor after Triple M backed off this survey. Gold remains #1 morning and afternoon too, but Triple M has slipped ahead by a small margin in drive. Gold not only remains #1 FM 40-54, it now shares the lead overall with 3AW on 15.9%.
smoothfm 91.5 6.5% (7.5%)
Cume: 817,000 (-36,000)
2019 results: Best/worst
Best 10+ 11.0% (8.5%)
Best breakfast 9.5% (6.7%)
Share backed off a little right across the day with the exception of evening. Afternoon remains the station high, but share slipped from 9.5% to 8.0% in that daypart. The station now leads 55-65, taking over top spot from Gold.
105.1 Triple M 6.2% (5.9%)
Cume: 722,000 (+49,000)
2019 results: Best/worst
Best 10+ 7.6% (6.2%)
Best breakfast 8.4% (5.5%)
Share trended higher after a low of 5.0% two surveys ago. Driving the growth was improvements in morning, afternoon and drive. The Kennedy Molloy show in the latter was up 0.4 to 7.9% where it is now #1 FM drive, overtaking Gold this survey. The Hot Breakfast was down 0.9 to 5.8%, now #3 FM breakfast.
Nova 100 5.6% (5.3%)
Cume 941,000 (+28,000)
2019 results: Best/worst
Best 10+ 7.5% (7.1%)
Best breakfast 8.6% (7.5%)
Breakfast climbed back off the floor, up 1.3 to 5.9%. Afternoon was also up while drive was unchanged on 6.3%. Lockdown continues to impact the FM music stations including Nova. Cume was up heading back toward 950,000.
101.9 Fox FM 5.2% (5.9%)
Cume 949,000 (+9,000)
2019 results: Best/worst
Best 10+ 10.4% (7.3%)
Best breakfast 10.5% (6.7%)
Another shocker of a survey and another all-time low. With the lockdown over, SCA will be impatiently waiting for the music audience return to the FM band. Cume climbed slightly to close to 950,000 which is a good signal for the future.
KIIS 101.1 FM 4.4% (5.0%)
Cume 860,000 (-8,000)
2019 results: Best/worst
Best 10+ 6.7% (4.8%)
Best breakfast 7.2% (4.9%)
Another FM brand getting hammered by the lockdown. Cume is not tumbling which means there should be an audience return post-Covid.
SEN 3.0% (2.7%)
Cume 382,000 (+56,000)
2019 results: Best/worst
Best 10+ 4.5% (2.4%)
Best breakfast 4.8% (2.9%)
All dayparts lifted except in evening where share nearly halved. Breakfast with Garry and Tim had its best share this year. Afternoons and drive were each up 1.5. SEN is arguably the most active digital licence in the market and you need to get across its streaming audience stats before deciding on its commercial appeal. The station had 78,000 unique app users during October.
Magic 1278 1.2% (0.9%)
Cume 98,000 (+7,000)
As word spreads about the new music offering the audience continues to grow. Share was up in all dayparts with breakfast growing 0.3 to 0.8%. Modest cume growth see it move close to 100,000. Still some way to go though, to make an impact in the market.
Melbourne Radio Ratings were reported on October 24