Melbourne Radio Ratings
GfK Survey 8 2023, Survey Period: Sunday September 24 to Saturday December 2
UP: smoothfm 91.5 +0.9
DOWN: Gold 104.3 -2.1
3AW 13.6% (13.5%)
Cume: 828,000 (-29,000)
2022 results: Best/worst
Best 10+ 15.9% (17.6%)
Best Breakfast 22.8% (20.1%)
The Nine Radio Melbourne leader was short of besting its radio ratings figures from last year. The station high this year was 16.7% in Survey 5, while breakfast peaked at a very impressive 22.7%. While that breakfast share didn’t improve on the previous year, it was oh-so-close to the previous survey of 22.8%. Neil Mitchell ended his years hosting mornings with yet another survey win on a 16.3% Survey 8 share which is more than double the share of ABC Melbourne in the morning. Also clear leaders in their timeslot were Ross and Russ with a share of 18.1%. Station cume was down marginally as was breakfast where cume slipped 11,000 to 517,000.
See also: Farewell 3AW’s Neil Mitchell: Exit interview with Melbourne’s King of All Media
Gold 104.3 10.3% (12.4%)
Cume 1,231,000 (-88,000)
2022 results: Best/worst
Best 10+ 12.0% (11.4%)
Best Breakfast 11.2% (9.7%)
Gold managed to beat its 2022 station high three times this year. However, in the final survey of 2023 the station share was not only the lowest for the year, but the lowest share since the end of 2021. It’s starting to look like Christian O’Connell might end up staying with Gold 104.3 if the ARN takeover bid for Triple M stumbles. O’Connell and his team of Patrina Jones and Jack Post missed out on a seventh #1 FM trophy for the year, but six out of eight isn’t a bad record. After breakfast share slipped 2.5, Gold now trails Fox breakfast by 1.6. Falls in other dayparts mirrored the slump in breakfast with morning down 2.6, afternoon off 2.4 and drive falling 1.6. Despite those stumbles, Gold remains #1 FM in morning and afternoon. If we discount the 10-17 figure, Gold hurt most 55-65 where share lowered by 3.2 to 14.6%. Gold also remains 40-54 champ despite share dipping 2.3 to 14.3%.
101.1 Fox FM 10.3% (10.5%)
Cume 1,300,000 (-3,000)
2022 results: Best/worst
Best 10+ 9.6% (7.8%)
Best breakfast 9.6% (7.4%)
Fox breakfast team Fifi, Fev and Nick have finished the year in style with a win over Gold. It’s the second time that Fox breakfast ranked #1 FM this year. This comes despite Fox’s 10+ and breakfast radio ratings share both slipping from their Survey 7 results. The only Fox dayparts that managed to improve survey-on-survey were afternoon (+ 0.4 to 11.4%) and evening (+1.1 to 8.1%). Fox remains #1 overall 18-24 and 25-39 despite some small movement. Fox also has the largest Melbourne cume audience again with 1,300,000.
smoothfm 91.5 9.4% (8.5%)
Cume 1,152,000 (-8,000)
2022 results: Best/worst
Best 10+ 9.4% (7.3%)
Best Breakfast 7.8% (6.1%)
The lift of 0.9 here was the biggest move in the market and keeps smooth a clear #3 FM. In 10+ share smooth is competitive right across the day where all sessions lifted including breakfast where Mike Perso is now on an improved 7.5%, but still short of five other surveys where he had a better number this year. All demos improved too including 55-64 where smooth is a very close second to Gold after the gap narrowed significantly.
KIIS 101.1 FM 7.6% (7.1%)
Cume 1,225,000 (+63,000)
2022 results: Best/worst
Best 10+ 8.4% (5.6%)
Best Breakfast 8.1% (5.4%)
It’s often Murphy’s Law comes into play – when you axe a breakfast show it will go up in its final survey result. That’s what happened to Jase and Lauren as KIIS. With a final survey result of 9.1 the station is enjoying its best breakfast share since the name change to KIIS. Hopefully Jase may be back on air soon in some other capacity as he’s still under contract at ARN. What the former Kyle and Jackie O team member has done though is gift them a massive share as they start broadcasting live into the market some time early in 2024. The breakfast boost echoed across the day and helped push Will and Woody to a drive share of 10.0% lifting them to #2 FM drive behind only Fox. KIIS demos also look a lot better this survey with 25-39 on 14.8%, just 1.3 behind the leader Fox. The KIIS kume was up too, now over 1.2m, close to another KIIS 101.1 record.
Nova 100 6.4% (5.7%)
Cume 1,120,000 (+49,000)
2022 results: Best/worst
Best 10+ 8.0% (7.1%)
Best breakfast 9.5% (7.5%)
The station needed to get back above 6% to end the year and the recovery did happen. Breakfast too needed a lift, but that didn’t happen. Share slipped to 5.0% which is a new low. While morning was flat too, there was improvement in afternoon and drive. Evenings saw a big turnaround with share up from 3.6% to 6.0%. Demo share improved a little and Nova can boast being #3 18-24, although it trails the leader by 10.8.
105.1 Triple M 6.4% (6.9%)
Cume 783,000 (-65,000)
2022 results: Best/worst
Best 10+ 7.3% (5.0%)
Best breakfast 6.3% (4.0%)
Station seems to be at the crossroads again with a breakfast show question mark and lower shares right across the day. Time to stick to the plan or start again. The station remains competitive 40-54 where it ranks #2 only behind Gold.
SEN 2.4% (2.7%)
Cume 354,000 (-39,000)
2022 results: Best/worst
Best 10+ 3.0% (1.3%)
Best Breakfast 3.4% (1.3%)
The sports broadcaster bested its 2022 station high in Survey 5 with a 3.7% share. It couldn’t beat its 2022 breakfast high though and the closest it got was 3.1% in two surveys mid-year. No year highs, but breakfast and morning both finished the year up on their Survey 7 radio ratings results. The station’s best share is 55-64, yet that dipped a little to 3.1%.
Magic 1278 1.0% (1.3%)
Cume 153,000 (+13,000)
2022 results: Best/worst
Best 10+ 1.6% (1.0%)
Best Breakfast 1.3% (0.5%)
The station continues to perform best 65+, but with a share of 2.4% it’s a long way behind the leader (3AW on 29.6%). Breakfast was down 0.2 to 0.3% giving it the smallest share of the 16 stations (including five from the ABC). The station daypart highpoint is 1.3% in evening.
3MP 1377 1.0% (1.1%)
2022 results: Best/worst
Best 10+ 1.9% (0.6%)
Best Breakfast 1.1% (0.3%)
Cume 217,000 (+14,000)
3MP has the same radio ratings share as Magic, but a higher cume, and holding above 200,000 is something for the sales team to hang on to. Breakfast was steady on 0.6% and the daypart high was evening on 1.5%.
RSN 927 0.6% (0.6%)
2022 results: Best/worst
Best 10+ 0.9% (0.4%)
Best Breakfast 1.4% (0.4%)
Cume: 72,000 (-10,000)
Share here didn’t move despite survey running through the Spring Carnival in October and November. Breakfast even managed to dip a little, down from 1.0% to 0.9%. The only demos worth noting are 55+ where RSN is competitive the AM music stations…and Triple J.
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