The radio industry is now at the halfway mark of radio ratings surveys, following the release of survey 4. Mediaweek has caught up with content executives from around the industry to get their thoughts on how their networks are performing.
Mediaweek caught up with Nine Radio‘s head of content Greg Byrnes about what is being called Nine’s best survey 4 ever.
The GFK survey results revealed that Nine’s talk stations achieved a cumulative audience of 1.873 million – up 9.1% on Survey 4 of 2021. It’s the highest ever Survey 4 audience for the network and comes off the back of record audiences in Surveys 1, 2 and 3.
Sydney’s 2GB was #1 with a share of 12.9%, while Melbourne’s 3AW was also #1 with a share of 15.7%. Brisbane’s 4BC and Perth’s 6PR also both posted audience growth of 0.5 in Survey 4.
“We’re up about 10% on our cume figure and that comes off the back of a record start to the year,” said Byrnes. “There are some clear trends where we are post lockdowns but COVID is still around and I can’t say that I think this is the new normal because I don’t think anyone really knows what the new normal looks like, but for us people are liking our live and local content. Which is being delivered day in and day out.”
While Sydney and Melbourne continue to dominate their respective markets, Byrnes said that he was happy with the overall performance of the broadcaster’s radio brands.
“Brisbane and Perth made some really good improvements there. Melbourne, we sort of throw the numbers around but they are unprecedented numbers. Neil (Mitchell) and Ray (Hadley) in the morning shows in Sydney and Melbourne have done really well, building on already solid audience numbers. Right across the board, particularly on 3AW, drive had a really good increase also. Tom Elliot was #1 and went up considerably as well. ”
Half of this survey included the federal election campaign and the ads that came along with it, Byrnes said that it’s hard to say if this impacted audience numbers. “We’re certainly glad to see the back of it. That’s for sure. That has washed through into these figures but from here on in we are beyond the federal election. It wasn’t just the content, it was also the ads that annoyed a lot of people not just our listeners. It’s good to be at the back of it.”
When asked what he expects from the rest of the year from a ratings perspective, Byrnes said that Nine Radio was in an unprecedented position.
“Traditionally, Survey 4 has not been too kind to talk back for whatever reason. To be where we are today, in such a strong position, sets us up really well for the back end of the year. There is no federal election but a large part of the 2GB listening audience is underwater again as we speak and that’s content that our listeners can expect to have the latest information and the most accurate information as it becomes available. That’s what we pride ourselves on and that’s what we need to deliver. “