Duncan Campbell: What will the new normal listening patterns be?

ARN had a good survey in most markets despite the continued disruption to listening habits from Covid.

Duncan Campbell’s view across all the metro markets is that there is a two tiered system at the moment.

“The AMs like 3AW and 2GB are at the top and in the next layer of the sandwich there are five stations, then everyone else is below that,” he told Radio Today after the results dropped.

ARN stations were not so much affected by Covid, according to Campbell.

“The overall result is that we’re in a very strong position as a network… it’s particularly pleasing in Brisbane to see 97.3FM jump up 1.7 to effectively create another number two station division.”

“With Australian capital cities coming out Covid lockdowns quickly now Campbell says, “once we start to move on from COVID, you’ll see the AW and GB breakfast figures particularly come back down to normal levels… it won’t be the norm that we knew it, but we’ll get back to some more sort of normal listening patterns and figures.”

What will the new normal be though?

“I think there’s certainly going to be a percentage of people that won’t want to come back to the office, but I think that might not be as high as they predict because… over time hesitation will diminish and you will see people returning to work as usual… I think we will see an increase in workplace listening… for some people their workplace may be in their home, for others it may be the office…

“The jury’s still out, we have to do some research on that. It’s the temptation to pick up isolated times and extrapolate that out, but I think we need to get into a bit of a rhythm here and see what happens over time in terms of the impact on any workplace listing. Certainly, there hasn’t been any impact on total breakfast listening as much as we perhaps thought it would be… if breakfast shows are strong then people will listen to them, whether they’re working at home or not.”

See our ratings coverage from yesterday here.

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Reality Check
10 Nov 2021 - 1:10 pm

What a load of hot air. Other stations have done well for the long term because they are in for the long term, as opposed to this network leaning on a quick cash grab peddling and leaning on another brand’s success in one breakfast slot. CD was VERY vocal about his plans to acquire K&JO the second he started, long before he hired DC. When K&JO are done with ARN, the network will flounder once again, because ARN content remains incapable of recognising and utilising the talent they already had/have – much of which is leaving, or has already left and finding success elsewhere.

Its Not Heating Up But My Head Is
10 Nov 2021 - 2:17 pm

Go Duncan, you know there are still old 90s PDs who want to get the unemployed around a free pizza to find out they love 80s rock music (SHOCK) and then play 80s features at them all day. I wonder when radio will understand that telling people they are gonna hit play at 9:42 on a fresh ED song is just awful when I can ask Siri for it and all the 80s I could ever need like, errr.. now. 50 year olds are starting to fumble with their youtubes and bluethooths, in the car! You get radio is only very nearly still good for “a bit of a mix”??
I hope we get our ass into gear and aggregate actual content/traffic with music before Spotify does and not in a LISTINRERR (look over here away from radio) way. Frankly I would rather cut down billy connolly stand up, segued over intros then to listen to insufferable kids playing Tommy Little replays. But what would I know, I am a bald woman from Idaho who accidentally stumbled on this website looking for a microwave repair person… TODAY !

Dear Reality Check
11 Nov 2021 - 11:04 am

If you think playing the hits on 2DAY is success, I’d ask you to think again.
I think DC has every reason to blow air, because he’s actually winning. The hot air is much worse when you are at the bottom of the barrel

Neil
11 Nov 2021 - 8:20 pm

If they’re anyone like me they will fill there phone or computer up with their favourite songs and listen to them to avoid all the garbage the fm programmers inflict on us every day.

Dear “Dear Reality Check”
11 Nov 2021 - 10:56 pm

Sigh. I’m not taking about 2DAY I’m talking about K&JO. They didn’t need 2DAY and they don’t need ARN either. They are already looking for their next step up elsewhere.

    Staff Writer
    12 Nov 2021 - 8:10 am

    This comment has been edited.

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