Radio Ratings: The battle for breakfast gets real in Survey 1

Welcome to Radio Today’s coverage of the first metro radio survey of 2021.

The results from GfK’s metro Survey 1 will be published below at 9:30am AEDT.

Hit the refresh button throughout the day for all the key takeaways from each metro market, and early next week, we’ll bring you insights from content bosses across the major networks.

Editor Vivienne Kelly and publisher Jake Challenor will also bring you all the highlights from today’s results on the Radio Today Tonight on Thursday afternoon.

Meantime, you can circle back to Survey 8 here and past radio ratings analysis here.

SYDNEY:

#1 FM Overall: smoothfm
#1 AM Overall: 2GB
#1 FM Breakfast: KIIS’s Kyle & Jackie O
#1 AM Breakfast: 2GB’s Ben Fordham
#1 FM Drive: Smooth’s Byron Webb & Nova’s Kate, Tim & Joel*
#1 AM Drive: ABC’s Richard Glover*

Biggest Mover Up: ABC Radio +3.7
Biggest Mover Down: KIIS FM -1.8

The Morning Crew with Hughesy, Ed & Erin have had their first ratings come in, securing 4.4% of the lucrative Sydney Breakfast market. This is a bump of 0.2 points for 2DayFM in the slot, which at the end of last year sat on 4.2% with the Jamie Angel-fronted music format.

This should give Kyle Sandilands – a frequent critic of the show – something to crow about, as his show alongside Jackie ‘O’ Henderson remained at the top of the FM pile, despite a 1.5 point drop. The show now boasts a 9.8% share.

KIIS did experience a 1.8 point drop overall, however, taking it down to a 7.9% share. The station was down 5.8 points in people aged 18 to 24 (from 17.1% to 11.3%), and 4.4 points in 25 to 39s (from 20.0% to 15.6%).

Ben Fordham on 2GB remained the city’s Breakfast radio king overall with a 1.0 point bump to an 18.1% share. The station also experienced a 0.6 point climb to a dominant 14.4% overall in people 10+.

Later in the day in Drive, 2DayFM dropped 0.8 points to 4.3%. This year, the Hit Network extended Carrie & Tommy, featuring Carrie Bickmore and Tommy Little, to run from 3pm to 6pm, as Hughesy & Ed moved into the Breakfast slot.

It was also the first outing for a solo Mick Molloy following the departure of Jane Kennedy, transforming Kennedy Molloy into simply Molloy. Triple M had a 0.8 point drop in Drive, taking it to 5.9% from 6.7%.

It would appear Sydney’s favourite Drive show is ABC Sydney’s Richard Glover, who climbed an incredible 5.5 points to a 13.3% share.

Nova’s Kate, Tim & Joel were the FM favourite with 8.9%, on par with NOVA Entertainment stablemate smooth, which experienced a 1.9 point drop.

GfK measures Drive from 4pm tp 7pm.

MELBOURNE:

#1 FM Overall: Gold FM
#1 AM Overall: 3AW
#1 FM Breakfast: Gold’s Christian O’Connel
#1 AM Breakfast: 3AW’s Ross & Russel
#1 FM Drive: Gold’s Gavin Miller
#1 AM Drive: 3AW’s Tom Elliott

Biggest Mover Up: GOLD FM +2.0
Biggest Mover Down: 3AW -3.3

Fox FM’s decision to install Nick Cody in the key Breakfast slot has resulted in a bump for the station, with a climb of 0.6 points in the timeslot. The Fifi, Fev & Nick show now sits on 7.2%, ahead of Nova 100’s Chrissie, Sam & Browny (up 0.5 points to 6.8%), KIIS 101.1’s and Jase & PJ (up 0.8 points to 6.2%), and on par with smooth.

The other new Breakfast installation in Melbourne was Marty Sheargold on Triple M. The Marty Sheargold Show replaced The Hot Breakfast with Luke Darcy and Eddie McGuire, with head of the network Mike Fitzpatrick noting the different tone and content approaches of the two shows would likely result in audience churn and the show taking some time to find its feet. This survey, the station dropped 0.6 points in Breakfast, taking it down to 6.2%, on par with Jase & PJ.

The FM Breakfast leader remains GOLD104.3’s Christian O’Connell, who enjoyed a 1.4 point bump, taking the show to 8.9%.

3AW’s dominance in Breakfast continued, with a 22.2% share for Ross Stevenson and Russel Howcroft. This was a 2.8 point decline, but still well ahead of the ABC’s 10.7%, which fell back 1.9 points.

The FM Drive leader in the city was still GOLD’s Gavin Miller, with the station up 2.6 points in the timeslot to 10.4%. A solo Mick Molloy on Triple M had 6.6% in Drive (up from 6.5%), while Fox with Carrie & Tommy was up 1.8 points to 9.5%.

BRISBANE:

#1 FM Overall: Nova
#1 AM Overall: 4KQ
#1 FM Breakfast: Nova’s Ash, Kip & Luttsy with Susie O’Neill
#1 AM Breakfast: ABC’s Craig Zonca and Loretta Ryan*
#1 FM Drive: Nova’s Kate, Tim & Joel
#1 AM Drive: ABC Radio’s Steve Austin

Biggest Mover Up: TRIPLE J +2.3
Biggest Mover Down: 4BC -1.2

97.3FM in Brisbane experienced the biggest bump in Breakfast this survey, climbing 1.8 points to a 10.0% share.

The Breakfast offering on 97.3FM is a reunited Robin, Terry & Bob, after the station brought Robin Bailey back following a short stint at Triple M when contract negotiations broke down.

The bump will come as good news for Australian Radio Network’s (ARN) chief content officer Duncan Campbell, who has previously flagged he’s keeping an eye on the station and had hopes for higher ratings.

“Well, Brisbane’s an interesting one, because we’ve got some concerns there and some issues there which we’re working through and addressing as we speak… If you take the end of Survey 6, all stations pretty much with the wave that rolled on were pretty much level pegging, and then 97.3 sort of crashed, if you like, and this result is the effect of that bad wave going into Survey 7 if that makes sense. And that’s not dismissing it as just being a statistical anomaly, because that would be also silly of me to do that,” he told Radio Today after the last survey last year.

“We know there’s some issues there, we’re addressing those at the moment, and the thing about 97.3 and the Brisbane market is that things can correct themselves pretty quickly. So we’re pretty confident we can get 97.3 back well and truly in the pack and ultimately ahead of the pack in 2021, certainly we want to do it sooner rather than later. It’s a critical station for us in terms of the national buys that go on.”

In Drive, the city’s love affair with Kate, Tim & Joel continued, with Nova securing a 14.8% share in the slot.

ADELAIDE:

#1 FM Overall: Mix
#1 AM Overall: ABC Radio
#1 FM Breakfast: Mix’s Erin Phillips & Soda*
#1 AM Breakfast: ABC Radio’s Ali Clarke
#1 FM Drive: Nova’s Kate, Tim & Joel
#1 AM Drive: FIVEaa’s Rowey’s Sports Show [updated]

Biggest Mover Up: MIX +1.3
Biggest Mover Down: TRIPLE M -1.4

Mix 102.3’s new Breakfast offering of Erin Phillips alongside Mark ‘Soda’ Soderstrom has given the station a minor bump in the slot, taking it to the top of the FM pile.

Phillips replaced Jodie Oddy last year following the radio stalwart’s abrupt exit. In the final survey last year, the station had a 10.6% share in Breakfast, sitting on par with Roo & Ditts on Triple M. This survey, however, Roo & Ditts fell 2.5 points to 8.1%, while Mix 102.3 climbed 0.3 points to 10.9%.

PERTH:

#1 FM Overall – Nova
#1 AM Overall – 6PR*
#1 FM Breakfast – Nova: Nathan, Nat & Shaun
#1 AM Breakfast – ABC Radio: Nadia Mitsopoulos & Russell Woolf
#1 FM Drive – Nova: Kate, Tim & Joel
#1 AM Drive – 6PR: Oliver Peterson

Biggest Mover Up: MIX +0.6
Biggest Mover Down: 96FM -1.5

Despite changes in most capital cities since last survey, it is perhaps Perth which had the most significant shake-up.

Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) was particularly active in the market, switching Mix 94.5 to become part of the Hit Network, and introducing the Triple M brand to the city on 92.9, which was previously branded as Hit.

At a similar time, Dean ‘Clairsy’ Clairs departed the Mix Breakfast line-up.

This morning, it’s been announced he will replace Fred Botica over on 96FM, as the Botica’s Bunch Breakfast brand is retired.

96FM currently sits on 8.9% in Breakfast, a 0.6 point climb from last survey, however it is Nova’s Nathan, Nat & Shaun who remain on top with 15.2%.

Mix, meanwhile, had a 1.2 point bump in Breakfast, taking it to 12.0%, while the new Triple M offering of Basil, Xav & Jenna, featuring Perth Mayor Basil Zempilas is on 7.7%, a drop of 1.3 points from when the station was on the Hit Network with Xavier, Juelz & Pete.