Nova’s group programming director Brendan Taylor admits he felt a little hazy upon the release of the eighth radio ratings survey of 2024 last week.
While some network heads may feel hazy for a litany of reasons, Taylor’s haziness came from a place of pride, with the network recording overwhelmingly positive numbers to close out the year.
smoothfm came in #1 in Sydney and Melbourne while Jase and Lauren recorded 717,000 CUME listeners, making it the most listened-to Breakfast show in the country.
“It’s humbling to see the results [today],” Taylor said to Mediaweek.
“There were quite a few highlights in 2024 for Nova but it’s hard not to look past the success of Jase and Lauren, who started in March.
“[Jase and Lauren] run their own race, and put aside really all the commentary that hangs over the Melbourne market.
“[They] have proved a connection to an audience and tapped into a need for a local breakfast audience that connects with their engaging content. To me that’s one of the biggest stories of radio and I dare say, will be talked about for some time.”
Taylor is planning on taking the learnings from this year and evolving them into 2025.
“Our focus is to grow our breakfast shows,” he said.
“We need to see improvement in Sydney; In Melbourne, we want to hold on to the momentum that the team has and drive that into their second season with Nova; Brisbane has exciting momentum already with Nikki Osborne joining the Nova family along with Ash and Luttsy on their new show next year; In Adelaide, Jody and Hayesy have built a solid platform against a very competitive Triple M in that market, but they’re building connections there and likewise in Perth, where it will be about driving forward with Nathan, Nat and Sean who have already been doing quality work with us for years.
“Our teams are very strong, what we need to really work on is the time people spend with us and the connection they have with us across the workday.”
Looking again into 2025, Taylor says Nova has a responsibility for the product, employees and owners, but also a responsibility to the audience.
“When you look at those commercial demos, 25-54, it shows we’re in a strong position, we just need to convert that commercially with our partners.
“I think more so our shows and our broadcast talent are connected with commercial partners more than ever before. It’s really important to grow on that and to build on those relations for the success of the industry.”