As you will note from the stats below, the chances of 3AW being overtaken by a competitor are pretty slim, certainly as long as the key ingredients of the current lineup remain active.
FM leadership is another thing – Fox FM traditionally has been the best performer, but more recently it has been challenged by both smoothfm and Gold.
Survey five it was smoothfm’s turn to be #1 FM.
3AW 10+ 13.2%, Breakfast 18.6%
Cumulative audience: 10+ 637,000, Breakfast 508,000
Five commercial stations have a bigger 10+ cume, while just two have a bigger breakfast cume (Fox and Nova). However, the 3AW audience is rusted on and listens longer – many of them all day and all night. Expats returning to the city make sure the radio that is on in the cab is tuned to 3AW to get a fix of what’s happening now in their city.
Here are some of the station’s achievements:
• News Talk 3AW 693 is #1 in Melbourne with an audience share of 13.2% of all people 10+ to continue its record of survey wins over the last 13 years
• Ross Stevenson & John Burns #1 in breakfast (5:30am-8:30am) with 19.2%. This represents 134 consecutive wins and a career total of 205 wins as Melbourne’s #1 breakfast show
Ross Stevenson and John Burns with Luc Longley.
• Neil Mitchell #1 in morning (8:30am-12pm) with 15.2%. This is his 183rd career win
• Denis Walter in afternoon (12pm-3pm) with 10.2%
• Tom Elliott #2 in drive (3pm-6pm) with 10.9%
• Nights with Steve Price (8pm-10pm) at #1 with 11.1%, Nightline (10pm-12am) with Philip Brady and Simon Owens at #1 with 24.9%
• 3AW Football – #1 AFL station on Saturday night and Sunday twilight (Triple M claims the other footy dayparts all people)
• Tony Moclair #1 in Australia overnight (12am-5:30am) with 21.7%
• Weekends with Darren James #1 with a 15.9% (Saturday) and 19.8% (Sunday)
“Survey 5 continues a solid 2018 for 3AW,” said 3AW operations director Stephen Beers. “Breakfast with Ross and John setting up our day with a dominant 19.2% of Melbourne tuning in. 3AW Football continued the great start to the AFL season, number one Saturday night and Sunday twilight. Thank you to our great on-air teams and our loyal listeners for continuing to make 3AW the favourite radio destination in Melbourne.”
smoothfm 91.5 10+ 10.4%, Breakfast 7.7%
Cumulative audience: 10+ 888,000, Breakfast 429,000
The station has had five surveys over 10% in the past year and ranked #1 FM twice.
Nova Entertainment’s Paul Jackson on smoothfm:
You have resisted the temptation for bigger breakfast shows? “We have never gone there and we have built our own programs. Mike Perso and Jennifer Hansen host a powerhouse show in Melbourne which is on parity with [Nova’s] Chrissie, Sam and Browny and to be equal second is sensational.
“We have the same number, 7.7% in Sydney, and it’s the #3 show. These are brilliant numbers and I don’t think there is any superstar name we could put in who would perform better.
“The audience sees our breakfast talent as close friends and they have a great rapport.”
Jackson said he spends plenty of time with the Sydney and Melbourne smoothfm breakfast shows.
“I see our Sydney team every week and I spent three days recently in Melbourne with Mike and Jen. Even when you do that sort of radio and play lots of music, you still have to be bright and fresh and contemporary and succinct. You might find a lot of shows on the FM band that talk too long – you just can’t shut them up. These guys deliver consistently well day after day and it is not easy to do. It also takes a lot of preparation and planning as well.”
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Top Photo: Mike Perso and Jennifer Hansen