By James Manning

Radio metro market reviews: Week 1 Sydney

KIIS 106.5 10+ 7.0%, Breakfast 9.3%

Don’t panic, Kyle and Jackie O down, but long way from being out

 Cume audience: 10+ 916,000, Breakfast 557,000

Nova has the biggest 10+ cume, but Kyle and Jackie O have #1 breakfast cume.

A sprawling breakfast radio canvas that broadcasts across four hours, sometimes longer, powers the share of the station.

As with most shows, the 6am hour is key listening for regulars. Who’d want to miss the delightful psychic Georgina Walker (18 years with K&J) and also the Birthday Wheel? And exec producer Bruno when he presents his news highlights? Or “What’s in Jackie’s mouth”?

Although the show is famous for its celebrity interviews it can get away without much on offer. Today it was Shannon Noll. Then there are Pop Quiz, First Calls (which are often after 7am) and Last Calls (which can be as late as 10am).

Jackie is the show’s secret weapon. Today there was a great segment about vagina steaming. “Do you want to do it now?” asked Kyle. “Intern Pete, put the jug on.”

She also suggested a segment on whistling. “OK, so not all my ideas are great,” she offered. The station was then flooded with K&J fans and their whistles. “This is the best thing we have ever done,” deadpanned Kyle. “People will be copying this all over the world.”

The breakfast show has the infamous censor on duty, although sometimes you wonder how closely they monitor the program. A couple of weeks ago Kyle spoke frankly about his favourite porn clips!

ARN’s Duncan Campbell spoke to Mediaweek after the survey five results:

“Some people have painted this as a doomsday scenario, but you need to put it in perspective. The likes of Triple M and Nova would kill for a 9.3% breakfast show. This time last year Kyle and Jackie O were on 10% and they did a 9.3% last year too. Earlier in the year they had a very high 12.3%.

“There are, however, some challenges at the station we need to work our way through. We still have a very strong duopoly where KIIS is usually the stronger, but now it is WSFM.

“The music offering across Sydney is interesting and the 2Day music shift has not worked and KIIS could certainly do better too. We will look at that.

“Nova and smoothfm both had some heavy marketing campaigns [which helped]. WSFM had marketing too of course.”

Campbell didn’t think the opposition was coming after them.

“I think the Nova result is more of a one-off at this point.

“Kyle and Jackie O have a unique ability to bounce back just when some people start to write them off. I’ll take a 9.3% breakfast show any day.” Campbell noted the current breakfast cume is higher than it was this time last year. He also spoke about the breakfast brand versus the station brand.

The KIIS challenge is perhaps to have a stronger identity past Kyle and Jackie O. When the breakfast show is over, many people check out and don’t return until 6am the following day.

“That is an interesting question. With such a strong breakfast show the argument can be the show dwarfs the overall brand. And it’s a brand that was built by Kyle and Jackie O.

“In the case of WSFM and Gold, it is the format that came first.

“KIIS is Kyle and Jackie O, while WSFM has more to offer than just Jonesy and Amanda. There is a very strong music foundation.”

ARN of course is hoping KIIS’s Will and Woody becomes a stronger drive attraction after its superstar Sydney breakfast show. “They are sounding more focused than ever and they are working on converting their new listeners to be regulars with more short-form content. The show is an easier listen because of that and it looks like becoming a successful national drive show in time.

“We will give new shows the time they need because the feedback we are getting around the content is very strong.”

Campbell also pointed out the survey five demo movement among 18-24s was “too high”. WSFM jumped an incredible 10.5 to 18.5% to be #1 18-24, while KIIS dropped 8.2 to 9.4% in that age group. “That is too big a swing and that will correct itself pretty quickly.”

Campbell said the market intelligence ARN gets apart from the survey releases indicated WSFM would have a good book, “and we were nervous about KIIS,” he admitted.

104.9 Triple M 10+ 5.4%, Breakfast 5.5%

Cume audience: 10+ 557,000, Breakfast 325,000

It was Freddie Mercury’s birthday today and Triple M Sydney was celebrating. There’s lots to like about the breakfast show and the music celebration proved what Triple M boss Mike Fitzpatrick told Mediaweek – that it is not just a football show.

The show revolves around Matty Johns, who gets great support from Gus Worland, Emma Freedman and the great Chris Page.

Wil Anderson was a guest in the first hour of the show before he started work on Melbourne’s The Hot Breakfast.

While it’s not just a footy show, it was lucky to have Johns on hand to preview some of the NRL finals clashes coming this weekend.

Apart from playing some great Queen tunes, the station spoke to Triple M Hall Of Famer Rob Duckworth, who noted he has been sacked from Triple M more times than anyone else! Matty Johns asked if he’d been asked to host 2Day breakfast yet!

Duckworth had some great Queen stories after being lucky enough to tour with the band on a number of occasions.

Matty asked Duckworth about his friend, and the original Triple M Hall of Famer, Doug Mulray. Gus couldn’t help asking what Mulray thought of The Grill Team. “He doesn’t listen to much radio, but I think he likes the show.”

The show arguably deserves a bigger audience, something the classic rock from AC/DC, Cold Chisel and Dire Straits should be helping with.

Fitzpatrick noted The Grill Team doesn’t rate as well as it might be expected to during the NRL season. He admitted to Mediaweek: “The Melbourne and Sydney stations have done better in the past. There are some highlights though – the workday audience in Sydney has grown.”

See also from this week:
Mediaweek radio wrap: Sydney leaders 2GB and WSFM
Mediaweek radio wrap: Nova Entertainment’s powerful double

By James Manning

The Australian-born CEO of Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine media company, Sarah Harden, keeps in contact with her land down under. Harden hails from Geelong and still has property there, keeping in touch as regularly as she can.

At times in recent years that might have been quite a task, juggling her schedule in a busy career that has seen her working alongside of Hollywood’s best and brightest including her current role.

Harden will be making another trip home when she is a guest speaker at the AANA’s September conference RESET 2018 on September 18.

“I have been heads down building this company and I have been so busy I don’t do a lot of speaking,” Harden told Mediaweek, confirming she had a fair bit on her plate.

“RESET 2018 has been a nice opportunity for me to gather some of my thoughts more formally. I will be talking about the story of why we have been building Hello Sunshine, particularly at this time in the media landscape.

“We have a very specific point of view and we are trying to build the company with a level of intention and part of what I want to do is share that.

“We are a much earlier and different architected brand than many of the story brands that are in the room. We talk about how important storytelling is in today’s world where the media landscape is so crowded.

“We are living in a world of hyper-social connection and real disconnection in a lot of ways. We talk about storytelling in terms of finding ways to build brand love and to connect people. For us that is about the authentic authorship in storytelling – our mission is to really change the narrative for women by telling authentic stories that have women at the centre of them across many platforms.

“In our case we are a storytelling brand in essence but a lot of what we are seeing in the marketplace is really relevant to any brand that wants to connect deeply with a consumer and influence them whether it is trying to get them to buy a product or use a service.

“At RESET 2018 I will also talk about what I see as authorship disconnection in a lot of media. By that I mean if you look at the feature film market, people are talking about the astonishing performance of Black Panther or Crazy Rich Asians and how successful they have been.

—

This is an excerpt from the full article, which appears on Mediaweek Premium. Read the full article here or subscribe to Mediaweek Premium here.

In the new role, which she starts immediately, Davison will be responsible for the visual direction of the two brands. She will work closely with Vogue Australia’s fashion director Christine Centenera, who continues to be based in New York, and GQ Australia editor Mike Christensen. The men’s quarterly magazine marks 20 years this year.

Davison returns to Vogue Australia from New York, where she was fashion director of Glamour for over four years after being asked by Condé Nast’s artistic director Anna Wintour to oversee all fashion editorial for the title.

News Prestige Network’s editorial director of Vogue Australia and GQ Australia Edwina McCann said: “With her creative vision, international experience and fashion knowledge, Jillian is highly respected in the industry. I’m delighted that she is returning to the Vogue Australia family and also taking on the remit of GQ Australia. Her appointment allows us to do even more Australian storytelling and we feel very lucky to have her expertise and creativity back in the country.”

Davison said: “I’m thrilled to explore this next creative chapter with Edwina and the Vogue and GQ teams. There are major shifts in the fashion industry globally and to return home to explore all the new possibilities for these premium titles is very close to my heart.

“It’s an incredible opportunity to shape a new visual language for fashion imagery in Australia that celebrates our unique point of view and lifestyle – to create and oversee original content for Vogue, and to explore the dynamic new menswear landscape with GQ.”

Davison was previously the creative director of Vogue Australia before taking up the role with Glamour. Prior to that, she was the fashion director of Harper’s Bazaar Australia and fashion editor at Harper’s Bazaar in the United States. She has also been a contributing editor at Teen Vogue, Vogue China, Vogue Germany, and Vogue Japan.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine has maintained its popularity, staying #1 on the Overall TV charts in Australia with a new season coming to Netflix this month.

American reality show World of Dance cracked Overall TV charts with the finale of season two a week away.

The only change at the top of the charts was in New Zealand with American Horror Story now #1 on the Overall TV charts.

By James Manning

Seven

Over the two episodes so far this week, Home And Away has moved from 691,000 to 614,000.

Also dropping across those two nights was Take Me Out, which started on 604,000 on Monday with episode two on 513,000. That will be enough to keep the show in the timeslot, but it won’t be enough to outperform the opposition.

The Seven drama 800 Words followed with 473,000 after 446,000 a week ago.

Nine

A Current Affair spoke with TV and radio great John Blackman. Reporter Martin King chronicled his current health challenge and then shared too much information with viewers about what the reporter wears to bed – delivered with a cheeky grin down the barrel. The episode did 820,000.

The Block nearly had a walk-out two weeks ago, yet this time the Kerrie and Spence blow-up looks a bit more serious and the episode ended last night with them walking off the site and disconnecting the microphones. The drama helped keep the audience over 1m after 1.01m on Tuesday last week.

Nine then had two episodes of True Story With Hamish And Andy in some markets with both the new and the repeat featuring Ryan Shelton. The first episode did 744,000 while the repeat was on 264,000 in Sydney and Brisbane.

AFL markets didn’t get a second True Story. Instead they got an early edition of The Footy Show, which did 197,000. Without going up against The Front Bar, the Melbourne audience was 134,000 after 128,000 on Thursday last week.

Two episodes of Kath & Kim followed for Sydney and Brisbane viewers with audiences of 136,000 and 115,000.

TEN

Lily Allen, Vance Joy and Heath from Australian Survivor were all guests on The Project with 509,000 watching.

The merger episode of Australian Survivor was one of the best so far this season and also featured a food auction, the first individual immunity challenge (which Shane Gould didn’t even bother attempting) and then tribal council where Lydia was sent home after narrowly failing to win immunity. The episode did 668,000 after 667,000 a week ago.

ABC

Foreign Correspondent did 439,999 after 8pm followed by Catalyst on 443,000.

The final episode of Search For Second Earth then did 198,000.

SBS

Michael Portillo travelled with his copy of Bradshaw’s Handbook Of Indian, Foreign And Colonial Travel for one more time on the final episode of the too-short series of Great Indian Railway Journeys. The episode made the top 20 with 341,000 watching, which should make it the channel’s #1 for another week.

Insight then did 220,000 followed by Dateline on 157,000.