Australia’s #1: Duncan Campbell, ARN
The ARN network has a set of radio ratings that would fill any broadcaster with pride: 14 consecutive #1 surveys as leading national network across Australia. Helping secure that for the past two years have been Kyle and Jackie O (21 consecutive FM wins) and Christian O’Connell (10 consecutive FM wins).
“That has been our goal every survey so we are very happy with that, including being #1 nationally 25-54,” ARN chief content officer Duncan Campbell (above with Christian O’Connell) told Mediaweek. “The pandemic obviously had an impact this survey to varying degrees around the country.
“This time is a little different. Last year when the pandemic hit we saw a big drop in cumes, particularly in Melbourne at the FM stations. They later recovered. This time around there is some drop in cume, but now it is more share of listening that is being impacted.”
With KIIS Sydney and Gold Melbourne doing the heavy lifting for the network, there was also good support from other stations around Australia.
“With 973 and 4KQ we have a duopoly in Brisbane. We are back in the pack well and truly, but we would like some distance between ourselves and the others.” The two ARN stations share leadership with Nova 106.9.
“It’s a three-horse race in Brisbane and we own two of the horses. 4KQ’s continued performance is really extraordinary.”
96FM in Perth was also a good radio ratings performer with more growth this survey. It’s a strong #2 in three demos too.
Adelaide also continues to be a sweet spot where Mix 102.3 has racked up 11 consecutive overall wins. Erin and Soda were again #1 FM breakfast with Will and Woody #1 drive overall.
The one challenge for the network is getting KIIS Melbourne to fire. “Having a line-up change will always impact you. It was a bad book, fans of the old show have moved on and it will now take time to rebuild. The new show doesn’t appear in this survey.”
As to how ARN can get FM and AM music stations to perform strongly, Campbell explained: “We spend a lot of money on researching formats to make sure they are right. We lead the industry in the research new do.
“You can’t program music stations without doing proper music research. And that doesn’t mean taking P1 listeners [the rusted-on audience] off the website and asking them their favourite songs. It pays dividends because it tells us we have the most popular formats in those markets.”
ARN is continuing to market its brands despite the lockdowns. “We are expecting to close the year strongly and the goal remains to be the #1 network for the third year running.”
Biggest national cume audience: Paul Jackson, Nova Entertainment
While the lockdowns in different markets impacted all stations to some degree, Nova Entertainment’s chief programming and marketing officer Paul Jackson admitted he thought they performed better than he thought they might in the latest radio ratings.
“The cumes at most stations are holding about the same. I am normally an optimist, but I would have predicted that perhaps Nova, KIIS and smoothfm in Sydney might have slipped under 1m, but that didn’t happen.”
Jackson’s analysis matched what ARN’s Duncan Campbell also told Mediaweek.
“The audience is still turning up, but not staying as long as they previously were and that is totally understandable. The talk about radio being resilient has really been borne out in these results.”
Jackson noted the Nova breakfast shows are being impacted by the changing habits that don’t see people leaving home for school drop-offs and the work commute. “But when you look at smoothfm from midday onwards it has over a 10% share basically, but it is not getting its usual audience in breakfast and mid-mornings which is totally understandable.
“Many people are watching state press conferences and for them it can be lunchtime before the radio comes back on.”
Nova’s #1 drive show: Kate, Tim and Joel
One impact on the Nova network was Nova 93.7 surrendering top spot in Perth to the new Mix Hit Network station. “We continue to hold the #1 audience in breakfast,” Jackson countered.” Nova also wins drive and several of the key demos. “For us it was as good a book as when we were #1. Historically Mix has been the #1 station in the market. For Nova to achieve what it has done in the past few years and to continually win the cume has been a strong effort.”
The Nova Entertainment stations hadn’t planned any marketing spend recently, said Jackson. “We are now looking at the options of what we should do in the last quarter and if we should focus on TV versus outdoor. Some networks have been running outdoor campaigns, but if there are not as many people out and about we need to be careful.”
Sydney and Melbourne leadership: Greg Byrnes, Nine Radio
Although the Nine Radio business operates seven stations across Australia, most of the focus has been on 2GB recently. In particular, the performance of Alan Jones replacement Ben Fordham. There was plenty of excitement earlier this year when his initial strong radio ratings slumped.
Fordham recovered big time in Survey 5. Nine Radio’s head of content Greg Byrnes wasn’t surprised. “The live and local strategy is what we are focused on and we had some great results,” Byrnes told Mediaweek.
About recent ratings movements, Byrnes sounded like he’d been working in radio for a long time. “The ratings go up and down. We introduced a lot of change. The business over the last 12 months has been very successful. The ratings have created a few headlines. What we can control is the strategy and the content and that remains the focus. Make tomorrow’s show better than today’s.”
2GB’s Ray Hadley
While Fordham had a great 2GB breakfast survey, there are plenty of other station highlights, from Ray Hadley with a near best-ever morning share to John Stanley’s evening domination. “Deborah Knight too did well in afternoon and she and Jim Wilson [in drive] are both new voices to the station.” Byrnes noted Hadley’s performance saw him with his biggest cume audience since the current data started in 2004.
Also a part of the line-up is Brooke Corte’s Money News, an east coast hour of business news at 7pm. “I read the run-down every morning and there aren’t many business leaders who haven’t been on the show,” said Byrnes. “She hadn’t done radio before, but she is proving herself as a really good journalist and communicator.”
Byrnes noted that both the Sydney and Melbourne stations are leading the way with football coverage of their respective codes.
While some dismiss the Nine Radio audience as being all oldtimers, Byrnes noted they have a few others too. “We are #1 network 35+, our 40+ share is up 5%, 35-64 up 11% and 25-54 up 10%.”
This survey 6PR slipped a little in breakfast and morning, yet it remains competitive and breakfast without Basil Zempilas is close the doubling his breakfast share at his new station. “We hanged every 6PR line-up except drive at the beginning of the year,” said Byrnes. “Cume is down a little bit, but we would expect that to recover soon. Of course Covid hasn’t had the impact there it has had elsewhere.”
The AM music stations remain a work in progress for Nine Radio, but Byrnes did note that 2UE now outrates 2Day FM.
See also: Survey 5, 2021 analysis for every station, every market