Radio Ratings
With the radio ratings survey coming to an end for 2022, Mediaweek has caught up with some of the top content bosses in the industry to discuss their results.
First up is Nova’s head of programming for Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, Ben Latimer.
When asked about the company’s overall performance, Latimer said that it was a great result for the network.
“We’ve got more listeners than any other metro network and remain as the only broadcast network with over 6 million cume, which is great. We continue to hold the number one overall cume from a network perspective, all people 10+, and people 25-54. The exciting thing today for us is being the only network to grow DAB+ audience, which was up 9%, that’s definitely great news. We launched local and live smooth announcers in Perth, Brisbane, and Adelaide in September, and they’re all number one outright which is fantastic in such a short period of time. That’s just a fantastic result and really demonstrates how that uniqueness and the music focus can cut through. Lots of room to grow there for sure.”
When talking about the success of smoothfm, Latimer continued to point at the importance of cumulative audience in assessing radio ratings.
“The smooth Sydney cume is another record,1.325 million. It’s been a really great year as we reflect back on smooth Sydney, which was a consistent number one or number two FM in the market. smooth Melbourne has had a good year as well, and was consistently the number two FM in the market. We’re really pleased with how smooth has shaped up for the year.”
Another performance that Latimer wanted to highlight was from FIVEaa in Adelaide which he said had a brilliant end to the year.
“David and Will in breakfast had a record high today of 16.5% – FIVEaa is the dominant news talk station in Adelaide and is led by those guys. It is just world-class and continues to impress us each and every morning. Leon Byner had a fitting final GFK send-off going out on a high with an 11% share.
“If you look across the FIVEaa schedule, it really is great numbers everywhere. Drive was up to 11.1%, without any AFL which is even better. Nights with Matthew Pantelis had 18.5%, he is leaving the show in great shape as he moves to Mornings next year. ”
Still in Adelaide, Latimer was also happy with the results of FIVEaa’s sister station Nova, which has been without a breakfast show since October.
“Given that we haven’t had an official brekkie show in Adelaide since the end of October we are pretty happy we’ve held our ground. We are number one in cume and are leading cume in all day parts. Also, number two FM overall and number two FM breakfast without Ben and Liam. What it says is that the Nova brand is in tip-top shape in Adelaide and it really positions as well for the launch of the new show, Jodie and Hayesy in the new year.”
In Perth, Latimer was happy with the strong results with an overall share of 17.9% and a breakfast share of 20.8%.
“The team’s cracked 700,000 in cume – to put some context around that, Mix is in second place in the 500’s. Isn’t that just unreal?
“Nathan, Nat and Shawn are up again, it’s just a dominant station everywhere. This is a station that people around the country, even around the world, are talking about due to their record-breaking results.”
Nathan, Nat, and Shaun
When discussing Nova’s results in Brisbane, Latimer reference how the market is notoriously competitive but once again pointed to the strong cume score produced by the station.
“The difference between winning or not can be very thin, today it was 0.3 of a point when you measure it through share. B105 is ahead in share, but when you look at cume, Nova Brisbane is still out in front. On average, we’ve been really happy with Brisbane this year, a very strong year. We’ve hit some numbers that are historical highs but it’s just it’s a highly competitive market.”
Nova in 2023
By radio standards, Nova normally has one of the most settled lineups in the industry, but 2023 will be a little different with two new breakfast programs and a new national program featuring next year.
The first is Ben, Liam, & Belle which is already on-air in the Nova Melbourne breakfast slot. Latimer said that it is a very different show but they are confident it will do well in its new market.
“Ben, Liam & Belle are on air, we wanted to get them started early and the shows sounding good. It’s a different type of show to Chrissie, Sam & Browny but we’ve got some great marketing plans already underway in Melbourne. The content strategy for that show we think is going to do very well in the market.”
Ben, Liam, and Belle
With Ben and Liam taking the Melbourne breakfast slow, this left an opening in Adelaide which was filled by Jodie Oddy and sports journalist Andrew Hayes. Latimer described this new program as another unique offering.
“We’ve got Ben and Liam doing the early 6am hour in Adelaide, and then Jodie and Haysey coming in Seven till Nine. We know the boys were very popular in Adelaide, so just we’ll be maintaining their presence. Jodie and Haysey is just a real Adelaide show.”
Jodie & Hayesy
Despite leaving Melbourne breakfast, Chrissie Swan has stayed in the Nova family by hosting her own national radio show next year, The Chrissie Swan Show. Latimer said that Swan has been one of Nova’s best-kept secrets for many years.
“We are really glad to find her national role at the network, 3pm to 4pm is really important for us from an audience perspective and also commercially. I don’t think there’s going to be a show like it and we’re looking forward to kicking it off in January.”
Chrissie Swan