Today marks the second radio ratings of 2018, including digital radio ratings, with results representing 11 February to 3 March and 11 March to 14 April.
In the second of eight radio ratings surveys for the year, for the Sydney market, yet again Macquarie Radio Network’s talkback show 2GB pulled in the most listeners, with an 11.5% share of Sydneysider ears.
In second spot for total listeners, but first spot in the market's commercial music FM offerings, Australian Radio Network's (ARN) Kiis 106.5 earned a 9.5% share, up from 8.1% in survey one, representing a strong 1.4% jump.
Nova's Smooth FM came in next with 8.5%, followed by its main competitor ARN's WSFM, which had 9% share last survey, but has now dropped to an 8.5% share.
Em, Grant & Ed gain ground in breakfast
In the advertiser sweet spot of breakfast, between 5.30am to 9am, 2GB again wins out, with a 14.3% share of listeners.
Looking at the FM breakfast slots across Sydney, Kyle and Jackie O continued their dominance of breakfast, with a stellar 12.3% share – up from a 10% share in survey one.
With Kyle and Jackie O closing in on 2GB, should the AM station be worried?
Next up, in third spot was ABC Sydney with a 9.7% share, then WSFM with an 8.1% share - a marked drop from its 9% share in survey one. Nova's 96.9 took out a 6.9% share and Smooth dropped to a 6.6% share.
Perhaps the silent star of the breakfast ratings is the 2DayFM breakfast trio of with Em, Grant & Ed, which earned a 4.4% share of breakfast, up from a 3.4% share in survey one.
The stats are the highest for 2Day Breakfast since survey eight 2013.
It may be the third year running SCA’s Sydney 2dayFM has had a new breakfast spot line up at the start of the year, following Rove & Sam in 2016, The Em Rusciano Radio Show with Harley Breen in 2017 and now for 2018, Em, Grant & Ed, but it may have been worth the wait.
Drive time action
In October the emergence of a new national drive show for the Kiis Network, featuring Melbournian “rising stars” ‘Will & Woody’, aka Will McMahon and Woody Whitelaw, was revealed. The latest radio survey results across the 4-7pm drive time slot shows the Kiis106.5's pair are working wonders, having scooped an 11% share – up from a 9.1% share in survey one.
The move followed Dave ‘Hughesy’ Hughes and Kate Langbroek moving from ARN to rival radio group SCA's Hit Network - filling the gap set to be left by long-standing drive hosts Hamish & Andy.
Next up in drive was Nova's 96.9's Kate, Tim and Marty, with a 10.2% share, down from its 10.5% share last survey.
Newbies on 2Day FM drive, Hughesy & Kate, earned a 5.5% share.
Digital radio wars
Looking at the digital radio scene in Sydney, ARN's Edge Digital channel, which has been going for four years, takes the share of overall listeners.
Of the 698,000 total DAB+ listeners across the city (which is an increase of 9000 listeners compared to the last survey), 106,00 listened to Edge.
The second most listened to digital radio channel is ABC Jazz, with 95k fans, up from 77k. Third spot goes to SCA's Triple M Greatest Hits, which pulled in 81k listeners, up from 68k.
Sydney:
Melbourne:
In the second radio ratings of the year, SCA's 101.9 Fox FM took out the top spot for total audience share, reaching 11.4% and growing by 0.6 percentage points.
Nova's Smooth FM came in second with an audience share of 10.1%, falling by 0.2 percentage points. It was followed closely by ARN's Gold 104.3, which grew 0.3 percentage points, reaching an audience share of 10%.
For the AM stations, 3AW remained number one with a 13.7% audience share, growing by 0.5 percentage points.
SCA's Fox FM breakfast show trio of Fifi, Fev and Bryon remained in the top spot, holding on to its 10.3% audience share.
As a fan favourite among Melbourne listeners, the show has now proved its place at the top, after spending last year, repeatedly coming in second place to Nova's 100 breakfast program.
Nova owned Smooth FM 91.5 came in second, with its More Music breakfast show hosted by Mike Perso growing by 0.3 percentage points to an 8.1% audience share.
It overtook sister station Nova 100's Chrissie, Sam and Browny show, which was pushed down to third place, dropping off by 0.4 percentage points taking an 8.0% audience share.
Despite dropping by 0.4 percentage points, the new ARN Gold 104.3 breakfast show, hosted by UK radio personality Chris O'Connell, took an audience share of 7.0%, holding out against Triple M's Hot Breakfast Show with Eddie McGuire. McGuire's show dropped 1.0 percentage points, falling from third to fifth place, garnering an audience share of 6.9%.
For the AM stations, 3AW continued to reign supreme with an impressive 19% share in breakfast.
Drive time action
In the drive slot, Fox FM's drive show teams, Carrie & Tommy followed by Hughesy and Kate continued to impress, taking the top spot with a 13.4% audience share, up 0.7 percentage points.
Trailing behind Fox FM was both Gold 104.3 and Nova 100, which both tied for the second spot.
Gold 104.3's Gavin Miller grew his show's audience share the most, reaching 9.3%, the same audience as Nova 100's Kate, Tim & Marty, but leapt up by 1.2 percentage points compare to Nova 100's 0.6 points.
Smooth FM's Byron Webb was bumped down to fourth place with a 9.0% audience share, despite growing by 0.2 percentage points.
The second round of ratings was also the second inclusion of digital radio ratings. In total people, Coles Radio had the highest audience, growing by 10,000 listeners and reaching a total audience of 69,000. ABC Jazz came in second with 59,000, up 9000 and Aussie came in third with 56,000 total listeners, up 5000.
Brisbane:
Perth:
Adelaide:
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