Neil Breen bids emotional goodbye to 4BC, successor still unidentified

4BC host Neil Breen is exiting the station with no idea who his replacement is, and while the ratings on his show are on the slide, there’s a heartening development.

4BC ratings have taken a substantial hit amid the impending departure of Brisbane Live host Neil Breen, with a replacement yet to be announced.

The station had the biggest drop across the drive timeslot of 1.9 points in market share, down to 5.8 per cent, dwarfed by Nova at 14.4 and B105 at 13.2.

After three years, Breen will farewell the show on June 23, and has had little to do with finding his replacement.

“I’m totally in the dark. And it’s exactly how I like it,” he said.

“That is something I have totally stayed out of.

“I’ve told station management and Nine radio management that I want to have nothing to do with it.”

4BC did make some headway in the ratings, with Breen’s the most-streamed show from 3pm to 6pm.

B105 ruled the roost though, celebrating its second consecutive victory in the city’s fiercely contested radio ratings.

The station scored the highest station and breakfast program ratings through Stav, Abby & Matt, while also seizing the best afternoon and weekend rankings.

It marks B105’s second consecutive win against rival station Nova 106.9, which came in a narrow second, just 0.4 points behind.

Neil Breen is set to hang up the mike, for now. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

B105 also enjoyed a 1.2-point jump for its drive show Carrie and Tommy, although still trails behind the drive-time frontrunners Nova 106.9’s Ricki Lee, Tim and Joel, who continue to lead the category, despite a 0.7-point dip, their third drop since January.

With 733,000 listeners, an increase of 26,000 from April’s survey, Nova remains the most-listened-to station in Brisbane.

Those numbers are however dwarfed by The Courier-Mail’s own figures, with a monthly digital audience more than four times that of its nearest local commercial “competitor”.

Almost 3.3 million people read their news in April on couriermail.com.au – 4.3 times the audience of the Nine Entertainment Group’s Brisbane Times, which attracted just 755,000 readers in the entire month.

In terms of engagement, couriermail.com.au also attracted 33 million page views in April.

In other results, 4BH 1116 emerged as the No.1 AM station, dethroning 4BC with a 0.5 point gain in market share.

ABC’s breakfast show, hosted by Craig Zonca and Loretta Ryan, saw its fourth consecutive drop, losing 0.2 points.

Triple M continued to lead the mornings segment on 12.9 per cent while holding fourth place for drive time.

This survey incorporated listeners’ streaming data for the first time, giving an in-depth understanding of shifting audience behaviour in the digital age.