Radio Ratings: Nova dominates as a new player emerges in Brisbane’s radio wars

Nova has retained its crown in the first radio survey of 2021 as a surprise new player emerged in Brisbane’s radio wars.

Nova has continued its stronghold of Brisbane’s radio ratings as 2021 shuffles the rest of the pack with Triple J emerging as a surprise new player.

After winning consecutive surveys in the post-lockdown end to radio ratings in 2020, Nova retained the mantle as Brisbane’s most listened to station in the first survey of the year, released today, as well as winning the key breakfast and drive timeslots.

4KQ lead the pack overall in the AM battle for a consecutive survey, bettering ABC Brisbane and a struggling 4BC.

B105 was a winner in the first result in 2021 coming in second overall and also leapfrogging stablemates Triple M to win both the mornings and afternoons timeslots through local hosts Brad Wood and Rohan Edwards.

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In breakfast, listeners continued to switch over to the AM dial, with ABC Brisbane’s Craig Zonca and Loretta Ryan coming in second behind Nova’s dominant Ash, Kip, Luttsy & Susie with an 11 per cent audience share, in front of 4KQ’s Laurel, Gary and Mark on 10.8 per cent.

The two stations pipped Triple M, which remained unmoved on 10.6 per cent in the first hit out for new duo Marguax Parker and Greg Martin since Nick Cody left the show at the end of 2020.

B105 was in fifth followed by 97.3’s struggling breakfast show Robin, Terry and Bob, which was bolstered by the biggest gain in breakfast of 1.8 points to 10 per cent of the audience.

“The Brisbane radio landscape is known in the industry as extremely competitive with great broadcasting talent so it’s always a thrill to get a win here,” Nova’s group program operations director Brendan Taylor said.

“Brisbane has six breakfast shows all within a point of each other, so to be on top for the fourth survey in a row shows you are connecting with your audience.”

“We have one of the heritage shows in the market with content that is consistently fun and familiar for Nova audiences.”

“The figure I’m particularly thrilled with is the cumulative audience one, as we’re reaching 627,000 listeners which is almost 100,000 thousand listeners to our nearest rivals which shows our strong connection to our audience.”

“Susie (O’Neill) continues to surprise and delight audiences every day and we all love watching her develop and evolve into a powerhouse broadcaster after her extraordinary sporting career.”

4BC’s local content had a sluggish start to the year, losing ground in every timeslot.

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Neil Breen slipped to seventh in breakfast while Ray Hadley fell 1.9 points in the mornings, coming in behind rivals 4KQ, and Scott Emerson’s drive show fell 2.3 points, behind ABC and 4KQ.

But it was Triple J that managed to gain audience share across the board.

The station had the largest overall audience growth, gaining 2.3 points to come in fifth, ahead of ABC and 4BC, and jumped a mammoth 4.7 points to come second in drive behind Nova – beating Triple M and the struggling B105 drive show.

The results could indicate a change in listening habits for Brisbane audiences looking to engage in news content and discussions in the saturated 2021 news cycle.

RADIO WINNERS

Overall FM: Nova, 11.4 per cent (-1.1)

Overall AM: 4KQ, 9.0 per cent (-0.4)

Breakfast: Nova, 11.4 per cent (-1.6)

Mornings: B105, 11.4 per cent (+2.2)

Afternoons: B105, 13.3 per cent (+2.7)

Drive: Nova, 14.8 per cent (-1.1)

BREAKFAST

1. Nova, 11.4 per cent (-1.1)

2. ABC Brisbane, 11.0 per cent (+1.1)

3. 4KQ, 10.8 per cent (+0.3)

4. Triple M, 10.6 per cent (0.0)

5. B105, 10.3 per cent (+1.0)

6. 97.3FM, 10.0 per cent (+1.8)

7. 4BC, 7.9 per cent (-1.2)

(Source: GfK)