Ray Hadley takes radio ratings hit after adopting hard line on Covid

Ray Hadley has taken a huge hit in the first radio ratings survey of 2022.

Ray Hadley has taken a huge hit in the first radio ratings survey of 2022.

The 2GB mornings host has notched up his 139th consecutive survey win, despite a significant 3.5 percentage point drop in audience share to a lead of 14.9 per cent in the timeslot.

The result comes after Hadley’s show has been dominated by discussions around Covid-19 and the health orders, when other programs on the station have moved on to other news. Hadley too has been strongly critical of Premier Dominic Perrottet, repeatedly criticising him for not going hard enough when it comes to the pandemic.

The veteran broadcaster usually dedicates at least a few minutes of his show to discussing the ratings and his success but on Thursday kept it to just a few sentences after the ratings were released.

“Congratulations to all of my colleagues, particularly Ben (Fordham) leading the charge at breakfast,” Hadley told listeners this morning.

2GB radio host Ben Fordham in his Sydney studio. Picture: John Feder

It has been a red-hot start for 2GB breakfast host Fordham, who has proven time and time again the station does not need Alan Jones in the timeslot to triumph.

Fordham, who took over from Jones in 2020, has smashed the first GfK radio ratings survey of the year with a leading 19 per cent share of the breakfast market, up 0.5 of a percentage point.

That is well ahead of any competition with ABC Sydney down 1.6 percentage points to an 11.6 per cent share, ahead of Kyle Sandilands and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson on KIIS with 10.6 per cent (down 0.2).

“It’s a challenging time for a lot of people at the moment so there’s no time to stop and think about it,” Fordham told The Daily Telegraph.

“We’re busy getting ready for the flood telethon this weekend that will hopefully raise a lot of money. Live and local radio is vital when there’s heavy rain and floodwaters are rising. But I’d be crazy not to thank the 2GB listeners – they’re the best.”

KIIS’s Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O.

2GB’s Ray Hadley.

In October, the Telegraph exclusively revealed Fordham had stepped down from hosting reality TV show Ninja Warrior to focus on his radio show.

“I am not going to be hosting Australian Ninja Warrior going forward because I found that it placed so much pressure on my family and on the breakfast show,” Fordham said at the time. “I’ve decided that it would be better for me just to focus on the main game, which is breakfast radio. For the sake of my mental fitness and also my family, I think it is better to call it a day on Ninja Warrior and focus on radio.”

It is an interesting survey in that the first of eight in a year represents a hard reset with no rolling data taken into account. This means that there is no carry-on from the previous ratings surveys.

Across all stations and timeslots 2GB remains market leader, with a 13.8 per cent share (down 0.7), ahead of ABC Sydney at 9.2 (down 0.2).

KIIS is the top station on the FM dial with an 8.8 per cent audience share, followed by WSFM on 8.4 per cent (down 0.4), smoothFM at 7.7 (down 0.2), Triple J at 7.3 per cent (up 1.1) and Nova 96.9 stable at 6.8 per cent.

Behind Hadley in the morning shift is nearest rival WSFM at 9.1 per cent.