KIIS FM’s Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O beat Ben Fordham in Sydney’s breakfast radio ratings

2GB’s Ben Fordham has slipped from number one in Sydney’s all important breakfast radio ratings. Find out who took out the top spot.

There is a new number one in Sydney radio.

KIIS FM duo Kyle Sandilands and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson have trumped market leader Ben Fordham on 2GB in the all important breakfast radio ratings.

In the seventh GfK radio ratings survey of eight for the year, Kyle and Jackie O registered a 14.9 per cent share of the breakfast listening audience, a smidge above Fordham at 14.8 per cent.

That represents a massive 2.1 percentage point jump for Kyle and Jackie O and a 2.1 percentage point decline for Fordham.

It is a huge shift in a market that Fordham has dominated since taking over from Alan Jones in June 2020.

2GB host Ben Fordham. Picture: AAP Image/Joel Carrett

KIIS FM’s Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O.

It is just the second time in that period that Fordham has lost the number one spot.

“You win some, you lose some,” Fordham said on Tuesday.

“Head to head we’ve won 16 surveys and they’ve won two. Good luck to them. We’ll be back.”

KIIS FM breakfast hosts Jackie "O" Henderson and Kyle Sandilands at the Australian Commercial Radio Awards. Picture: Supplied

Predecessor Jones maintained the number one spot in breakfast for a whopping 226 survey periods.

Across all stations, 2GB however remains top of the Sydney dial with a total overall share of 11.6 per cent of the listening audience, down 1.2 percentage points.

KIIS FM overall registered an 11.2 per cent share (up 1.8), ahead of nearest rival smoothfm 95.3 at 10.3 per cent (down 0.6), ABC Sydney at 7.8 per cent (down 0.9), WSFM at 7.7 per cent up 0.7) and Nova 96.9 at 7.1 per cent (up 0.3).

In mornings, 2GBs Ray Hadley scored a 13.3 per cent share of the market, down 2.3 percentage points, ahead of KIIS 106.5 at 12.7 per cent (up 1.7), and smoothfm at 11.3 per cent (down 1.4).

2GB broadcaster Ray Hadley.

The rise for Kyle and Jackie O comes after a series of controversies for the show that sparked out of the last survey results in which the duo came second to Fordham in terms of audience percentage in breakfast.

Sandilands argued that cumulative audience figures are more important than the audience percentage share, although percentage share is the industry standard of measurement.

He was forced to apologise on air after labelling his bosses and colleagues “spazzes”; “losers”; “flops” and “absolute a … holes”.

Kyle and Jackie O were crowned Best On-Air Team in the FM category for the record eighth time at the 2022 Australian Commercial Radio Awards, where they were also inducted into the Commercial Radio Hall of Fame.

DROPS FOR 2GB AFTERNOON, DRIVE

Not only did radio ratings drop for 2GB’s Ben Fordham in the breakfast timeslot, the string of bad luck continued for the network’s afternoon and drive programs, which also performed poorly in the survey.

2GB’s Afternoons with Deborah Knight (noon 12pm to 3pm on weekdays) was in fourth place with a rating of 7.3% in the survey, a 1.3% drop for Knight from the previous survey.

Smooth FM took out the top spot in the afternoons category with 13.5%, followed by KIIS on 10.4% and WSFM on 8.1%.

In the drive timeslot (3pm to 6pm) 2GB’s Jim Wilson came in a lowly sixth place, behind KIIS, Smooth FM, Nova, ABC and WSFM.

Wilson’s show recorded a mere 6.6% of total radio market share, a result which sees him fall from 8.2% in the previous survey.

Drive leaders KISS, which include Monty, Yumi Stynes & Kate Langbroek’s 3pm Pick Up program and the Will & Woody show, scored a result of 11.6% on the survey followed by Smooth on 10.%, Nova on 9.3%, ABC on 8.5% and WSFM on 7.1%.