Ben Fordham beats ABC, Kyle and Jackie O in Sydney radio ratings

Ben Fordham and Ray Hadley have led a resurgence for 2GB in the radio ratings with Kyle and Jackie O forced to hand over their breakfast crowns.

Ben Fordham is back on top as the king of Sydney radio with a remarkable turnaround for AM station 2GB.

Mornings host Ray Hadley has also had a phenomenal survey result as the fifth radio ratings of 2021 have been released.

With Sydney up to week 10 of lockdown, radio listeners have sought to keep on top of the news on the AM dial.

Ben Fordham in his Pyrmont studio. Picture: John Feder/The Australian.

Fordham jumped a whopping 3.5 percentage points to a leading share in the breakfast market of 16.8 per cent, ahead of nearest rival ABC with its 14 per cent share, up 2.1 percentage points.

KIIS FM duo Kyle Sandilands and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson, who were the leaders in breakfast in the last survey, fell back to third position after falling 3.4 percentage points to a share of 12.1 per cent.

Fordham told The Daily Telegraph that he hopes 2GB is “providing some certainty and companionship.”

“The only thing on the mind of Sydneysiders is when this lockdown is going to end and when people can see their family and friends,” he said.

“They want the latest information and expert analysis but they also want someone to challenge the sometimes chaotic game plan. I think we all feel a little bit lost at the moment.

Across all stations in all timeslots, 2GB rose 3.4 percentage points to a top share of 15.2 per cent, ahead of nearest rival, ABC Sydney at 11.9 per cent, up 2.3 percentage points.

KIIS 106.5 came in at 8.7 per cent, down 1.9, followed by smoothFM at 8.1 per cent, down 1.6, and WSFM at 8.1 per cent, down 0.2.

“Talk radio can and does make a difference in people’s lives. Across the talk radio network our strategy of live and local content is delivering with total audience up almost seven per cent,” 2GB executive Greg Byrnes said. “2GB’s result is particularly pleasing given the extraordinary work that’s been going on behind the scenes over many months.”

Third place … Kyle and Jackie O.

It is worth noting that 2GB overall had a big increase in listeners aged 55-64 tuning in to the station. There, the audience jumped 10.7 share points to a leading 23.2 per cent share.

In mornings, Hadley shot up 6.2 percentage points to a share of 19.9 per cent. The next station in this timeslot came in at 11.2 per cent, with ABC Sydney jumping 2.5 percentage points.

Speaking on air this morning, Hadley said 19.9 per cent “would be close to our best ever figure in the 20 years I have been doing the program” and described the result as “a bit amazing and a bit surreal”.

Hadley recorded a huge result in the mornings timeslot. Picture: Jonathan Ng

“I must stress as we get through this that the survey has been greatly impacted by Covid and obviously talk stations … would benefit by the fact that we supply much of the information,” he said. “This is quite remarkable. It is gratifying. What we try to do here is to keep you

informed, usually we try to entertain you as well, that is a bit more difficult when we are dealing with serious issues like Covid but we will keep doing our very best to do both and thank you to all of the listeners who have responded after what happened in recent times by

turning their dials to us in both Sydney and Brisbane to get their information on Covid.”

Of Fordham’s result, Hadley noted: “And well done to Ben, who was of course knocked about a bit by that last survey in the media but he has returned as I thought he may and done a particularly good job to get back to 16.8.”

There are eight radio surveys released by GFK each year.

Last survey, Sandilands and Henderson trumped Fordham as the top radio show in Sydney with a 15.5 per cent share of the breakfast market, a jump of 2.6 percentage points on the previous ratings survey. Fordham came in at 13.3 per cent, representing a drop of just 0.2 of a percentage point. In June 2020, Fordham replaced Alan Jones, who had helmed the number one breakfast show for a record 226 surveys.

Elsewhere in today’s survey results, Deb Knight on 2GB afternoons scored a leading share of 12.7 per cent between 12pm and 3pm. That represents a jump of 4.2 share points.

In drive on 2GB, Jim Wilson increased his audience by 1.5 share points to a 9.2 per cent share in his timeslot of 3pm to 6pm.

Industry commentator and publisher of Radio Today Jake Challenor said music proved no match for news in the latest survey.

“FM networks took an unsurprising battering,” he said. “The big test for the talk format, however, will be when pandemic fatigue sets in again, and people go in search of an escape from the Covid chaos. That’s when you should expect to see stations like smoothFM and WSFM pull listeners away from 2GB and ABC.”