2GB’s Ben Fordham beats Kyle and Jackie O in Sydney breakfast radio ratings

Sydney’s new breakfast radio king has ended the ratings on high with a dominant survey win well ahead of Kyle and Jackie O.

Sydney’s new breakfast radio king has ended the radio ratings year on a high.

2GB’s Ben Fordham triumphed yet again in the eighth and final GfK ratings of 2020, jumping one percentage point to a leading share of the Sydney breakfast market of 17.1 per cent.

That’s well ahead of his nearest rivals, KIIS 106.5 duo Kyle Sandilands and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson, at 11.3 per cent (up 0.6).

It has been a phenomenal year for Fordham, who took the mantle from Alan Jones when he stood down from his post earlier this year. His success shows a changing of the guard at the station has paid off.

Ben Fordham has cemented himself as Sydney’s new breakfast radio king. Picture: Joel Carrett

Alan Jones on his final day in radio before Fordham took the reins.

“It has been a tough year for everyone so maybe we’ve provided a connection for people in tough times,” Fordham told The Daily Telegraph. “We just love waking up with Sydney and appreciate Sydney waking up with us.”

Across all timeslots, 2GB recorded a slight rise of 0.1 of a percentage point to a leading share of 13.8 per cent, followed by smoothfm 95.3 at 9.9 per cent (down 0.9), KIIS at 9.7 per cent (up 1) and ABC Sydney at 8.5 per cent (up 0.2).

Like many sectors, it has been an unusual year for radio ratings with the official figures halted due to coronavirus for several months.

The hard reset meant the ratings were truly unpredictable for the first time in more than a decade.

Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O were second in the breakfast ratings to Fordham.

Elsewhere in breakfast, ABC Sydney came in third with a 10.5 per cent share, down 0.1, with smoothfm at 7.9 (down 0.6), Brendan ‘Jonesy’ Jones and Amanda Keller on WSFM at 7.4 per cent (down 0.9) and Nova 96.9s Ryan ‘Fitzy’ Fitzgerald and Michael ‘Wippa’ Wipfli at 7.3 per cent (up 0.6).

Down further was 2Day FM with a 4.2 per cent share, an increase of 0.7 of a percentage point. Parent company SCA last month announced a new breakfast team for 2Day in Dave Hughes, Erin Molan and Ed Kavalee that will premiere in 2021.

Ed Kavalee, Dave Hughes and Erin Molan will be hoping to turn around 2Day’s ratings in 2021.

In mornings, 2GB’s Ray Hadley led the pack with a share of 17.1 per cent, down 0.1 of a percentage point. Hadley’s nearest rival is smoothFM with its share of 10.4 per cent (down 1.9).

On Monday, Hadley abandoned the microphone half an hour before the end of his show due to illness and this morning said he was recovering well.

“All in all it has just been a fantastic three surveys with this COVID interrupted survey period,” Hadley said back on air this morning. “Well done to Ben. Well done to all of my staff on the morning program, they can have a nice long rest come Friday and come back all fired up ready to go in 2021.”

In drive, smoothFM’s Byron Webb was the most listened to show with a leading 10.8 per cent of the market, a drop of 0.5, ahead of KIIS duo Will McMahon and Woody Whitelaw at 10.2 per cent (up 0.1) and new Nova team Kate Ritchie, Tim Blackwell and Joel Creasey at 9.4 per cent, up 1.8.