Sydney radio ratings: Kyle and Jackie O are #1 again, ABC slumps to worst ever result
Kyle Sandilands has joked on air about his text to radio rival Ben Fordham after the KIIS FM breakfast show took out top spot in the latest ratings drop, while ABC’s host shakeup saw them slump to worst-ever ratings.
Confidential
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Sydney’s radio ratings flip flop continues, with Kyle and Jackie O back on top in the all important breakfast timeslot in the second survey of the year.
It comes as the KIIS FM duo returned to the tools in their new Sydney office after fans fumed that a week of repeats was played in March.
The volatility of the Sydney market looks set to continue, as KIIS trumped 2GB’s Ben Fordham with their leading breakfast audience share of 16.1 per cent and Fordham at 14.9.
It represents a rise of 0.7 of a percentage point for the KIIS FM duo and a 1.7 percentage point drop for Fordham and sees a reverse on the first radio ratings survey results for 2024.
There are eight GfK ratings surveys released in a calendar year.
ABC Radio Sydney’s audience share has slumped to its lowest level since records began in the second radio ratings survey of the year.
The network delivered an audience share of 5.1 per cent, down from 5.4 per cent in the first survey of the year, with its significant running order shake-up failing to shift the dial.
Craig Reucassel replaced James Valentine at breakfast this year.
ABC Radio Sydney had the eighth-largest share in the market, with the station’s overall cumulative audience at 510,000, down from 572,000 in the previous survey. The market-leading KIIS FM’s audience was 1.39 million.
Valentine’s second survey back in the afternoon slot yielded a minor gain, rising from a 3.5 per cent share to a 3.9 per cent share. Valentine announced in March he would be taking a break from radio after being diagnosed with oesophageal cancer.
The ABC’s radio arm recently staged a signifigant overhaul by removing hosts and switching presenters to different time slots in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane — but with all three stations shedding thousands of listeners, it hasn’t helped improve declining audiences.
Meanwhile in mornings, smoothfm is closing in on Ray Hadley, increasing their audience share by 0.3 of a percentage point to bring them up to 13.0 — just half a percentage point behind Hadley’s 13.5 audience share, after dropping by 0.6.
It is Hadley’s 156th survey on top.
Across all stations and all timeslots, 2GB came out on top in the second survey with an audience share of 11.9 per cent, down 0.8. Then came smoothfm with its share of 11 per cent, up 0.2. This means smoothfm and KIIS tied for second place, with KIIS on a share of 11.0 per cent, up 0.5 per cent from the first survey of the year.
That was enough to lift them out of third place.
In terms of audience numbers, Kyle and Jackie O have this survey period drawn a total audience of 834,000 listeners from 5.30am to 9am, down 17,000, compared to Fordham on 2GB at 407,000, down 47,000.
This marks the second survey for 2024 and both breakfast radio shows have shed significant amounts of total audience listeners in each.
This comes as The Kyle and Jackie O Show gears up to launch in Melbourne next fortnight, from Monday April 29.
The KIIS FM’s extension into Melbourne is part of the landmark 10-year deal Sandilands and Henderson signed last November with ARN worth $200m.
On Thursday morning, Sandilands and Henderson were interviewing a UK woman with “two vaginas” about how her anatomy worked.
“Which hole do you prefer to be filled by the fella?” shock jock Sanidlands asked in a serious tone.
Addressing their ratings win on air, Sandilands said: “Surprise surprise, here we are once again. Number one AM and FM, no one comes near us.”
“Let me give a special acknowledgement nod to Fitzy and Wippa over at Nova who had the biggest ratings they’ve ever had in the history of their show.”
Nova 96.9’s Fitzy & Wippa with Kate Ritchie achieved their best ever results, with 8.9 percent of the audience share and an increase of 0.5 share points.
“To achieve our best numbers for Sydney breakfast on record is truly fantastic,” Kate Ritichie told The Daily Telegraph.
“The entire team has worked incredibly hard to get to this moment and we’re excited for the rest of 2024.”
“Although we’re double their ratings and us at our worst ratings ever of all time, we still had more than Fitzy,” Sandilands continued.
“Whilst I’m giving them a nod — half decent numbers finally — they’re still not as good as our worst ever numbers.”
As for his mate and radio rival Fordham, Sandilands gave an update on the friendly fire the radio hosts like to exchange by text.
“Ben Fordham, tumble down,” he gloated of 2GB’s slide from number one in the first survey of the year, back into second place.
“I had the great pleasure of sending him a text to let him know that once again he is a loser,” Sandilands joked.
“He doesn’t respond until about lunch time. Ben’s in meetings all day, too busy reading The Australian.”
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