Nine bosses to blame for 2GB breakfast show ratings drop
2GB has lost the coveted breakfast slot for the first time since 2003 proving Nine’s big experiment with the station is failing spectacularly, writes Matthew Benns.
NSW
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Nine’s big experiment with 2GB is failing spectacularly.
It is like the bosses of Coca-Cola deciding to change the recipe to try and sell more – the only difference is the bosses at Coke would not be that daft again after it went so spectacularly wrong in 1985.
2GB has lost the coveted breakfast slot for the first time since 2003 with KIIS 106.5 due Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O Henderson taking it from Ben Fordham with a 2.65 per cent jump to a 15.5 per cent winning audience share.
Fordham only slipped 0.2 of a percentage point but it was enough on top of a steady ratings slide. The grace period he enjoyed after taking over from Alan Jones is over.
Just a few months ago Nine’s head of radio content Greg Byrnes was predicting the breakfast slot would be better than ever.
But he and Nine radio boss Tom Malone’s insistence on toning down the station, making it less confronting and more easy listening on the ears has alienated listeners.
These are the same bosses that paid Alan Jones to sit on the sidelines, put former TV presenters Deb Knight and Jim Wilson in the crucial afternoon slots, and left proven performers like Chris Smith in the weekend wilderness.
They are lucky Jones went to Sky TV and not a rival radio station.
The Nine bosses’ chase for younger listeners has alienated the previously rusted-on ones they took for granted. Newsflash – 2GB listeners do not want to listen to toothless tigers. They like to hear politicians being called to account by strident presenters who stick up for the little guy.
To prove the point morning show war horse Ray Hadley was the only one to win his spot outright – for the 134th consecutive time – with a 13.7 per cent audience share.
For the moment, 2GB is hanging on by its fingernails to the number one spot in Sydney but unless Nine’s radio bosses wake up and smell the airwaves that will not last.
The listeners are turning the dial for Pepsi.
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