Brisbane radio stations launch wild stunts as 2025 ratings battle heats up

From epic hide-and-seek cash games to dating shows and dump button bingo, this is how Brisbane’s radio stations are trying to win you over in the battle for ratings.

From $20,000 hide-and-seek contests to on-air dating and wigged-up film re-enactments — Brisbane’s commercial radio stations are pulling out all the stops in the battle for breakfast dominance. With the first Radio Audience Measurement survey of 2025 set to drop Thursday, networks are ramping up high-stakes content strategies in a bid to shift the leaderboard — and unseat reigning champs Stav, Abby and Matt of B105, who topped the surveys in 2024.

Among the headline-grabbing stunts is KIIS 97.3’s “Brisbane’s biggest game of hide and seek”, which saw the hosts vanish for 73 hours as listeners hunted them down for $20,000. The show also launched a film re-enactment segment, with Oates donning wigs to play female characters in iconic scenes.

B105 Brisbane Stav, Abby & Matt hosts: Stav Davidson, Abby Coleman, Matty Acton. Photo: Supplied.

Over at Nova, brand new female co-host Nikki Osborne made her entrance with Nikki’s $10K Dump Button Bingo — a two-week competition playing off her reputation for colourful language. The station also revived its fan-favourite $50,000 Mystery Voices competition, last run with a cash prize in 2022.

Meanwhile, B105 isn’t playing it safe despite winning seven of the eight breakfast surveys in 2024.

Alongside long-running favourite Alpha Bucks and their major cash giveaway $1,000,000 Postcode Bingo, Stav, Abby and Matt have also launched an on-air dating show Pop It Like It’s Hot and teased plans for a Bluey-inspired children’s book.

Others are taking a more targeted approach. Triple M’s Marto, Margaux and Dan launched “A Million Dollars of Work”, a campaign connecting unemployed tradies with job opportunities across Brisbane.

Brisbane Radio war promotions by Nova 106.9 Brisbane with Ash, Luttsy and Nikki Osborne Picture Instagram

KIIS 97.3’s “Brisbane’s biggest game of hide and seek”, which saw the hosts vanish for 73 hours as listeners hunted them down for $20,000

But while the gimmicks may grab attention, industry experts are sceptical about whether they’ll deliver long-term gains.

“I think what it’s saying to us is that they have lost their way, and they have forgotten the foundations of radio, and they’re buying into all these sort of gimmicky approaches,” senior lecturer in radio and television broadcasting at the University of Southern Queensland, Dr Ashley Jones, said.

“Some of them can be a bit of fun, certainly, and you might get people to buy into some of them. But again, I cannot help but feel like they are scrambling to try to keep themselves in the ratings and to maintain their audience. But they, in many ways, have forgotten their audience.”

“There is some evidence to suggest that you may get some audience staying with the station … but by and large they [the audience] then move back to their former radio station or whatever else they were listening to.”

Brisbane Radio war promotions by TripleM Brisbane with Marto, Margaux and Dan Picture Instagram

With little separating the major stations in style and content, experts say the real challenge is differentiation — and standing out in a sea of “sameness”.

“There’s a lot of sameness across those four players in lots of ways, the kind of music, you know the kind of conversation that’s going on,” Dr Jones said.

Triple M’s Greg Marto Martin and Margaux Parker with Captain Andrew Craig RAN. Pic Annette Dew

The push for gimmicks and high-impact stunts comes as some networks consider replacing local breakfast shows with syndicated national programs.

KIIS 97.3 is reportedly under particular pressure, with industry speculation suggesting the Brisbane-based trio could be replaced with The Kyle and Jackie O Show if ratings don’t improve — a move experts warn could be “fatal” to local listener loyalty.

“That will be one of their great fatal mistakes if they lose local breakfast … It would be a very dangerous move to go out to syndicate,” Dr Jones said.

“Particularly with the kind of product that is put out by Kyle and Jackie O.”

Originally published as Brisbane radio stations launch wild stunts as 2025 ratings battle heats up