ABC Melbourne’s worst ever radio result as high-profile breakfast duo fails to fire
The ABC’s high-profile breakfast pairing of Bob Murphy and Sharnelle Vella has limped out of the blocks, contributing to the network’s worst Melbourne results.
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Big changes to ABC Melbourne’s radio line-up have failed to win over listeners with the public broadcaster slumping to a new ratings low.
The high-profile pairing of journalist Sharnelle Vella and former Western Bulldogs captain Bob Murphy in the breakfast slot, who took over from Sammy J in January, drove a ratings dip from an audience share of 7.9 per cent to 6.3 per cent.
Raf Epstein on Mornings, who follow the pair, was down from 5.9 per cent to 4.5 per cent, while Ali Moore in Drive fell from 5 per cent to 4.4 per cent.
New afternoons host Brigitte Duclos ended the ratings period at 3.2 per cent, down from 3.8 per cent.
The ABC’s 4.7 per cent share of radio listeners over all timeslots — down 1.2 percentage points — was the first time the network has fallen below the 5 per cent mark in Melbourne.
In the keenly fought battle for FM supremacy, Kyle and Jackie O saw no significant improvement.
The duo rose marginally from 5 per cent to 5.1 per cent and have made no real impact since syndicating in Melbourne from April last year.
Their recent vow to deliver less smut and behave saw their cumulative audience grow from 404,000 to 450,000.
That figure describes the number of people who listened for at least eight minutes during the survey period which ran from January 19 to March 1.
In Sydney however, they pulled in 13.3 per cent to be second overall in breakfast.
Gold 104.3’s Christian O’Connell reclaimed the lead, jumping to 11.5 per cent and overtaking last survey’s leaders, Nova’s Jase & Lauren, along with Clint Stanaway, who were still strong with a 10.1 per cent.
Triple M’s new line-up, Mick in the Morning with Roo, Titus & Rosie, had a promising result going from 6.6 per cent to 7.9 per cent.
FOX FM’s Fifi, Fev and Nick dropped to 8.4 per cent while Smooth FM’s Mike Perso was on 7.5 per cent.
3AW’s juggernaut of Ross Stevenson and Russel Howcroft extended its domination to 20.6, while Tom Elliott in mornings had a big jump of 3.9 to 19.2.
Afternoons with Tony Moclair jumped from 9.1 to 13.6 and Jacqui Felgate in the drive timeslot also went up from 8.5 to 11.4.
In the drive slot, Gold’s Dave ‘Higgo’ Higgins is the most listened to at 12.3 per cent with FOX FM’s Carrie and Tommy and Triple M’s The Rush Hour both rating well in the 9s.
Sports station SEN 1116 was down 0.5 in breakfast to 3.8 per cent but up 0.5 in mornings with Gerard Whateley moving to 3.6 per cent.
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