ABC Radio Melbourne falls further in the ratings

Listeners of ABC Radio Melbourne are continuing to abandon the station across key timeslots, with one veteran broadcaster losing almost half of their listeners in the past 18 months.

The ratings woes of ABC Radio Melbourne have deepened, with the latest audience survey showing listeners continue to desert the station across key timeslots.

Ratings data by research company GfK, released on Tuesday, shows ABC Melbourne now sits in seventh position overall across all timeslots — a far cry from 18 months ago, when it was in fourth spot and a close competitor to main rival 3AW.

The ABC’s total radio audience share in the Victorian capital slipped by 0.2 percentage points in this survey to 6.0, with the station shedding listeners in the key morning, afternoon and drive timeslots, hosted by Virginia Trioli, Jacinta Parsons and Rafael Epstein respectively.

Virginia Trioli. Picture: ABC

Rafael Epstein. Picture: ABC

In December 2021, ABC Melbourne had a 10.1 per cent share of all radio listeners in the city.

Trioli’s continuing ratings slide will be of particular concern to ABC management; the veteran broadcaster dropped a further 0.3 points to 7.7 per cent audience share in this survey, meaning she has lost almost half of her listeners in the past year-and-a-half.

ABC Radio Melbourne also shed an average of 26,000 listeners — or 4 per cent of its total audience — across the survey, which stretched from February 26 to May 20.

The one bright spot for ABC Radio Melbourne in the third survey of the year was the improved performance of the breakfast program, hosted by Sammy J.

The comedian grew his audience share by 0.5 points to 7.2.

Australian comedian Samuel McMillan, known as Sammy J. Picture: ABC

Last month, it was revealed that all on-air presenters at ABC Radio’s metropolitan stations ­nationwide are “on notice” ahead of the tabling of an internal report into the troubled network.

One factor being considered by the nine-person advisory group, which is spearheaded by the broadcaster’s head of corporate strategy, Jeremy Millar, is the failure to recruit fresh talent from outside the taxpayer-funded giant, which has left its airwaves dominated by “ABC lifers”, according to a well-placed source.

It is expected that the findings of that review could be released before the end of the month.

Ross Stevenson and Russel Howcroft. Picture: Supplied

The Nine-owned 3AW continues to dominate the Melbourne market, despite a 1.0 drop in its overall audience share.

Breakfast duo Ross Stevenson and Russel Howcroft slipped 1.6 points, from 21.1 to 19.5, maintaining a comfortable lead over GOLD104.3’s Christian O’Connell, who is second in the lucrative timeslot with an audience share of 10.8 (down from 11.1 per cent in the previous survey.

Ratings for Neil Mitchell’s morning show on 3AW fell by 1.0 points to 18.2, but he retains a large lead over his rivals.