Mixed results for 3AW in ratings after hosts shuffle

3AW’s hosts shuffle has reaped mixed results, with mornings holding steady without Neil Mitchell while its new drive show delivered its worst result in more than a decade.

3AW’s drive timeslot has lost ground to rivals in Jacqui Felgate’s first few months. Picture: Wayne Taylor

3AW has experienced its worst ratings result in its afternoon drive timeslot in more than a decade, giving new star recruit Jacqui Felgate a rocky start on the airwaves.

About 66,000 listeners switched off from 3aw during the 3pm to 6pm stretch in a single survey, according to the first radio ratings survey for the year which examines the period between January 14 and February 24.

It means the audience share has dropped down 2 percentage points to 8.2 per cent for Felgate who replaced Tom Elliot in the drive slot this year.

Felgate became embroiled in a sponsorship saga last year while she was a fill-in host at 3AW after it was revealed she had 15 lucrative sponsorship deals with many brands — including Chemist Warehouse, BMW and Smile Solutions — that had not been declared by the station.

Tom Elliott’s mornings program had a small ratings win in the first lot of ratings since Neil Mitchell’s departure. Picture: David Crosling

Elsewhere, the departure of Melbourne radio veteran Neil Mitchell hasn’t hurt 3AW’s fortunes. Mitchell’s mornings show replacement, Elliott, registered an audience share of 16.8 per cent in his first survey in his new timeslot, up 0.5 percentage points on Mitchell’s last ratings result in December.

Top of the breakfast pile again was Ross Stevenson and Russel Howcroft who extended their dominance from 18.1 to a 19.6 per cent share.

The absence of major competition in the FM breakfast spot — following the delay of Kyle and Jackie O’s entry into Melbourne on KIIS FM and Lauren and Jase’s recent move to Nova — has given GOLD FM host Christian O’Connell and FOX FM trio Fifi, Fev and Nick a big boost.

The Kyle and Jackie ‘O’ show lost top spot in the Sydney market’s breakfast timeslot, though, overtaken by 2GB’s talkback host Ben Fordham.

ABC Melbourne, which ended last survey with a 1.4 point drop overall in market share, came in at 8.1 in breakfast with host Sammy J.

The decision to shift drivetime host Raf Epstein to the mornings timeslot late last year is yet to pay dividends for the ABC, with his audience share falling in the first survey of 2024, down 0.9 points to 7.0.

It brings his audience down to a mere 249,000 for the timeslot.