Time On: Craig Hutchison says radio ratings an ‘old school’ metric

SEN boss Craig Hutchison has brushed off his station’s lowly ratings, saying he was running a “progressive business” more interested in modern metrics.

Craig Hutchison says SEN is more interested in modern metrics.

Time On is your Monday wrap-up of all the footy gossip from the weekend.

Hutchy defends ratings

SEN boss Craig Hutchison has launched a strong defence of his station’s lowly ratings, saying he’s not too fussed by the “old school” way of measurement.

After opening the radio ratings year with dire figures for its marquee shows, Hutchison said he was pleased with SEN’s improvements in the second survey and expects the numbers to keep rising.

He labelled his empire a progressive business which was more interested in modern metrics.

“Over the summer period we had a lot of challenges with people away and Covid and all of those things,’’ Hutchy told Time On.

SEN’s breakfast show featuring Garry Lyon and Tim Watson is up 0.6 in the ratings.

“We had some new people come in like Nathan Buckley and others. We had the core teams on a bit later than normal. I knew that our next survey would be much stronger and it was.

“I’m still confident it’ll be stronger again as footy sets in.

“We’re a little bit different to businesses that have been around a long time. It’s a very old school way of measuring audience — people filling out a ratings book is not necessarily what a sports fan sits at home all day and will do.

“We’re much bigger on the multiple ways people can consume us be it digital video, digital streaming, audio, podcast. And while the ratings are not insignificant they’re only one metric for us and they’re an old school way. We’re a progressive business.

“Equally we had our biggest ever digital month. Our digital video business is growing 500 per cent year on year and they’re the things we care about for our consumers.”

For the record, the big-budget breakfast show came in at 1.9, a rise of 0.6 from 1.3 in the first survey. Gerard Whately’s morning show lifted 0.5 to 2.6, Dwayne Russell’s afternoons rated 3.3 while the introduction of Andrew Gaze to the drive show with Andy Maher saw it jump 1.4 to 3.0.

‘Juddchella’ returns

After attending Coachella in the US last weekend, footy great Chris Judd has confirmed that his own “Juddchella” party is returning this week.

First held in November 2019 as a house-warming party at their Brighton home, Judd and wife Bec hosted big name guests with a lavish Coachella-themed bash which lit up Instagram.

Judd confirmed the social news.

“Juddchella round two is on and a tennis match beforehand where (there’ll be) a bit of doubles tennis, which I think would be good,’’ he told Triple M’s Friday Huddle.

Chris and Rebecca Judd at the original Juddchella in 2019. Picture: Instagram

Nadia Bartel, Ellie Pearson, Jade Kisnorbo, Lana Wilkinson and Emily McKay at ”Juddchella”. Picture: Instagram

Judd said he enjoyed Coachella in California, where he and Bec celebrated her mum’s 60th birthday.

Along with business partners Michelle and Steve Greene, they joined huge crowds and watched the likes of Megan Thee Stallion, Harry Styles and Billie Eilish.

“It was actually pretty good. I left (Melbourne) feeling it was not going to be my natural habitat but god did give me a few gifts and being electric on the dancefloor was one of them so it was a very successful operation. It was a pretty good scene over there.”

Judd hinted that the US fashion trends would probably not expand to his $7.3 million palatial pad.

“The fashion over there was um, they are different the yanks,’’ he said.

“It’s very acceptable to wear a G-string and a couple of stickers over your nipples there to events. It’s a real look.”

Huddo you star

Stephen Quartermain is an astute judge of AFL commentary being a veteran of the industry himself.

The man who served up the unmistakeable line “Leo Barry you star!” in the late stages of the 2005 grand final posted a tweet that went viral on Saturday.

“Anthony Hudson is so far ahead of the rest in TV @AFL commentary in 2022 it’s not funny,’’ Quarters stated.

Clearly it was a popular view of the Fox Footy commentator, gathering more than 2,500 likes and 40 retweets.

Fox Footy’s Anthony Hudson has won praise for his commentary.

Footy Shorts:

* Heartwarming scene as two cancer survivors embraced on Saturday, bravo to North’s Ben Cunnington and Carlton’s Sam Docherty.

* Wayne Carey is set to undergo a shoulder replacement in about a month’s time, after injuring himself while filming SAS Australia. He’s expected to be sidelined from the commentary box.

* Two TV colleagues had a heated clash last year but have successfully managed to smooth the waters, now bouncing off each other like nothing ever happened

* Which AFL WAG was overheard at the weekend being rude to airline crew who were politely questioning the weight of her luggage?