ABC Melbourne scores worst-ever result; Kyle and Jackie O is a tale of two cities

ABC Melbourne’s new breakfast line-up has got off to a limp start, helping the public broadcaster deliver its worst-ever result in a radio ratings survey, while KIIS FM’s The Kyle and Jackie O Show continued its poor run as it kicks off its second year in the Victorian market.

ABC Radio Melbourne’s 4.7 per cent share of radio listeners, down 1.2 percentage points on the final survey of 2024, was the big red headline in a radio survey packed with different storylines. It is the first time the network has fallen below the 5 per cent mark in Melbourne.

Bob Murphy and Sharnelle Vella are the new ABC Breakfast hosts in Melbourne in 2025.Credit: Chris Hopkins

New Breakfast duo Sharnelle Vella and former Western Bulldogs captain Bob Murphy began the year with a 6.3 per cent audience share, down on Sammy J’s 7.9 per cent in the previous survey.

In the same timeslot, the KIIS FM duo Kyle Sandilands and Jackie “O” Henderson, who dominated headlines last year, failed to deliver significant growth despite revamping their show to feature less smut and a marketing campaign urging Melburnians to tune into the show now that they’re “behaving”.

The show remained eighth in the all-important breakfast spot for commercial radio stations, which drives much of their advertising revenue, with a 5.1 per cent share, up just 0.1 points from the previous survey. In Sydney, they remained popular with a 13.3 per cent share, behind only 2GB’s Ben Fordham.

It did grow its cumulative audience from 404,000 to 450,000 in Melbourne, however. This figure describes the number of people who listened for at least eight minutes during the survey period.

In Sydney, new ABC Mornings host Hamish Macdonald offered a marginal increase on the final survey under Sarah Macdonald, whose dismissal prompted an uproar from staff and listeners despite middling ratings. In this first survey, Hamish Macdonald delivered a 6.4 per cent share, up from 6.2 per cent.

It was ABC Sydney’s first ratings period without Richard Glover since the 1990s, and the share of his replacement, Chris Bath, in the Drive slot grew 0.5 percentage points to 7.2 per cent, while the station overall was up 0.7 points to 6.9 per cent.

A big winner from the first survey in Melbourne was Christian O’Connell, who hosts the breakfast show on KIIS owner ARN’s other station, Gold. O’Connell’s show delivered an 11.5 per cent share, up 2.8 percentage points, knocking Nova duo Jase & Lauren off the top spot in the traditional FM breakfast contest.

There was also a disappointing start to a new era at the ABC’s Radio National, with its highly anticipated and revamped Breakfast show – led by Sally Sara and a team of journalists – dropping 0.7 points back to a 1.8 per cent share. The station fell to a total audience share of just 1.2 per cent in Melbourne, halving its result from the previous survey.

It was even worse in Sydney, down 0.9 points to a 1 per cent share, while the station overall had a 1.2 per cent share.

Henderson and Sandilands made marginal gains in Melbourne after revamping their show.

The first ratings survey for the year captured a six-week period between January 19 to March 1. While it gives an early indication of audience listening, radio habits are usually measured over a longer period of time.

In talkback radio, Sydney talkback icon Ray Hadley’s successor on 2GB Mornings, Mark Levy, had a steady start in his first survey, dropping just 0.2 percentage points to land on a 13.5 per cent share.

Another big winner from the first survey was Nine-owned AM station 3AW in Melbourne, which came out with a 16.8 per cent share, up 3.2 percentage points, while the station’s breakfast duo Russel Howcroft and Ross Stevenson delivered a 20.6 per cent share, up 1.3 points.

In the Mornings talk-radio battle, ABC Melbourne’s Raf Epstein fell to a 4.5 per cent share, while 3AW’s Tom Elliot, a year into the job, delivered a 19.2 per cent share, up from 15.3 per cent.

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