ABC radio revamp falls flat, with soft ratings in first survey of the year
The ABC’s soft results follow an in-depth review into its radio arm, which was commissioned after a prolonged, post-Covid ratings slump.
The ABC’s radio audience slipped in every capital city market in the first two months of the year — a disastrous result for the public broadcaster given its recent review, and revamp, of on-air talent.
Every single weekday ABC program in Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide shed listeners across January and February, according to the first official GfK radio ratings survey of 2024, while the bigger markets of Sydney and Melbourne also performed poorly.
The soft results for the ABC follow the in-depth review into the media organisation’s radio arm,which was commissioned after a prolonged, post-Covid ratings slump.
ABC Sydney remains in the ratings doldrums. Its afternoon and drive programs, hosted by radio veterans James Valentine and Richard Glover respectively, lost significant chunks of their listenerships.
Valentine — who returned to afternoons at the beginning of this year after an unsuccessful two-year stint as ABC Sydney breakfast show host — saw his ratings crash 1.7 percentage points to a 3.5 per cent share of audience.
Glover’s share of the drivetime audience fell 1.5 points to 4.1, leaving him in 10th place in his timeslot.
The Sydney station’s new breakfast show host, Craig Reucassel (who replaced Valentine in January) lifted the program’s ratings slightly, up 0.1 points to 7.9.
That’s still a far cry from the high watermark ratings result enjoyed by former ABC Sydney breakfast show hosts Wendy Harmer and Robbie Buck, who registered a 15.9 per cent audience share just prior to quitting the public broadcaster at the end of 2021.
In Melbourne, the decision to shift high-profile 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.
ABC Melbourne’s cumulative audience share was down 0.1 points to 6.5 per cent in this survey.
Elsewhere, the departure of Melbourne radio veteran Neil Mitchell hasn’t hurt 3AW’s fortunes. Mitchell’s mornings show replacement, Tom Elliott — formerly the station’s drivetime host — 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.
But Elliott’s departure from the drive program appears to have come at a cost.
Replacement 3AW drive host Jacqui Felgate has overseen a dramatic ratings slide, down two points to register an audience share of 8.2 per cent. That equates to a loss of 66,000 listeners (down from 373,000) in a single survey.
It’s the worst ratings result for the 3AW drive timeslot in more than a decade.
Felgate became embroiled in a sponsorship saga last year while she was a fill-in host at 3AW after The Australian 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.
The matter remains under investigation by the media regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority.
In the breakfast slot, 3AW’s duo of Ross Stevenson and Russel Howcroft remain on top, lifting their audience share to 19.6 per cent (up 1.5).
On Melbourne’s FM network, KIIS 101.1FM also fell in the mornings slot following the axing of Jason Hawkins and Lauren Phillips (down 3.2 points to 5.9 per cent).
The duo will be replaced by Sydney-based Kyle Sandilands and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson syndicated show but their much-hyped entry into the Melbourne market won’t launch until April 29.
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.
The KIIS1065 duo fell 1.3 points from 16.7 to 15.4, while Fordham grew his audience share to 16.6, up 0.6 points from the final survey of 2023.
Nova 96.9’s breakfast team of Fitzy, Wippa and Kate (Ryan Fitzgerald, Michael Wipfli and Kate Ritchie) sit in third place in the Sydney breakfast timeslot, up 1.3 points to an 8.4 per cent audience share this survey.
Ratings for 2GB’s mornings show, fronted by Ray Hadley, were steady at 14.0, but it was enough to give the talkback host his 155th consecutive survey victory.
“We’re getting close to 20 years of an unbeaten run, if we get to 160 it will be 20 years unbeaten in the morning program,” he said on-air on Thursday.
In Brisbane, B105’s breakfast show hosted by Stav Davidson, Abby Coleman and Matty Acton was the top rating program in the crucial timeslot, recording an audience share of 15.9 per cent (up 3.4). 4BC’s trio of Laurel Edwards, Gary Clare and Mark Hine was sixth in the slot had an audience share of 7.5 per cent (up 1.1).
In mornings, 4BC last year controversially decided to end the syndication of Sydney-based Ray Hadley’s show into the Brisbane market, and the move has drawn some early success. New host with Bill McDonald recorded an audience share of 8.7 per cent (up 1.8) in his first survey.
In the drive slot, B105’s show with Carrie Bickmore and Tommy Little was the most popular program at 15 per cent (up 2.7), while 4BC’s Peter Gleeson had a share of 4 (down 1.8).
In Perth, NOVA’s breakfast show led by Natalie Locke, Nathan Morris and Shaun McManus continues to dominate, winning the slot with an audience share of 17.2 per cent (no change).
In Adelaide, Triple M’s breakfast show hosted by Mark Ricciuto, Chris Dittmar and Laura O’Callaghan remained on top with an audience share of 14.6 per cent (down 1.7).
FiveAA’s David Penberthy (also a senior writer at The Australian) and Will Goodings were second in the slot with a share of 12.6 per cent (up 1.2).
The new ABC Adelaide breakfast hosts, Sonya Feldhoff and Jules Schiller, recorded a share of 9.5 per cent (down 2.3).
The ratings survey covered the period from January 14 to February 24.
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