Alan Jones’s successor Ben Fordham backed to draw younger fans

Ad bosses anticipate that Alan Jones’s successor, Ben Fordham, will attract new brands and younger listeners.

2GB’s Ben Fordham will take over Alan Jones’s breakfast slot in June.

Alan Jones’s departure from Sydney radio station 2GB after 35 years will lead to a drop in advertising revenue for owner Nine Entertainment, although ad bosses anticipate that his successor, Ben Fordham, will attract new brands and younger listeners.

Ad veteran John Steedman forecasts a drop in ad revenue following the changing of the guard. “Obviously, there will be some drop-off in revenue, more so from his direct client supporters. However, I am sure Ben Fordham will do a good job in holding on to a fair share of Jones’s listeners. In fact, the audience may trend somewhat younger,” he said.

Mr Steedman described Fordham’s appointment as a “logical move”, adding it was either him or 2GB’s long-running morning host Ray Hadley, who was widely expected to take over from Jones on his retirement.

Given there will not be any official radio ratings surveys until late September, after they were suspended because of the coronavirus crisis, Fordham’s performance in the breakfast slot will be difficult to measure.

“No doubt the Nine Entertainment group will do some tracking to determine whether he stays … prior to the surveys being reinstated,” said Mr Steedman, chief operating officer at WPP AUNZ.

“I am sure some may be re-evaluating their use, however, (and) the station will be sweetening buys during transition.”

In the absence of the official radio surveys, Nine said it would use other methods to track the performance of Fordham’s breakfast show and others.

A Nine Radio spokesman said it had “a number of ways of measuring a show’s performance”.

“These include audience engagement, be it through open line calls, listeners emails, through digital measurement of audio streaming on our websites and apps, plus there is of course the clear strong commercial results our clients see from that advertising on talk radio,” the spokesman said.

PHD managing director Lucy Formosa Morgan also expects some of Jones’s loyal listeners to turn off when he leaves. “I’d assume audiences will decline off the back of his departure but there’s really very little competition out there for loyal talkback radio listeners to go elsewhere or for advertisers to target older audiences on radio.”