Breakfast radio shows at ABC Melbourne and Radio National looking for ratings bump

With the second survey of GfK radio ratings results to drop on Thursday, there are already a number of programs on notice after a disappointing initial survey result in March.

Fiveaa's David Penberthy, right, and Will Goodings are in an AM breakfast battle with ABC Adelaide's Sonya Feldhoff and Jules Schiller. Picture: FIVEaa

There are already a handful of radio shows on notice after a slow start to the year as revealed in the first GfK radio ratings released last month.

Prior to the release of the survey two’s results on Thursday, there will be some anxious announcers and programmers.

As reported last month, ABC Radio National breakfast had a horror start to the year. New breakfast announcer Sally Sara lost nearly half the audience in Sydney – the audience share plummeting by 0.9 to 1.0 per cent.

The RN turn-off was also felt in Melbourne where the station overall sank by 50 per cent, while its breakfast program dropped by 0.7 to 1.8 per cent.

The biggest falls in Sydney for FM broadcasters were noticeable dips at Gold (aka WSFM) and smoothfm 95.3, but both were coming off strong double-figure breakfast shares which helped.

The biggest breakfast slide in Melbourne belonged to ABC Melbourne where the new team of Sharnelle Vella and Bob Murphy dropped by 1.6 to 6.3 per cent. Breakfast at Nova Melbourne was down too, but KIIS refugees Jason Hawkins and Lauren Phillips managed to record a healthy share of 10.1 per cent, second only to the Christian O’Connell’s recovery at Gold 104.3 where he climbed 2.8 to 11.5 per cent.

Brisbane’s biggest fall in survey one was 1.2 at 4BH but host Bob Gallagher still commands a share of 10.1 per cent.

In Adelaide there is a battle between breakfast ABC hosts Sonya Feldhoff and Jules Schiller and the FIVEaa team of David Penberthy and Will Goodings. The ABC hosts look good, turning a 3.0 deficit into a 1.1 lead last survey.

The Perth FM stations were grouped close together at the end of 2024. A battle for breakfast was an outside possibility this year despite Nova 93.7 maintaining a lead over its nearest FM rival.