Falling ratings for ABC Sydney’s breakfast radio show, hosted by Craig Reucassel, a cause for concern

The ABC’s failing radio ratings in 2024 – particularly in the key breakfast timeslot in both Sydney and Melbourne – has management deeply concerned.

ABC Radio’s Sydney breakfast host Craig Reucassel lost 33,000 listeners in this month’s survey.

The continued fall in the ratings of key ABC radio programs, particularly the prestigious Sydney breakfast show hosted by comedian Craig Reucassel, have become such a concern for executives that a shake-up of on-air personnel is being quietly ­canvassed.

The latest radio survey results, released earlier this month, were dire for the ABC, showing the recent overhaul of the public broadcaster’s major stations has failed to win back lost audiences.

Sources have told The Australian the biggest concern is ABC Sydney’s breakfast program, led by Reucassel. The comedian took over the slot at the beginning of 2024 and there are already murmurs he may need to return to a dual line-up similar to that of former ABC breakfast duo Robbie Buck and Wendy Harmer to help lift audience share.

In the second survey of the year, Reucassel’s audience share fell to 7.1 per cent – down from 7.8 per cent when previous host James Valentine finished in the timeslot at the end of last year.

Reucassel shed 33,000 listeners in this month’s survey (down to an audience of 285,000) and his show is sixth in the Sydney breakfast slot. His slump is also affecting subsequent ABC shows, as they are lacking a strong lead-in from the breakfast show, which is traditionally the bedrock of the day’s programming for any radio station.

Craig Reucassel has hosted ABC Sydney breakfast’s radio program since the beginning of 2024.

When the successful ABC Sydney breakfast pairing of Buck and Harmer departed at the end of 2021, they had an audience share of 13.2 per cent and were second in their timeslot with 397,000 listeners.

ABC Sydney was the second most popular station then, with an audience share of 9.4 per cent. It has now fallen to eighth with an audience share of 5.1 per cent.

It has since shed 27 per cent of audience, with the falling listenership continuing throughout 2022 and 2023 when Valentine was breakfast host.

Despite this, one ABC insider told The Australian it took time to “settle a breakfast show with a new host, especially in such a competitive market as Sydney.”

Reucassel was contacted for comment but did not respond.

Another ABC source said Reucassel’s lack of radio broadcasting experience had been brought to the fore since he took over the slot in January. Indeed, when it was announced that he was replacing Valentine, one ABC figure described the move as replacing “giggle with giggle”.

In Melbourne, the breakfast program is hosted by another comedian, ‘‘Sammy J’’ McMillan. He had an audience share of 7.3 per cent in this month’s survey and 301,000 listeners, putting the ABC sixth in the timeslot.

McMillan took over the slot in 2020 after the departure of Jacinta Parsons and Sami Shah, who finished their last survey with an audience share of 10.6 per cent and 441,000 listeners.

Since then, McMillan has lost 31 per cent of the ABC’s audience share in the timeslot.

The ABC launched a review of its radio arm in 2023, led by head of corporate strategy Jeremy Millar, now departed ABC executive Warwick Tiernan, ABC Radio Sydney manager Steve Ahern and media executive Cherie Romaro, to look at ways to overhaul the network.

The radio division also recruited several new executives, including Ben Latimer as head of audio content in a newly created position, reporting to ABC chief content officer Chris Oliver-Taylor.