Kyle and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson knock 2GB’s Ben Fordham off the number one spot in latest radio ratings

Kyle Sandilands and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson beat 2GB’s Ben Fordham to take out the top spot in Sydney’s breakfast timeslot.

Sydney talkback breakfast radio host Ben Fordham has been knocked off top spot again by KIIS1065’s duo of Kyle Sandilands and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson in the latest radio ratings survey results.

2GB’s top-rating show was bumped off the number one position after it recorded an audience share of 14.2 per cent (down 0.4 percentage points), compared to KIIS1065 at 14.7 (up 0.8 percentage points), while ABC Sydney’s breakfast James Valentine climbed to 8.6 (up 0.8).

2GB’s morning show hosted by Ray Hadley remained on the top in its slot at 13.7 per cent (up 0.9) and won his 151st consecutive survey, while the station’s drive program hosted by Chris O’Keefe fell to 6.5 per cent (down 1.3) and is sixth in its slot.

The station’s afternoon host Deb Knight’s audience share also fell to 6, down 1, and it is the 8th in its slot.

Overall, 2GB was the number one station in Sydney with an audience share of 11.1 per cent, followed by KIIS1065 with an audience share of 10.9.

Fordham is also under investigation by the media regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, over an on-air segment in August where he told listeners he had started Uber driving to earn extra money, but he failed to disclose in the segment he was in a commercial deal with Uber.

2GB radio host Ben Fordham in his Sydney studio. Picture: John Feder/The Australian

The results for the sixth survey of the year compiled by ratings firm GfK recorded ratings from July 9 through to September 16, and it showed in Melbourne Nine Radio’s 3AW station remained on top with an audience share of 15.8 per cent, ahead of Gold 104.3 at 12.7.

Despite this, every program on 3AW had a fall during the survey period, but the breakfast duo of Russel Howcroft and Ross Stevenson remained on top at 21.7 (down 0.6), while Neil Mitchell’s number one program fell by 0.5 percentage points to 19.6.

Mitchell will depart his program in December and in the same slot, ABC Melbourne’s Virginia Trioli also quit her program.

Her last show was on September 15 with drive host Rafeal Epstein replacing her.

Trioli’s final survey recorded an audience share of 7.7 (up 0.2) and was fifth in its slot.

In 3AW’s afternoons slot it has had a rotating roster of hosts since Nine Radio sacked Dee Dee Dunleavy in June, but the program has predominantly been hosted by Jacqui Felgate who will next year be the station’s permanent drive host.

The afternoon show recorded another drop to 10.7 per cent (down 0.3 percentage points) and is the lowest rating the program has recorded this year.

Felgate has continued to make headlines after it was revealed she had 15 lucrative commercial partnerships that were not disclosed by the station.

3AW radio host Jacqui Felgate. Picture: 3AW

Nine Radio, run by managing director Tom Malone, now has all of its four stations, 3AW, 2GB, 4BC and 6PR under investigation by ACMA over its commercial agreements register.

In the drive slot, 3AW host Tom Elliott’s show fell to 11.2 (down 0.5 percentage points) and is third in its slot.

Listeners turned to music station Gold 104.3 and the drive host Dave Higgins recorded an audience share of 13.2, up 2.5.

Elliott will replace Mitchell when he leaves his program at the end of the year.

In Brisbane, 4BC’s breakfast program led by Laurel Edwards, Gary Clare and Mark Hine remained steady at 6 per cent and is seventh in its slot.

4BC’s Peter Gleeson has been the fill-in host of drive since June following the departure of Neil Breen and his show recorded an audience share of 5.3, down 0.3, and it is eighth in its slot.

In SA, two breakfast programs took out the number one spot both with an audience share of 12.2 including Triple M’s breakfast program led by Mark Ricciuto, Chris Dittmar and Laura O’Callaghan and FIVEaa’s David Penberthy (also a senior writer at The Australian) and Will Goodings.

ABC Adelaide continues to experience falls and every program lost audience in this survey.

In Perth, NOVA’s 93.7 breakfast show hosted by Natalie Locke, Nathan Morris and Shaun McManus took out the number one spot easily with an audience share of 20.4 per cent, despite falling by 2.1.