ABC’s sweeping changes to its radio schedule remains unpopular with listeners

Sweeping changes to the ABC schedule remain unpopular with every metro station losing audiences, except in one city.

ABC 774 radio presenter Jon Faine.

The ABC’s sweeping changes to its radio schedule have remained unpopular with listeners, with every metropolitan station losing audiences, except in Brisbane.

But even there, ABC Brisbane managed only to increase by the barest of margins, up 0.1 percentage points to 7.3 per cent, seventh in the market.

All other ABC metro stations fell. ABC Adelaide was the worst affected, down 1.2 points to an 8.5 share. Sydney fell 0.4 to 7.8 per cent, while Melbourne fell 0.5 to 8.0 per cent, while Perth was barely down, just 0.2 point to an 8.0 share.

An ABC spokesman said the major changes to the ABC schedule were taking time to settle in. “While we’ve seen minor drops in audience share for our capital city stations, these have been offset by strong performances from Triple J, particularly in Perth and Melbourne.

“The Adelaide market has been volatile this year. Only two surveys ago, we were second in that market and had the number one breakfast show. We are confident we can return to those figures in coming surveys, especially off the back of our recent coverage of events in Canberra.”

At ABC Sydney, which teamed breakfast presenter Robbie Buck with mornings host Wendy Harmer for a 6am to 10am program across the breakfast slot and part of the mornings slot from — dropped 0.4 points in the breakfast slot to a 9.1 per cent, with the morning up fractionally by 0.1 point to 7.9 per cent.

In Melbourne, where the traditional timeslots were maintained, the ABC breakfast program, with Sami Shah and Jacinta Parsons, fell 0.7 points to 8.5 per cent as the pair struggled to replicate the success of long-serving former host Red Symons, who left last year.

The Mornings program with Jon Faine from 8.30am to 12pm, including Faine’s Conversation Hour, rose 0.4 points to 11.8 per cent in the morning slot, according to GfK’s fifth radio ratings survey of 2018.

The ABC’s radio programs do not fall neatly within the 5.30am to 9am breakfast and 9am to 12pm morning slots measured in GfK’s radio ratings survey, as a 15 minute news bulletin at 7.45am is followed by the half-hour current affairs show AM at 8am.

At 10am a local program called Focus runs in some markets ahead of Conversations with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski at 11am in most markets.

ABC Adelaide’s breakfast and morning shows lost more listeners then their colleagues in other cities, with breakfast hosts Ali Clarke and David Bevan dropping 1.6 points to 11.9 per cent.

Clarke and Bevan host together from 8.30am to 9am, while Clarke hosts solo from 6am to 7.45am, then Bevan from 9am to 11am. The morning slot dropped 2.1 points to 7.8 per cent, according to the survey, which covers the period from late May to August 18.

The performance of ABC Brisbane was mixed, with its breakfast show hosted by Craig Zonca and Rebecca Levingston from 6am to 10am up 0.4 points to 9.5 per cent in breakfast and down 0.7 points to 6.5 per cent in mornings, which includes Focus with Emma Griffiths from 10am to 11am.

In Perth, Paula Kruger and Peter Bell’s ABC breakfast show, fell 0.6 points to 10.9 per cent.

The ABC Perth morning slot, which rose 0.2 points to 7.3 per cent, is divided into three segments.

Kruger’s solo show airs from 9am to 10am, followed by the hour-long Focus with Nadia Mitsopoulos, then Conversations.

Kyle and Jackie O dethroned

Kyle Sandilands and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson’s four-year reign as the number one breakfast show on FM radio in Sydney FM radio has ended at the hands of Amanda Keller and Brendan “Jonesy” Jones.

The duo, who are well known for their colourful celebrity interviews on KIIS FM, fell 1.7 percentage points to a 9.3 per cent share of the Sydney breakfast audience

Meanwhile, WSFM’s Amanda Keller and Brendan “Jonesy” Jones, rose 0.7 points to take a 10.3 per cent share and the top FM slot, according to ratings agency GfK.

Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O.

Sandilands and Henderson were lured to KISS FM from 2Day FM at the end of 2013, and dominated the timeslot with controversial segments, including nude dating, and high profile interviews, such as US actor Charlie Sheen.

2GB’s Alan Jones is still the most popular breakfast show in Sydney, with a 16.9 per cent share of the Sydney breakfast audience, up 0.3 percentage points.

Ray Hadley also remains firmly entrenched as the number one morning show in the harbour city with a 19 per cent share of the 9am to 12pm Sydney radio audience, up 1 point.

Hadley’s gain represents his 114th consecutive win, and his highest result since 2011, Macquarie Media said.

Jones and Hadley have been embroiled in last week’s Liberal Party leadership spill, with former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull accusing some parts of the media of pushing their own agenda during the leadership battle.

Ray Hadley and Alan Jones. Picture: Mark Evans

Hadley last week read on air a text message that he claimed to have received from a “Liberal Party MP” that attacked Scott Morrison, a potential leadership rival to Peter Dutton.

Mr Morrison secured more votes than Mr Dutton last Friday, and replaced Mr Turnbull as the prime minister.

Ratings agency GfK’s fifth radio ratings survey covers the weeks of May 27 to June 30 and July 15 to August 18.

In Melbourne, Macquarie Media’s 3AW was unchallenged as the number one station, with a 13.2 per cent share, but ABC Melbourne slipped again to 8.0 per cent, as did its breakfast duo of Sami Shah and Jacinta Parson, down another 0.7 points to an 8.5 share. At 3AW, Ross Stevenson and John Burns remained the kings of breakfast, with 18.6 per cent share.

In Mornings, 3AW’s Neil Mitchell again dominated the mornings slot, with a 15.0 per cent share.

Overall, Nova’s SmoothFm took the number one FM slot from Southern Cross Austereo’s FoxFM. The easy listening station jumped 1.3 points to 10.4 per cent, while Fox slipped 0.4 points to 10.0 per cent.

In FM breakfast, star UK import Christian O’Connell fell 1.3 per cent to 7.4 per cent, while Fox FM’s breakfast trio of Fifi Box, Brendan Fevola and Byron Cooke dominated with 10.3 per cent.