Talkback radio powerhouses 2GB, 3AW slide, Hamish Macdonald in ratings drop

Hamish Macdonald has copped another brutal ratings hit, while high-profile presenters at 2GB and 3AW suffered their worst results of the year in the key markets of Sydney and Melbourne.

2GB presenter Ben Fordham in his studio. John Feder/The Australian.

Nine Entertainment’s talkback radio network has suffered a dramatic collapse in its listenership, with audiences switching to rival music stations in the key markets of Sydney and Melbourne as high-profile presenters at 2GB and 3AW register their worst ratings results this year.

In the fourth radio ratings survey of 2025, released by research company GfK on Tuesday, Melbourne’s Gold104.3 eclipsed 3AW as the number one station overall, ending the talkback station’s decades of dominance, while in Sydney, easily-listening music station smoothfm 95.3 matched 2GB with an overall ratings share of 11.8 per cent.

At 2GB, both the breakfast program fronted by Ben Fordham and the morning show hosted by Ray Hadley’s replacement, Mark Levy, suffered sharp ratings falls.

Fordham claimed a 14.7 per cent share of the Sydney market – down two points on the previous survey – while his breakfast timeslot arch rival, the Kyle & Jackie ‘O’ show on KIISFM, lifted its slice of the audience to 13.9 per cent (up 1.4 percentage points), to put it back within reach of the coveted 5.30-9am number one spot.

In Sydney’s morning timeslot, smoothfm wrested the ratings crown from 2GB’s Levy. The talkback host slipped 2.5 percentage points in the survey to 13, leaving him behind the music station, which claimed a 13.7 per cent slice of the market (down 0.5 per cent).

It was Levy’s lowest audience share since he replaced Hadley at the end of 2024, and is just the second time 2GB has ceded top spot in the mornings timeslot in two decades.

2GB radio host Mark Levy. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

The 3AW breakfast pairing of Russel Howcroft and Ross Stevenson lost market share for the third consecutive survey, though they remain runaway leaders in the timeslot. Howcroft and Stevenson have a 16.6 per cent market share (down 1.5 percentage points), well clear of the resurgent Nova 100 breakfast team of Jason Hawkins and Lauren Phillips on 10.8 (up 0.6).

Gold 104.3’s Christian O’Connell is in third place in the competitive Melbourne breakfast timeslot.

The Kyle and Jackie ‘O’ show is still struggling to make inroads into the Melbourne market. While the program increased its audience share from 5.1 to 5.6 per cent in the survey, it remains in eighth position in the southern city’s breakfast timeslot.

Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O Henderson in Melbourne in March 11. Picture: Supplied/Instagram

Tom Elliott, host of the 3AW morning show, registered a sharp slump in his audience share, down 1.1 percentage points from 14.9 to 13.8, and now leads the ratings race in his timeslot by just 0.1, ahead of Gold104.3 on 13.7 (up 0.5).

The ABC also had a disappointing survey, losing market share across all key timeslots in Sydney, although the declines were not as dramatic as they have been in recent times.

ABC Sydney’s breakfast program, hosted by Craig Reucassel, slipped slightly from 8.2 to 8.0. Of greater concern to management, though, would be the continued weak ratings of the morning show, presented by Hamish Macdonald.

Hamish Macdonald.

The program’s listenership fell from 5.5 per cent to 4.6 per cent across the survey, which covered the period from April 27 to July 5.

Macdonald himself was on extended leave in the second half of the survey period, but the program’s audience has progressively slipped since the beginning of the year, when Macdonald took over from previous host Sarah Macdonald (no relation), who was dumped after senior ABC executives – including chairman Kim Williams – took the view that the show needed a freshen-up to attract more listeners.

At ABC Melbourne, the breakfast pairing of Bob Murphy and Sharnelle Vella lost some of the sizeable ratings gains they made in the previous survey, down 0.8 percentage points to a 6.8 per cent market share, while the station’s other programs remained largely steady.

In Brisbane, the breakfast show team of “Marto, Margaux and Dan” (Greg Martin, Margaux Parker and Dan Anstey) won the timeslot’s ratings battle with a market share of 13.2 per cent (up 1.5), just ahead of B105’s “Stav, Abby & Matt” (Stav Davidson, Abby Coleman and Matt Acton) on 13.1 (up 0.1).

Triple M Breakfast hosts Dan Anstey, Greg Martin and Margaux Parker. Photo: Supplied.

The 4BC talkback breakfast show, presented by Peter Fegan, slipped to eighth spot in the timeslot with a market share of just 4.6 per cent (down 0.6 percentage points on the previous survey).

In Perth, the long-dominant breakfast show on Nova 93.7, “Nathan, Nat and Shaun” – Nathan Morris, Nat Locke and Shaun McManus – saw an astonishing four-percentage-point crash in market share, from 19.5 to 15.5 per cent, while the rival breakfast program on Triple M, fronted by Xavier Ellis and Katie Lamb, jumped 3.4 points to 13.4.

In Adelaide, the Triple M breakfast show of “Roo, Ditts & Loz” (Mark Ricciuto, Chris Dittmar and Laura O’Callaghan) regained top spot with a 14.2 per cent audience share (up 0.6 percentage points), just ahead of the Nova 91.9 breakfast program fronted by Jodie Oddy and Andrew Hayes on 12.4 (down 1.4).

The ABC Adelaide breakfast pairing of Sonya Feldhoff and Jules Schiller slipped from second spot to fifth in the timeslot, with the duo’s market share falling from 12.9 to 11.7 per cent.