Radio ratings: Sports stars crow, but another battle heats up
Adelaide radio breakfast wars are hotting up with the top four positions more crowded than an AFL ladder, writes Mike Smithson.
FIVEaa was the biggest winner in the latest GFK radio survey released today.
David Penberthy and Will Goodings shot up by 1.7 per cent after having suffered three drops so far this year and they’re now within striking distance of the front runners.
It comes as their popular program producer Lucy Lokan was shifted downstairs in Hindmarsh Square to work with Jodie and Haysey on their breakfast show at Nova.
And that’s where it gets tricky.
Nova breakfast hit top spot last survey but has now dropped to second position behind Triple M which regained the crown that Roo, Ditts and Loz had held for an eternity.
Triple M was up by 0.6 per cent and Nova slipped by a surprising 1.4 per cent which is a significant number in the cutthroat world of radio.
Lokan and others may have thought her exit to from the fifth-rating breakfast show to the ladder leader was going to be a doddle, but she also knows things can change quickly.
She’s a formidable and highly capable producer and can rightly claim some credit for AA’s latest ascension.
Will Goodings and Penberthy will also be breathing easier today after their unfamiliar drop into dangerous territory.
Once presenters get past the halfway point of the year, not necessarily these two, many are thinking about their future with their highly paid employment contracts at stake.
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There’s little leveraging power in trying to strike a new deal when everyone knows your audience popularity has waned.
It makes for a fascinating and tight tussle going into the business end of the ratings season.
Less than three percentage points now separate the top five brekky programs with the ABC also climbing by a steady half a percent.
So, the top five now reads like this.
Triple M sits on 14.2 per cent, followed by Nova, Mix, AA and the ABC.
Only 0.2 per cent separates the last three of these shows which makes survey 5 well worth the wait.
But AA’s breakfast success wasn’t repeated in the morning’s slot.
Graeme Goodings had a ‘Barry Crocker’ – aka a shocker.
He dropped by 2 per cent between 9am and noon and now sits in seventh spot on a woeful 6.2 per cent.
Even the humble AM music station CRUISE1323 easily beat him.
The ABC’s Rory McClaren lifted marginally to 8 per cent and now has clear air between his nearest talk rival Goodings.
AA mornings have gone down like a submarine with screen doors since the departure of Leon Byner.
In those days Byner always told me that single digit ratings were like the “sword of Damocles” hanging over you.
I dare say Goodings would be feeling itchy around the neck today.
But as previously stated, AM radio is precariously placed in every market with the music and fun of FM reigning supreme.
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Across mornings Triple M, Nova and Mix are well into double digits with the two leaders even outstripping their breakfast leaders’ percentages.
Afternoon and drive shows were also music dominated.
Leith Forrest has replaced new mum Stacey Lee at AA and lifted the audience by 0.3 per cent.
It was same at the ABC where Jo Laverty climbed by the same amount.
Having watched her transition through various shifts at Aunty, I rate her as a radio natural.
I’ve seen plenty of presenters come and go, but Laverty reads an unfolding situation very well and adapts quickly on air.
She can land a knockout blow with tough questions to any politician, and just as easily delivers a clever punchline during lighter interviews.
AA will also be happy with its sport show result with Rowey and Timmy G enjoying a 1.3 per cent rise and putting them back into double digits now sitting at 10.4 per cent, well ahead of main AM rival Nikolai Beilharz on the ABC.
But once again Triple M’s Rush Hour sport with James Brayshaw and Billy Brownless gazumped them in drive with a 2.1 per cent rise to 12.3.
With the Crows looking the goods for a run well into the AFL finals, perhaps going all the way, AA will be putting as many eggs into the footy basket as humanly possible in the sport shift.
Likewise Triple M can only further benefit from any Crows’ finals success.
Forrest’s departure from evenings at AA had consequences with a massive 5 per cent tumble.
Spence Denny’s return to the talk airwaves on the ABC continued its downward trajectory, dropping again by 1 per cent.
So, what’s the takeaway message from this survey?
Music is still the overall king and that’s likely to continue.
The major AM bands will be looking nervously at audience losses and in specific age groups.
From the 40+ group to the over 65s there was audience drop off at AA.
It was scarcely better at the ABC.
From youngish rockers to the oldies, Triple M captured various demographic markets with standout gains and is also the overall winning station on 13.9 per cent.
All stations have just rolled past their survey winter break and it’s now a straight run to the finish line, with a few dramatic stumbles still a certainty.
Mike Smithson is weekend presenter at 7NEWS and is also a weekly unpaid commentator on Adelaide radio.
