Baby Boomers and retired Melburnians have been switching off 3AW and turning to ABC and commercial music stations, with Tom Elliott's drive program losing the No.1 drive spot to Hamish & Andy on Fox FM, the latest radio audience figures show.
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Elliott's conservative talk-back show dropped from a 12.7 per cent audience share, the highest in Melbourne, to 12.3 per cent. Meanwhile, Hamish Blake and Andy Lee's show has increased station-owner Austero's audience share from 11.7 per cent to 12.8 per cent.
The latest ratings cover April 17 to June 25 and were collated by GfK radio ratings. Commercial radio audiences increased to 10.1 million nationwide last year, according to industry peak body Commercial Radio Australia.
Chief executive Joan Warner said radio still provided a 17 per cent return on advertising investment and had reliable methods for proving impact. The organisation was currently working on an app making all Australian radio stations available on mobile devices.
In Melbourne, Fairfax Media-owned 3AW has the highest breakfast audience share, followed by Neil Mitchell, and Sports Today in the evenings. ABC774 keeps the No.2 spot for most of the day, except for afternoons when FoxFM and GoldFM share No.2, and Hamish & Andy dominate the drive segment. Hamish & Andy previously held the top spot in Melbourne in January and February, before being overtaken by Elliott.
In Sydney, APN Radio's Pure Gold has lost some of its older listeners, particularly in the 40-to-54 age bracket, but has increased its teenage listeners.
In Brisbane, APN's 4KQ still has the highest audience share of people aged 55 to 64, although 4BC and Nova have taken some listeners. In people aged 65 and over, 4KQ has risen from third to second due to a big audience drop at ABC612, which saw its older audience share drop from 33 per cent to 27 per cent.
Conservative opinion radio from 2GB continues to dominate Sydney, winning the No.1 spot all day, except for the 4pm to 7pm drive period, when KIIS1065 presenters David Hughes and Kate Langbroek take the top spot with 10.2 per cent audience share, narrowly beating Kate Ritchie, Tim Blackwell and Marty Sheargold on Nova.
APN Radio also owns KIIS1065, which has hosted the Kyle & Jackie O's morning show since 2014. Their controversial morning program has gained some audience but still rates third overall in Sydney, behind 2GB and ABC702, but was the highest rating FM station.
The agenda-setting morning shows – when political leaders get grilled and presenters editorialise – with the biggest audience share were 2GB's Alan Jones in Sydney, Fiveaa's Leon Byner in Adelaide, Katie Mattin and Tim Wong-See on Nova in Brisbane, and 3AW's Mitchell in Melbourne. Mitchell's audience share has dropped from 17 per cent to 15.9 per cent. His biggest losses were among listeners over 55, who have switched to ABC 774.
The ABC's Jon Faine has increased his audience share to 11.7 per cent, up from 10.8 per cent.
The Lachlan Murdoch-owned Fiveaa in Adelaide has barely any listeners under 40, but has increased its dominance among the over 65s audience to 28.4 per cent and jumped from fifth among the 55 to 64 age group to nearly equal third.
Perth listeners prefer music to talk in the morning, with Southern Cross Austero-owned [SCA] mix 94.5 Tim Lordan's show at No.1, followed by Nova and triple J.
SCA said it now had 4.7 million listeners across Australia and is "the biggest commercial radio group in the country". It's stations include 2DAY-FM in Sydney, Triple M, FOX FM in Melbourne, HIT 105 in Brisbane and mix 94.5 in Perth.
Fairfax Media, publisher of BusinessDay, jointly owns Macquaire Media limited.
