ABC Radio Sydney presenter shake-up fails to lift its ratings

Apresenter shake-up at ABC Radio Sydney has failed to deliver the public broadcaster an early ratings bump this year,its share of listeners having dropped to seventh place in the local radio market as 2GB once again leads the pack.

The ABC fell to a 5.4 per cent share overall in the first ratings survey of 2024,which covered January 14 to February 24,according to ratings agency GfK,down from 6 per cent. While newBreakfast host The Chaser’s Craig Reucassel was able to lift its market share slightly to 7.9 per cent in the morning slot (from 7.8 per cent),it wasn’t enough to protect the ABC’s overall daily ratings.

In his return to theAfternoons slot,former ABC breakfast host James Valentine landed on a 3.5 per cent market share,down from 5.2 per cent,withDrive host Richard Glover’s share of listeners also taking a hit as it fell to 4.1 per cent from 5.6 per cent.

Radio station 2GB,owned by Nine,which also owns this masthead,extended its lead as the No.1 station in Sydney to 12.7 per cent. Mornings presenter Ray Hadley’s 14.1 per cent share was unchanged from late 2023. He led his slot for the 155th consecutive survey,while Ben Fordham reclaimed the lead as Sydney’s No.1 breakfast show host from KIIS’s Kyle and Jackie O.

Fordham’s 16.6 per cent reduced the KIIS pair’s ratings share to 15.4 per cent following a decline of 1.3 percentage points ahead of their launch into Melbourne next month.The Kyle and Jackie O Show began broadcasting from a new studio in North Sydney this week.

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Their loss allowed Nova Entertainment’s Smooth FM to leapfrog KIIS as Sydney’s second-most popular station in the first ratings season,with a 10.8 per cent market share.

The time slots categorised by ratings agency GfK do not perfectly align with program times. For example,the breakfast slot is listed between 5.30am and 9am,with the ABC’s breakfast show broadcasting between 5.30am and 8am.

ABC head of audio Ben Latimersaid in December that the broadcaster was “serious about getting ABC local radio back to where it needs to be”,but the results on Thursday morning indicate there is still plenty of work to be done.

Latimer said the local radio stations were targeting pre-COVID numbers as their benchmark,yet the ABC’s latest 5.4 per cent share remains some distance from its 8.9 per cent share in early 2020,just before the pandemic took hold.

The rest of the ABC network offered mixed results,with Radio National rising marginally to a 1.1 per cent share.Breakfast host Patricia Karvelas’ show rose to 2 per cent from 1.4 per cent.

Triple J rose to 4.1 per cent (from 3.6 per cent) in its first survey following the departure of Richard Kingsmill. ABC Classic had minor gains,while ABC News Radio dropped 1 percentage point to a 1.2 per cent share.

ARN Media’s WSFM took the largest ratings hit,losing 1.5 percentage points to fall to a 7.5 per cent share.

Last week,Southern Cross Media shareholders rejected an initial bid from ARN that would move WSFM,part of the Pure Gold Network,into a newly created private company alongside the Hit Network,which houses rival 2DayFM. It was another tough survey for 2Day,which dropped to a 4.6 per cent share in the latest ratings.

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