Nine Radio’s Greg Byrnes on backing Ben Fordham and the Sydney talk dip
Nine Radio’s head of content, Greg Byrnes speaks to Mumbrella’s Calum Jaspan on the tough month for talk in Sydney, 3AW’s continued dominance and the ongoing push of ‘live and local’.
A year on from replacing Alan Jones on 2GB’s breakfast spot, Ben Fordham’s show took another hit for the second radio survey in succession, but Nine Radio’s head of content, Greg Byrnes insists only one thing matters, “he’s still number one”.
Byrnes was happy with Nine Radio’s performance straight off the bat, following another round of radio ratings: “Number one in Sydney, number one in Melbourne, it’s a great talk survey. It’s just maintaining our dominance across the country”.
The most recent book saw Fordham drop to a 13.5% share, down 2.0 percentage points, continuing a steady decline from the highs he saw at the back end of 2020, and the 18.1% share in March’s first survey of the year, which was 2GB’s best survey in a decade.
“In relation to Ben, anything above a 12, we felt would be very strong, and he’s still number one. Today marks 12 months of him doing the show, which is quite extraordinary to think that he’s still a clear number one while it’s a tough market.”
