Radio ratings: ARN’s big changes may need a little time
Brendan Jones and Amanda Keller with their breakfast usurper, Christian O'Connell, at the ARN upfront in late October, 2025 (Mumbrella)
It seems that Jonesy and Amanda’s Sydney fans didn’t stay locked into Gold 101.7 to find out what this new Christian O’Connell bloke is all about, with the station’s breakfast show dropping 3.6 points in O’Connell’s debut radio ratings book in the city.
The Gold listeners didn’t necessarily follow Brendan Jones and Amanda Keller over to their new home in drive, though, as this timeslot stayed static at 8.4 points — which amounts to a win in the fickle radio game, especially considering they replaced Steve Fitten, who was bolted into Gold’s drive slot for the past eight years.
Also in Sydney
Nova also played switcheroo in Sydney during this ratings book, moving Ricki-Lee and Tim Blackwell from national drive to Sydney breakfast, and moving previous brekky team Fitzy, Wippa, and Kate Ritchie to national drive. The first radio ratings of 2026 cover January 18 (the first “official” day of ratings) through to February 28. Nova’s drive/breakfast switch started on February 9, so it’s a bit hard to attribute any ratings success/failure to either team. Nevertheless, Nova’s breakfast slot rose by 0.5, from 7.9 to 8.4 to land in third place in FM, while drive dropped 0.3 points, from 10.5 to 10.2.
