Radio ratings: Hard road for Classic Rock and MTR as Austereo stays on top
The second full ratings period since DMG relaunched its Vega network as Classic Rock has seen the station fall slightly in Sydney and remain stable in Melbourne. Meanwhile, Austereo has retained the number one FM station in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane while new Melbourne talk station MTR has flopped.
Classic Rock’s weekly daytime share fell from 4.5% to 4.3% in Sydney and stayed flat at 3.3% in Melbourne.
The axing of the Melbourne Dicko & Dave breakfast show by the DMG-owned Classic Rock took place in the final two weeks of the ratings period, which ran from May 9 to June 12 and June 27 to July 31. Over the whole ratings period, the timeslot actually improved slightly – up from a 2.3% to 2.6% share.
Sydney:
Last time I checked, Magic was actually on the AM band
Why would anybody change from Faine or Mitchel to Price? MTR is the opposite of Melbourne’s taste. Steve, take your redneckin’ back to Sydney champ.
I dont understand why you need to distinguish AM and FM , this just ads fuel to the fire that exists in the under 30’s media departments. We should be recognising the AM stations. I would of thought the angle for this survey would have been the influence the election is having across all radio and its digital platforms.
I see 2UE has gained audience and is 3rd overall .. What election ?
Fair point on AM vs FM, Puzzeled. As it happens we sometimes do give a bit more emphasis to the talk stations when there have been big moves. But it’s probably fair to say that FM and talk fight separate programming battles, even if they are fighting for the same advertising dollars.
Regarding the point on the election, it’s worth bearing in midn that the survey period kicked off at the beginning of May and only ran to the end of last month, so that may not be a major factor.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Good point on the survey Tim. That will make the next Survey interesting given both Abbott and Julia have been using AM and FM platforms to reach out to the people. A very traditional approach.
It’s time you got serious and dedicated some commentary to Brisbane and the other markets. Not good enough Tim.
Hi Why Not?
Sadly I’m afraid that Brisbane, Perth & Adelaide missed out slightly by the fact that they are published slightly later than Melbourne and Sydney. As it happens, sometimes practicalities also intervene (I was committed to speak at the Walkleys journalism conference which saw me with less time than usual to write this story).
But I did have time to look at the Brisbane numbers. If there was a major drama in terms of changes of share/ relative position, then I didn’t spot it. I’m all ears though if you can point to a major development I missed.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
I have always been a “music listener” and being of the baby boomers era, I only always listened to 3MP or Magic. When MTR started I was disappointed because I am not into “talkbalk radio” at all. But decided to give MTR a go anyway. Now 4 months on…. I have MTR on at every opportunity. They are great to listen to. I might not always agree with what they talk about but I always have a good laugh.
My husband who has always been a 774 listener is now a full MTR listener. Now we don’t switch stations when in the car anymore. We have one station in common!! Being “swing voters”, we are very open to all the discussions that takes place.
Classic Rock = Fail.
So typical of Aussie radio, changing the music doesn’t mean that listeners will believe the brand.
The 8:55am classic rock challenge is a case in point. Yesterday’s question was, Larry Mullen Jr is the youngest member of which band? Easy question that took 3 callers to answer. Live the brand people.
And stop playing mainstream crossover tracsk that don’t back up the brand – Peter Gabriel Sledgehmmer, Blondie Heart of Glass, etc.
Play some credible CR music and back it up with everything else you do. It’s about building a brand, not playing music that tests with Triple M and WS auds.
DMG have been trying to get 91.5 and 95.3 to attract 40 – 50 year olds for five years now with not even a remote sniff of success.
Why?
1) Classic Rock does not have announcers. Instead they employ 16 year old traffic reporters. Announcers / DJs give you company and create an image for the station.
2) 40 – 50 year olds have a very diverse taste in music. In melbourne the No.1 music station for this age group is FoxFm. The No.2 station is Gold. Neither are rock stations yet DMG think they will storm the 40 somethings with old rock music.
They should have classed themselves Old Rock Music 91.5.
3) They have no announcers. Might as well listen to Triple M.
4) They have no announcers. Might as well listen to my iPod.
Hi Terry – my bad – thanks for pointing that out – now updated.
Cheers,
Tim