Young Melburnians just wanna have fun, it seems.
Classic hits station Gold – featuring Cyndi Lauper, Australian Crawl and Duran Duran on high rotation – has claimed a bigger slice of the under-24 audience than youth-oriented Triple J.
Gold tied with Fox on 8.6 per cent in the latest ratings survey, leaving them equal first on the FM ladder. While Fox dominates Melbourne's youth market (claiming 27.3 per cent of the under-17s and 21.7 per cent of the 18-24 segment), some results were surprising.
Triple J – down by 1.3 percentage points to 4.9 per cent – drew 4.5 per cent of teenage radio listeners, while Gold had 5.8 per cent. Perhaps a reflection of youngsters trapped in the car with their parents?
Yet those of university age also favoured Gold's blend of Farnsey and A Flock of Seagulls over Triple J's more eclectic offering.
In fairness, Triple J doesn't aim for massive audiences through mainstream appeal; it deliberately provides an alternative to its FM rivals. In the 25 to 39 age group, Triple J does exceptionally well with a 12.5 per cent share compared to Gold's 8.2 per cent – and just behind the 13 per cent of FM king Fox.
It must be noted that radio surveys are not intended to broadly analyse Australians' listening habits. Only commercial and ABC stations are measured, while streaming services and community and digital-only broadcasters are excluded.
On the AM dial, 3AW (owned by Fairfax Media, owner of this masthead) maintained its crushing dominance with a 14.4 per cent share – double or triple most other stations' ratings. In second place, 774ABC scored 10.5 per cent.
A word of caution when looking at timeslot figures: they rarely reflect the precise start and end times of each program. Of course, chasing the correct ratings for every program on this list would take all day. Consider these figures in the graph above a guide, not the final word.
In the breakfast slot, 3AW's Ross Stevenson and John Burns rose by 0.7 points to 19.8 per cent, while 774ABC's Red Symon's inched up to 14.9 per cent.
On FM, Eddie McGuire's Hot Breakfast fell by a considerable 1.1 per cent to 8.4 per cent – but retained its No.1 FM title without a worry. Fox's Fifi, Dave & Fev also fell (down to 7.4 per cent) while Nova's Chrissie Sam & Browny took third place, rising to 6.8 per cent. Kiis' Matt & Meshel – who pulled a worrying 4.6 per cent last survey – climbed an impressive 1.1 points to 5.7 per cent, leaving them even with Gold stablemates Jo & Lehmo.
In the designated drive slot of 4pm to 7pm, Fox's Hamish & Andy led the pack with 11.3 per cent. But their AM competitors start at 3pm and finish at 6pm. Isolate those figures, and you find 3AW's Tom Elliott on winning 11.9 per cent per cent, while 774ABC's Rafael Epstein rates 7.6 per cent.
Indeed, the 4pm to 7pm race is the closest: Nova's Kate, Tim & Marty are on 8.8 per cent, Smooth's Byron Webb captures 8.4 per cent, Gold's Gavin Miller is on 7.7 per cent, Triple M's Rush Hour/Merrick and Australia has 7.2 and Kiis' Hughesy & Kate have 6.3 per cent.
Look at each network's overall share, and it's a different story.
Smooth (7.8 per cent) has leapfrogged Triple M (7.4 per cent) to become Melbourne's No.3 FM station, while Nova (6.8 per cent) is well ahead of Kiis (5.3 per cent).
In mornings, Neil Mitchell helped drive a winning 16.4 per cent audience share, while 774ABC rival Jon Faine claimed 11.9 per cent.
