Rest in peace, James Valentine. The popular radio and television presenter and musician has died at the age of 64. Details here.
Survey 2 2026 results for the GfK Australian metropolitan radio ratings survey were released this morning, April 23.
In Brisbane, it was good news for Triple M, which remained number one overall and in the all-important Breakfast shift.
Greg “Marto” Martin, Margaux Parker and Dan Anstey stayed steady on a 14.0pc share, 1.9 points ahead of KIIS 97.3’s Robin Bailey (who has a book out), Kip Wightman and Corey Oates, followed by B105’s Stav Davidson (of whom more later), Abby Coleman and Matt Acton (11.8, down 0.3), and 4BH’s “Barbecue” Bob Gallagher (10.8, down 0.4).
Nova’s new/old line-up of Nick Allen-Ducat, David “Luttsy” Lutteral and Susie O’Neill put on 1.0 points to a fifth-placed 10.3pc, with 612 ABC Brisbane’s Craig Zonca and Loretta Ryan on 7.0 (but they lost 1.3 points, which must be a worry).
At 4BC, Dean Miller and Sofie Formica had a small recovery on last survey’s dire result, up 0.4 points to still-low 3.8pc. The station performs slightly stronger through the shifts, but 5.5 for Mornings is the best it gets in daylight hours and from local presenters. At the least the trend is upwards.
At the top of the tree on overall numbers, it was Triple M (13,3), KIIS (11.1), 4BH (10.9, up 0.3 points) and then B105 (10.4, down 0.5) and Nova (8.6, up 0.6 from last survey’s debacle).
At the other end, 4BC put on 0.4 points to 4.6 — a tie with national youth station Triple J — but was beaten by 612 ABC on 5.9. These remain very low numbers for news-talk stations — especially at a time when there’s a lot going on in the world.
However, NewsRadio did put on 0.6 points to take it to a 1.8pc share. (“It’ll be champagne all round,” an ABC veteran tells me.) ABC Classic scored 2.4pc, Radio National 1.6 and SENQ 0.7.
In Sydney, although the survey covers a few weeks while the Kyle and Jackie O Show was still on air, KIIS 1065’s loss of Kyle Sandilands and Jackie Henderson had an impact. The station remained the no.1 FM station in Breakfast, although dropping 1.0pc, but was comprehensively beaten by 2GB’s Ben Fordham.
Smooth FM drew level with 2GB overall, with KIIS a distant third, and Smooth’s Breakfast show is in a solid third place.
And the experiment of taking Christian O’Connell’s Gold Breakfast show from Melbourne to a national audience, is not paying off in Sydney, but it’s slightly up in Melbourne. Gold is only heard on DAB+ and online in Brisbane, so it’s hard to know whether he is breaking through here.
A lot of radio people are watching this for clues to a future that inevitably includes more cost-cutting.
Footnote: In its media release, Commercial Radio & Audio (CRA) welcomed the results, noting commercial radio now reached a record 12.8 million listeners weekly. CRA CEO Lizzie Young said: “A record audience last survey, topped again this survey. When a medium delivers at this scale, this consistently, it tells you that Australians rely on local, live commercial radio - and brands can too.”
This article will probably be updated, and I will almost certainly revisit the ratings results in future posts.
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‘Bathroom’ bump
One of the most visible manifestations of the merger of the Seven network and Southern Cross Austereo is a new segment on the afternoon TV news that puts faces to the media company’s radio stars.
It began this week with an appearance by B105’s Stav Davidson, who spoke to Katrina Blowers about a few issues ranging from homeless people breaking into childcare centres to sleep to rich people eating lobster on the beach at Noosa.
Davidson says that a shout-out to hear from B105 listeners who’d experienced a break-in received more calls than the station often gets for competitions. (Which is worrying and seems at odds with messages we are constantly getting about the State Government making Queensland safer.)
The comedian also mention he’d received a bump on his head while in the “bathroom”. The way the anecdote played out it sounded like his mishap began when he was sitting on the toilet scrolling on his phone — something of which I do not approve.
Meanwhile, one industry insider suggests the segment was Davidson’s “audition for talk radio”.
P.S.
In a tribute to the late Jamie Dunn, ice-cream vendor Wendy’s is promoting the limited-time return of the Agro cone. Fifty cents from every purchase will be donated to the Children’s Hospital Foundation — a cause that was very close to Dunn’s heart.
If you’re interested in what former Triple J and Nova radio star Merrick Watts is up to now, he’s talking about his life in the Don’t Let the Old Man In podcast. Details here.
Disclosure: Brett Debritz used to work in radio at 4BC. Well, not actually in the radio, but you know what I mean.