The neck and neck battle between talkback hosts Paul Murray and Liam Bartlett remains tight as Perth’s radio ratings season approaches the home stretch.
The neck and neck battle between talkback hosts Paul Murray and Liam Bartlett remains tight as Perth’s radio ratings season approaches the home stretch.
Mr Murray of 6PR sits just one percentage point behind ABC720 host Mr Bartlett, after closing the gap with a 0.9 percentage point gain on his arch-rival.
Mr Bartlett grew his share by 0.3 percentage points to 11.9 per cent of the morning audience 9am-12noon slot, according to survey figures released by Nielsen Media Research.
6PR and ABC720 continued to build their share of the key breakfast slot, which is considered vital to building audience share for the morning.
ABC720 breakfast host Eoin Cameron added 0.6 percentage points to hold 17.9 per cent of the market, just behind the Botica’s Bunch team at Mix 94.5 who gained 0.3 percentage points to reach 18.2 per cent of the market.
6PR closed the gap at third by adding 2.4 percentage points to hit 13.8 per cent.
Despite this jostling, there were no heavy gains or losses across the various timeslots as market players held their ground.
In the various age groups, though, there was some more significant movement, albeit only a few examples.
In the 18 to 24-year-old age bracket, Mix 94.5 and 96FM appeared to almost trade audience share of the youth market.
Mix 94.5 dropped 5.9 percentage points to 8.4 per cent of the age group, while 96FM jumped 5.7 percentage points to 15.7 per cent.
In the 25 to 39-year-old demographic, 92.9 dropped 3.9 percentage points to slip below 10 per cent of the market.
Nova continues to be a dominant force among the youngsters but still remains fourth in overall rankings for all listeners over 10 years of age.
It has 11.9 per cent of the market, behind 6PR in third place on 12.4 per cent, ABC720 in second with 13.2 per cent and Mix 94.5 at number one, earning 17.5 per cent of the market’s ears.
Grocery buyers, too, prefer Mix 94.5 over all others, with 18.1 per cent of them favouring the station, a slip of 1.4 percentage points over the survey period.
National ABC youth station Triple J gained significant ground in the 25 to 39-year-old age group, adding 4.6 percentage points to hit 13.5 per cent, a fourth placing.
