FIGURES from the latest radio ratings indicate only minor changes in the ongoing battle for airwaves market share but, significantly, have returned Nova 937 to number one in the 18-24 demographic.
Austero’s Mix 94.5 remains Perth’s number one radio station overall, gaining 0.4 percentage points to claim a marketshare of 20.9 per cent.
Austereo’s 92.9 lost its number two spot with a fall of 0.7 percentage points, while ABC720’s 0.8 percentage point gain secured it the number two ranking.
ABC720 has shown strong growth in its drive and evening segments, climbing 1.2 percentage points and 1.9 percentage points respectively.
96fm, owned by Southern Cross Broadcasting, suffered the biggest ratings slide, falling 1.7 percentage points in the latest figures.
Southern Cross-operated 6PR fell 0.8 percentage points.
The focus of recent surveys has been the slide of commercial newcomer Nova 937.
It fell from a number one ranking in the 18-24 segment to number four in survey five, the first time it lost the number one spot since its launch in December last year.
This most recent survey has returned Nova 937 to its number one position and arch rival 92.9, which was number one, fell from 23.3 per cent to 18.9 per cent.
However, the real test for both stations comes with the next survey.
Nova managing director Gary Roberts and his team believe that survey five (released on August 12) contained a number of errors, which accounted for the loss of 40 per cent of Nova’s share in the core 18-24 demographic.
Because of Nielsen Media Research’s rolling survey methodology, five weeks of data from survey five has been rolled over into survey six, and five weeks of survey six has been rolled into survey seven.
As a result, survey eight, to be released on December 9, will not have parts of the figures Nova 937 claims to be inaccurate.
