Changes to Nova 937’s breakfast line-up appear to be paying dividends for the FM station, which has taken top spot for breakfast listeners in the 18 to 39 year old segment for the first time since it hit the airwaves 18 months ago.
While its breakfast team of Nathan and Nat ranks fourth behind 96fm, 92.9, and clear category winner Mix 94.5 in terms of all listeners, the result in the demographic was outstanding, according to Nova 937 managing director Gary Roberts.
“We’re up from 13 to 19.9 [per cent of the market in 18-39],” he said.
“We’ve been totally focused on breakfast and getting it to where we want it to be.”
Mr Roberts said Nova also won its core demographic of 18 to 34 year olds, both in breakfast and across the day, but he still wanted further improvements.
Nova’s lead in the 18 to 39 bracket during the breakfast period is just 0.4 percentage points with 96fm jumping 1.4 percentage points to account for 19.5 per cent of that market.
Nova’s main rival 92.9 lost 1.9 percentage points and holds 17.9 per cent of the market.
Austereo-owned 92.9 also lost its number one position in the under 40 market mantle to Nova 937.
Mr Roberts said Nova gained 3.2 percentage points to pick up a 20.6 per cent share of all people under 40 ahead of 92.9 on 19.1 per cent.
“We are very healthy at the moment, we gained 5.2 points in the 25 to 39 market and that is where a lot of the growth has come from,” he said.
However, Austereo general manager Linda Wayman was keen to highlight 92.9’s cumulative audience which was the highest of all stations for listeners under 40 with an audience of 146,000.
Mr Roberts said the positive result was part of an overall trend rather than a one-off promotion.
“The gap is widening between us and 92.9,” he said.
Zara, Troy, and Bernie, the breakfast team at 92.9, lost three percentage points for all people 10 and over which, according to Ms Wayman, has impacted its ratings performance across the remainder of the day.
“Our breakfast show went up last survey and this time it went down and that’s the nature of this market. It’s very competitive,” she said.
Ms Wayman said a new promotion developed in Perth, called undercover agent, should prove popular with listeners in the coming weeks.
“We’re hoping that it will cause street talk with people and it’s really something to have a bit of fun with,” she said.
Nielsen Media Research radio ratings survey number five shows that although 92.9’s breakfast team slid to 11.2 per cent of the market it remains in second position behind sister station Mix 94.5 in the 10 plus audience.
Mix 94.5 is still Perth’s number one station across all listeners.
It gained 4.1 points in the 40 to 54 age segment but lost 3.1 points in the 25 to 39 market.
Mix returned to mainstream advertising this year, the first time since 1997, in an effort to match an increasing profile by new competitor 96fm, which began advertising heavily this year.
“In the 25 to 54 market we are 9 per cent ahead of 96fm, we’ve gone up from 25.5 points to 26.2 points. 96fm has gone up from 15.7 to 17.2 per cent but were still ahead and as long as we are miles in front then we are happy and this is a good result,” Ms Wayman said.
96fm lost 4.7 points in its 18 to 24 segment – something many media analysts were predicting as it grows its market with older listeners in an attempt to gain more share from Mix 94.5. 96fm is gaining more audience from 94.5’s younger market of 25 to 39 year olds.
6PR’s embattled breakfast team of Howard Sattler and Louise Rowe recorded a 0.7 point increase to gain 8.4 per cent of the segment, well behind ABC’s Eion Cameron who gained 0.3 percentage points and accounts for 15.2 per cent of the market from 5.30am to 9am.
RADIO RATINGS
Breakfast ratings percentage share of 18-39 year olds
Station Survey 5 Survey 4 Change
92.9 17.9 19.8 -1.9
Nova 937 19.9 13.0 6.9
96fm 19.5 18.1 1.4
Percentage share of 40-54 year olds
Station Survey 5 Survey 4 Change
94.5 32.3 28.2 4.1
96fm 12.0 10.9 1.1
Percentage share of 25-39 year olds
Station Survey 5 Survey 4 Change
94.5 19.5 22.6 -3.1
92.9 13.3 14.6 -1.3
96fm 22.8 20.6 2.2
Nova 937 16.5 11.3 5.2
Percentage share of 18-24 year olds
Station Survey 5 Survey 4 Change
92.9 22.1 22.1 0.0
Nova 937 27.7 25.3 2.4