Craig Bruce on SCA’s Survey 4

If you haven't yet seen the results and analysis from survey 4, see them here.

You can also see the press releases here and the ups and downs here

Here's what Craig Bruce, Head of Content at Southern Cross Austereo, had to say about survey 4 for the Today and Triple M network.

Craig: Sydney and Melbourne excellent and Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane disappointing.

Mark: This survey B105, 92.9 and SAFM breakfast and workday fell behind the pack, what do you put that down to ?

Craig: It starts and ends with breakfast. We have breakfast shows at different stages of their cycle. In Brisbane we really don’t have any excuses for Labby, Stav & Abby, the show has been on the air for 3 years and they should be doing better. Adelaide is new so we’ll dig our way through that. 92.9 is reasonably mature as well, 18 months in, so out of those 3 markets no question that B105 and 92.9 are underperforming in breakfast. We’ll have a good look at both and see what we can do to improve them quickly.

Mark: It’s exactly a year since 96FM first beat Mix 94.5 and they’ve done it again.

Craig: The question will be whether they can hold that result. It was a one off result last year and whether they can maintain that is a challenge for them. We’ll certainly do everything we can to get back on top for next survey. We saw that 96FM were going to have a good survey and they have and well done to them.

Mark: Over to Triple M and the Hot Breakfast result in Melbourne. That ends a long winning streak for Matt & Jo on Fox FM. How long was it ?

Craig: I think they’ve had 50 odd surveys in a row at number 1 FM which is an incredible effort. The fact we’ve managed to keep it in the family is a good thing (laughs). I’d rather one of our brands pipped them than one of dmg’s or ARN’s.

Eddie and the Hot Breakfast is a great show and we’re really proud of what we’ve been able to achieve over 2 or 3 years. It started as a 3 share, now is a 9.5 and it’s a fantastic effort from everyone working on that team.

Mark: I recall in the last 8-10 months you saying that you were planning to develop the Matt & Jo Show to the next phase of its life. Is this result due to some of that reinventing ?

Craig: Reinvention only goes so far when you have a brand like Matt & Jo. Essentially there’s nothing that I think is broken on that show, it’s still a very strong show and clearly has a very loyal audience. The market is certainly tighter in Melbourne than it has been for a long period of time, there’s lots of good quality shows.

I guess like all our breakfast shows and all of our brands we’re continuing to look for ways to improve, grow and develop our sound. Matt & Jo are no different. They’ve been on the air for a long period of time and that’s a strength and we’re all aware we just have to keep on looking for ways to surprise and keep the audience interested over time.

Mark: …and the rest of the Triple M network ?

Craig: Sydney Triple M is excellent. We’re number 3 FM 10+ and a very strong Mon-Fri figure. The Grill Team has held up well. 4MMM is a little behind in terms of its product cycle, we only made changes there 6 months ago. We have a really competitive Nova in Brisbane that target men and women as opposed to the Nova format around the rest of the country which is pure female. So it makes it a little trickier to get those end results that we want in terms of 25-39 males. I still think we’ll get there over time but I see that as more of a small bump than any major issues that we need to address.