Radio Ratings
BY Staff Writer April 18, 2024
Radio Ratings July 6, 2021
‘I think more about 2Day than any other station’: Dave Cameron on the Hit Network’s struggles in Sydney
Southern Cross Austereo’s (SCA) chief content officer, Dave Cameron, has remained on message in the face of today’s poor results in Sydney, saying it will take time for a revitalised 2DayFM to cut through.
Despite repeating the same positive messages as he has the last few surveys, Cameron did acknowledge 2DayFM is a concern.
“I would say that I continue to have a tight focus on the Sydney market and how we may continue to build an audience from a very, very tight and loyal audience base that is attached to other stations and brands. That will be our ongoing focus. And I think more about 2Day than any other station to be honest,” he said when asked by Radio Today what he’s most concerned about out of today’s results.
He said today was very much Kyle & Jackie O’s day, in light of their historically high result on rival KIIS, but it was business as usual at 2Day.
KIIS’ Kyle & Jackie O Show had a 15.5% share, topping even AM’s Ben Fordham on 2GB, and miles ahead of 2Day’s 3.3% for The Morning Crew with Hughesy, Ed & Erin.
“In terms of us, look it’s the same conversation I had the last couple of surveys [and] probably the same one I’ll have with you for the next couple of surveys. My message is going to be repetitious at the moment, because it’s the same situation. We need to build an audience, continue to do what we’re doing. Be consistent. Hold the course for the show that continues to grow. And we need to find an audience that needs to come from a market that has very loyal listening. It has very little audience movement because of legacy shows that haven’t changed at all,” he said.
The Morning Crew still needs time, Cameron says
The only way for 2DayFM to make inroads in Breakfast is consistency, he said, as well as “dangling some carrots” to move the cumulative audience over the next couple of years.
“And that’s what we’ll do,” he told Radio Today, resolutely. “And I know that’s the same story, bu that’s what we’ll do, and that’s the only way to move forward, is to be consistent with what we’re doing, and move some audience over a long period of time.”
SCA’s other Breakfast offering in Sydney, Lawrence Mooney’s Moonman in the Morning on Triple M, also struggled, dipping 1.1 points to 4.6%.
Is it the same situation over on Triple M, then?
“A little bit,” Cameron said. “Moonman was sitting on 6.7 a couple of surveys ago, so we’ve taken a little bit of a hit there. I think what we do know with our Triple M shows is that when we stop marketing intensely, they tend to just come off the radar a little bit.
Moonman in the Morning is ‘one of the funniest shows in Sydney’, according to Cameron
“We put a significant focus on 2Day for the first half of the year, and now it’s time for us to just have a look at making sure we continue the exposure with Moonman.
“We still think it’s one of the funniest shows in Sydney, and w’ere happy with the product. We’ll get some marketing in the second half of the year, but it is steady as she goes [for now].”
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Why does the whole country need to listen to Hughesy, Ed & Erin 6-7pm? Clearly the show is garbage. Maybe focus on mornings instead of a highlights (LOL) package nightly.
Just go local breakfast highlights in that hour.
Can’t blame him – this has to be the narrative… it’s all his doing.
Sadly it’s falling on deaf ears. Figuratively and literally.
One group of people seem to still listening – that is the SCA board… they still believe in the worn out, unimaginative strategy even if Sydney and Australian audiences don’t…
Good that DC thinks about 2Day a lot but does he ever listen to it ? Where does he expect to get listeners from ? Difficult to see
Kyle’s listeners moving to 104.1. Would Fitzy lose audience to 2Day, why would they ? Smooth have their own style and can’t see them liking Erin or Dave.
WS listeners are bolted on and too old now
anyway. Triple M is for bogans and don’t have a huge audience so they can’t afford to lose anyone and most of their 4% have been there since the station launched.
So where is the audience going to come from ? I would really like to hear anyone’s opinion on how 2dayfm can
“ find an audience “
One suggestion move Hughesy and Ed Kavallee to Sydney as it might help.
People aren’t stupid.
Staged pictures in front of the Opera House just don’t cut it with listeners or the press and probably not with clients either.
Imagine a product launch like this in any other category, heads would roll. It would be good to hear Gemma’s rationale on all this also, as 2Day is her baby as Head of Hit Network. It would be good to get a women’s thoughts on it especially as 2Day is supposedly targeting old women.
Everyone at SCA seems to get paid a lot of money to achieve very little
In my opinion Dave has some changes or restructures to make in the off air management team, if the Hit Network is to have a resurgence. The ideas and thoughts from the past few years (nothing against those people) isn’t working. That’s clear. These people are post Dobbo/Bruce days. They sold to SCA heads they could change things, they had the wisdom. They didn’t. Perhaps the way forward is to get fresh heads and minds involved. Tough calls but now is the time Dave. My two cents worth.
They all all sound dull. They’re all on the same music, the same sounding day jox, the same people, ideas and thinking.
The best thing the Fed Gov could do is open up 2 more commercial FM licenses in all markets, and ban the big 3 from having anything to do with them.
This controlled market is literally a disgrace and has caused the malaise which exists now. Radio whines that online has no restrictions, “we’re under attack from Facebook” blah blah – yet radio is a protected racket. These execs literally have 2 major competitors each. WTF? Dave, Paul and Duncan would not know real market pressure.
Plus, 2GB and 3AW should all be given space on FM. Fordham gets a 13 or so on a AM signal, put it on FM and he’ll pick up lots of cume.
When Dave Cameron moved into his current role, he possibly actually believed he’d been promoted, & given an opportunity.
The sad reality is that Dave is very clearly the scapegoat & now attention-diverting spokesperson for sub-optimal corporate strategy, poorly thought cost-cutting & unimaginative creativity, from a protected silver-tailed boys-club in the C-Suite of a publicly listed company, whose “mum & dad shareholders” have mostly cut their losses and run.
If the institutional investors gobbling the spin are waiting for the 2Day FM brekky team to revive ratings, watch $30m+ annual lost revenue miraculously reappear, & drive the share price north, it’s akin to believing the Holden Commodore will be voted Car of the Year again in 2021.
SCA’s core offering of non-rating metro commercial radio, free-to-air regional TV affiliated to Network Ten without a news service, & regional radio that is largely networked-non-rating-metro-commercial radio make for a mostly unappetising, old-fashioned and decreasing-in-size slice of the modern media pie.
For 2Day FM, it appears that the central planks of their strategy are hope (not action), & setting up the next fall-guy.
HT&E, Nova, Nine et al have left them (Nine literally) for dead.
KISS works because it took 2Day’s winning team. The morning “comedy with contemporary music” format is crowded in Sydney, also a little tired. Why not sign up Alan Jones and build a new successful conservative talk FM station? People aged 45-plus can find the FM button on their radios these days