Greg Byrnes on Survey 3 & the challenge of holding the audience during live footy calls

Be it AFL or NRL, footy remains one of the classic ‘water cooler’ topics of conversation, according to Nine Radio’s National Content Manager Greg Byrnes.

“Everyone has a team. Everyone is passionate about their team. Everyone has a view on how their team is performing,” he says.

And that, in turn, plays out on all of Nine’s radio stations.

In an interview with Radioinfo’s Steve Ahern post GfK Survey 3 – the first full book for both codes – Byrnes highlights the importance of footy as content.

“AFL in Victoria and WA – specifically Melbourne and Perth – is the fabric of those cities, so we need to be talking about them.”

Byrnes says holding the audience during the live radio call is the challenge, though.

“But around that, the analysis, pre and post, the football politics … particularly in Melbourne and Perth … it’s a core part of our content.”

The same goes for the NRL states.

“We do invest heavily in that football talent and commentary teams,” says Byrnes. “To do it properly is expensive, but we know how crucial it is to our content.”

He says live radio calls are still commercially strong for Nine, especially given the big competition for naming rights.

Byrnes also believes Nine Radio will reap the benefits of Perth being home to the NRL’s newest team.

“It’s wonderful content for us, because it’s a discussion point. It’s news of the day. We want to lead the conversation, so the arrival of a new sporting team into a parochial state like WA makes for good content.”

Byrnes is delighted with the numbers for Sydney’s 2GB and Melbourne’s 3AW in this latest book.

With an 18 share, he says 3AW’s Breakfast program is without peer.

Ben Fordham continued to grow his share in 2GB Breakfast, Mark Levy solidified his position as #1 in Mornings, while Clinton Maynard (pictured above) delivered the station’s best Drive share result in around four years.

Byrnes says Maynard is very driven.

“He’s been around a long time. And people are very pleased to see that the show is going well. That’s certainly the feedback I get.”

Byrnes says it certainly helps that 2GB listeners are already very familiar with Levy and Maynard.

“Between Mark and Clinton, what became clear when we made the announcements, and the research we’d done, is that there is a loyalty around those two broadcasters, and long time 2GB listeners felt they deserved their shot,” says Byrnes.

“That doesn’t guarantee them success, but it’s a really nice base to start on.”

Bonus Radio Today Tonight Survey 3 podcast episode featuring thoughts from Greg, Duncan Campbell in his last chat as ARN’s Chief Content Officer, SCA CCO Dave Cameron, the ACE Radio Network‘s Jon Vertigan and smooth network head of programming Peter Clay below.