i98 still on song in the Gong – Xtra Insights

It’s been 18 months since the last Xtra Insights survey of Wollongong, but little has changed with local stations i98 FM, Wave FM and ABC Illawarra still first, second and third respectively. All three had overall audience decreases.

Win Radio’s i98 had a 2.2 drop for all audiences 10+, but still held a quarter of the listening audience with 26.0. ARN’s Wave FM only saw a small drop of 0.4 to 17.2, with good gains in the afternoon and drive. ABC Illawarra was down 1.9 to 12.7 with triple j nipping at their heels and up 0.2 in fourth to 11.2. i98’s Marty, Bella and Christian were similarly ahead in breakfast, down 1.2 to 26.0.

General Manager of WIN Radio Genevieve Gordon said:

“We put our listeners in the Illawarra at the forefront of everything we do, and today’s results demonstrated that. Everything from our music, our talent line-up, our competitions and television commercials are community focused, and it is this reason that the Illawarra keep tuning into i98FM. Once again, we continue to be the stronghold in the Illawarra market.”

Unlike the recent Xtra Insights survey of Campbelltown which has KIIS1065 out in front, the Sydney stations KIIS, WSFM, 2GB and smooth had a much smaller share of audience (around 3-5 points each) but all did grow in size, around 3 points in total, showing the reach of Sydney shows are impacting the nearby regional markets.

Power FM (down 0.2 to 1.0) were part of this survey, presumably Power 94.9 Nowra, the nearest to the Illawarra. It is also worth mentioning that SCA doesn’t have a local Wollongong radio station with 2Day FM and Triple M Sydney both down in this survey, to 0.4 and 2.1 respectively.