What's New
BY Sarah Patterson April 26, 2024
What's New August 30, 2023
“It’s just one book.” ARN’s Duncan Campbell on GfK Survey 5
Reporter
It’s an odd book. But it’s only one book.
That’s one of the big Survey 5 takeaways for ARN’s Chief Content Officer Duncan Campbell.
While Classic Hits station WSFM was up almost across the board in Sydney, Melbourne’s Gold 104.3 saw drops in most day parts and weekends.
In an interview with our sister publication Radioinfo, Campbell says “My explanation for that would be that WS shares a lot of audience with Smooth. Smooth – I think we know it’s a marketing driven format. So they market in the first half of the year, which they’ve done, and then it sort of subsides. And as that subsides each year, WS then picks up.”
Campbell says he had anticipated WS would see a lift.
After 25 surveys on top, Gold 104.3’s The Christian O’Connell Show now sits third in Melbourne FM Breakfast, behind Fox FM and Smooth.
Campbell points out that it’s only one survey – and that O’Connell’s content is great.
Campbell says “Fox marketed very heavily. So did Nova. We did a bit of marketing, but for radio to work really well, you’ve got to have all the factors working.”
“It’s an interesting one, the surveys, because the media – you guys take a snapshot in time. Whereas we’re looking at trends.”
“Christian O’Connell – there’s no trend there. It’s just a one off.”
“He’s a unique broadcaster. He has some strong content, good local content. He did it in London as well. He always was very local on stuff.”
“So, I mean, from an ARN perspective, we’re not concerned at all about the result.”
“We’ve had reductions in the pricing budget and stuff because of the economy and inflation, things like that.”
“So, you know, some of our artillery, if you like, our firepower we haven’t had.”
So indeed, Campbell says it’s an odd book.
“We do have some of them now and then.”
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What's New
BY Sarah Patterson April 26, 2024
Just one book?!
Christian O’Connell – Survey 1 2023: 11.5%
Christian O’Connell – Survey 2 2023: 11.1%
Christian O’Connell – Survey 3 2023: 10.8%
Christian O’Connell – Survey 4 2023: 9.8%
Christian O’Connell – Survey 5 2023: 8.4%
That’s more than one book, that’s what I call a downward trend
He’s right not to worry about it, after 25 consecutive surveys at number 1 in the market, Christian will more than likely bounce back to #1 before the years out. His content is very relatable and listener driven.
I listened for 30 seconds of Christians show a while back and went why the f$$k would you have this show on more than 1 station. Seems ARN have no idea what they are doing. They need to hurry up and syndicate KJ. Then move the Melbourne show to syndicate at night and do a count down format. That would work well for ARN. And change all the network to kiis. Like nova has. If you listen to any nova in the country it’s the same format. That’s why it does so well.
Stats Guy … you wouldn’t be from a rival station would you?!!
Mike, seriously please apply for an executive programming position in Australia. The level of knowledge and strategic thinking your comment displays means you’re the kind of guy our industry really needs bud!
I do think COC’s show is a bit on the nose and Fox are on fire. As Duncan always says ” If the station is rating more than the breakfast show, then its a big problem and time for change ”
According to Mr Campbell, it’s a common radio rule that a breakfast radio show has to be at least rating the same or higher than the station overall. GOLD are rating 9.6 and 11.5 daytime, the breakfast show is rating 8.4% so
Isn’t that a Linda Ronstadt song ?
“ just one book “
Agree. I don’t recall the COC show ever rating at or above Station rating.
Duncan’s rationale for axing Jo and Lehmo and replacing them with CO’C was because whilst they were #1, they were rating lower than the rest of the station. This ist he case with Gold, and with the exception of this book, is the case with KIIS 101.1 as well (where the breakfast show has had really no traction at all in over 5 years).