Triple M boss Mike Fitzpatrick plans to get Perth brekkie ‘back to #1’

If Mike Fitzpatrick is Southern Cross Austereo’s new chief content officer, he’s keeping it under lock and key. “At the moment mate, I’m the head of the Triple M Network,” he tells Radio Today.

Survey 7 was steady as he goes for the SCA-owned network: Sydney up +0.1, Melbourne up +0.3, Brisbane flat, Adelaide down -0.3 and Perth up +0.4 in People 10+.

Perhaps the most hopeful news in the latest radio ratings was in the Sydney and Perth markets.

Triple M Sydney Breakfast with Moonman In The Morning climbed +0.5 to a 6.9% share of listening, above the station average of 6.4%.

“What you want to see is incremental growth survey after survey; not big leaps and bounds, which come with corrections,” says Fitzpatrick.

“The other thing is, it’s the best share result we’ve had in two years, one of the best cume results as well. Those [listeners] that are there, like it. Now it’s just about finding new listeners.”

On the recent departure of Gus Worland, Fitzpatrick says he’s not expecting to lose any momentum.

“There will be people that will miss Gus, but I don’t think that’s any reason for people to switch off,” he says.

Over on Mix 94.5 Perth, Clairsy, Matt & Kymba rose +0.7 to an 11.2% share of listening, just below the station average of 11.3%.

Fitzpatrick says the team all have a common goal: “…to get back to #1”.

“I think [Perth] has been a really good story for us this time around. They’ve really spent some time over there on the Breakfast show and a lot of time on the product,” he says.

In Survey 7, Nova Perth claimed the #1 FM station in four out of five metro markets, with a 13.3% share of overall listening (-0.2). Despite a slight dip, Australian Radio Network’s re-invigorated 96FM remains #2 with 11.9% (-0.8).

“While 96FM has a great music product, I hear that Breakfast show and it’s not the most amazing show in the world. There is a bit of a halo around Fred, as you would expect there to be.

“And there was some work for us to do on the Mix show as well, no one is going to shy away from that, and we haven’t and we’ve made some real inroads there and some changes.

Nova’s Nathan, Nat & Shaun are uncontested for the #1 Breakfast position, with Mix the closest competition with a +0.7 upward swing.

It’s a different story in Melbourne, however. The station secured a 6.5% share of listening overall (+0.3), making it the fifth most listened to station on the commercial FM leaderboard, with KIIS FM trailing.

“Any programmer that looks at that Melbourne figure and says the stations gone up top 6.5 and Breakfast went down from a 6 to a 5.5 wouldn’t be happy with it,” he admits.

The Hot Breakfast with Eddie McGuire was down to a 5.5% share of listening (-0.5) but is showing promising growth in cume, which the network head puts down to a “TSL problem”.

“However, there are good signs in there. A 35,000 cume increase into the Breakfast show would indicate to me that it’s a TSL problem.

“It’s been a bit of a trend this year, with the Hot Breakfast tending off, and we’ve spent a lot of time with Eddie, Wil and Darce talking about those figures, and how we’re going to get them back to where they need to be.

“Everyone is on board, and everyone is rowing in the same direction.”