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BY RadioToday Network June 5, 2026
What's New December 10, 2024
The day I beat Ray
Reporter
There aren’t many people who can lay claim to beating Ray Hadley in the radio ratings.
Bianca Dye is one of them.
As Hadley prepares to host his final 2GB Mornings shift this Friday, Radio Today has reminisced with Dye about Survey 3 of 2004, in which she dethroned the legendary broadcaster during her stint as one of the foundation presenters at Sydney’s Nova 96.9.
She was the first person to achieve this feat.
Dye says Hadley was a good sport about it, cheerfully acknowledging her ratings triumph when she presented an award to him at the ACRAs a few years back.
“It was gold!” Dye laughs.
It would be another two decades before it happened again.
Last month – exactly one week after announcing his impending retirement – Hadley lost his first ratings survey since 2004, dropping to third place behind WSFM’s Ugly Phil O’Neill – who finished #1 in Mornings – and Smooth FM’s Ty Frost.
His 160 survey winning streak was no more.
As Hadley gets ready to wrap up his remarkable career after five decades on air, Dye on the other hand is returning the studio, waking up the Illawarra as host of the Summer Breakfast show on i98FM.
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BY RadioToday Network June 5, 2026
It is a bit rich for Bianca to claim victory because she was just back announcing the songs every 30 minutes on a well programmed music station.
Hang on a minute didn’t Jonesy say on air that he beat Ray when he worked at Triple M, surely he wouldn’t make that up.
@PJ… clearly never listened or understood the groundbreaking format that we had at Nova.. hilarious and I certainly wasn’t “claiming any victory”! . Ray was the one who brought it up when we were on stage and was being lovely and gracious & cheeky about it and we had a laugh .. but good day to you sir!!!
Ha! I remember this well. It’s all a bit of fun (Nova was fun as was Bianca) and Ray took it all in his stride.
It reminds be of the late 90s when Triple M’s Club Veg (Mal & Vic) returned to Sydney after a long hiatus and knocked John Laws off his perch within a couple of surveys.
Again is was AM vs FM.
Any win in radio is a good one and you take ’em when you get them and celebrate them! Well at least that’s what we used to do 🙂
Cheers Queen B
@PJ Her show was definitely more than back announcing a few songs. From the 9 o’clock ‘caffeine hit’, it energetic, fun, unmissable Sydney radio.
You go Bianca. One of the best people to listen to on the radio. So creative and so real! ♥️♥️♥️
@Alan Jonesy: Brendan “Jonesy” Jones *did* outrate Ray Hadley during Survey 8, 2002 – his last before defecting to WSFM.
However, the timeslot leader during S8 2002 was Adam Willis on 2DayFM (#1 in five surveys that year) followed by John Laws on 2UE (who won three). Jonesy was 3rd, Hadley 4th.
Ray Hadley’s first real taste of ratings success at 2GB came in Survey #7, 2002 when he and John Laws were equal #1 of the AM stations with 10.1% each. However, Adam Willis on 2DayFM was the outright winner between 9am and midday that survey.
Ray Hadley’s first #1 AM survey was Survey 1, 2003 – behind 2DayFM’s Adam Willis who along with Lawsie, won three surveys between 9am and midday that year. Ray’s first survey as the market’s overall #1 choice was Survey 6, 2003. Both Hadley and Bianca Dye were equal #1 in Survey 7, 2003 with 11.2% each.
In 2004, Bianca Dye was #1 for the first three surveys before Ray won in Survey #4…and all after that until “Ugly” Phil O’Neil and Ty Frost finally broke the drought in Survey 7, 2024.
So all things considered, I’d say that Bianca Dye was the last person before Phil & Ty to knock Hadley off #1…although the 9am-midday figures bounced around quite a bit during those first few Jones/Hadley-era years of 2GB. The Sydney media landscape was in an era of significant change then, probably not unlike now!
They all get beaten at least Once, i remember when Stuart Cranney on Triple M , beat Laws once, another Jock 2KYs Arch Tambakis , listened in to Cranneyto hear what he was like , when asked what he thought , he said, ” i listened in for 30 minutes , all i heard was music”
Bianca Dye. I agree with you and listened to you on Nova then I98 with Marty Josh And you
You had a great show on Nova.