Wheatbelt Ratings: Hit overtakes Triple M as most popular commercial radio station

Western Australia’s Wheatbelt region in the south west of the state has a new favourite commercial radio station, with 19.7% of surveyed listeners saying they listen to Southern Cross Austereo’s (SCA) Hit Network the most.

This was a climb of 1.9 percentage points from the last survey, conducted in March 2017.

Back in March 2017, the leading commercial station was SCA stablemate Triple M, which was on 18.9%. This survey, however, 17.9% of people said they listened to the station the most.

Hit also led the way in the demographics, with 33.8% for those aged 18 to 24 and 30.7% in the 25 to 39s. With those aged 40 to 54, there was also a swing towards Hit, with 20.6% of people in that age bracket saying they listen to the station the most, up 7.0 points. This placed it exactly on par with Triple M, which slipped 3.4 points in the same demographic to 20.6%.

Overall the ABC’s Great Southern WA station was most popular, with 21.9% of surveyed listeners saying they listen to the national broadcaster the most.

This was replicated in Breakfast, where despite a 0.6 point slip, Great Southern Breakfast with Tim Wong-See led the way on 25.7%.

Hit snuck ahead of Triple M to grab #2 in Breakfast, and #1 in terms of commercial stations, up 2.3 points to 19.8%. The syndicated WA regional program, Allan & Michelle, is hosted by Allan Aldworth and Michelle Anderson.

Triple M’s Terry For Breakfast was down 0.7 points to 15.7%.

In Drive, Hit’s Carrie & Tommy were on top overall, up 0.6 points to 19.7%. Triple M’s Molloy had 19.3%, and the ABC’s Drive program was down 2.5 points to 18.7%.

SCA’s general manager for Wheatbelt, Ross Beckett, said the results were great for both stations.

“What a brilliant result for SCA Wheatbelt, both Hit and Triple M have seen fantastic growth in listenership since our last survey, with over one in two people listening to an SCA station. I couldn’t be prouder of the team who continue to deliver exceptional and engaging content for people in the Wheatbelt.

“I’d like to thank our loyal listeners, friends and advertisers of our Hit and Triple M stations across the region for their ongoing support,” Beckett said.

Triple M’s content director for the south west, Jarred O’Brien, also thanked his team.

“Triple M Wheatbelt had a fantastic result with the largest audience of 26,400 people tuning into our station each week. This marks us as the #1 Commercial Station with listeners 40+. Well done to the Triple M Wheatbelt team, they’ve worked extremely hard, and this result is a reward for their efforts,” he said.

And Amy Collett, Hit Western Australia’s content director, said the Hit team’s passion for creating engaging local content had paid off.

“The amount of people tuning into Hit Wheatbelt each week is up by 31.5%, which is an incredible result. To see Breakfast as the #1 most listened to for all people 30-54 and Drive most listened to for people 10+ across the Wheatbelt is also phenomenal,” she added.