Perth GFK Radio Ratings: Stellar year for Nova winning 7 out of 8 Surveys in 2021

Nova has ended the year on top in Perth’s GFK Radio Ratings, with Mix 94.5 nudging away from 96FM finishing up a close second for all people 10+. Stela Media’s Marianne Stelmach, who has over two decades of radio industry experience, takes a closer look at the results of the last survey of the year.

Survey 8 also shows 96FM now sitting in third place, followed by 6PR in fourth. 6IX has moved to No. 5 position for the first time this year and Triple M have had a shocker moving to No. 6 position.

#1 Overall – Nova
#1 Breakfast – Nova’s Nathan, Nat & Shaun
#1 Drive – Nova’s Kate, Tim & Joel

Overall cume audiences were down across the board except for Mix 94.5 who had an increase of 5,000 listeners.

Nova is the clear winner in the 10 to 17, 18 to 24 and 25 to 39 demographics. Nathan, Nat & Shaun have dominated in the No. 1 Breakfast spot all year as well as the national Drive show with Kate, Tim & Joel. They are also No. 1 on Weekends and No. 1 Women 10+.

Mix 94.5 has finished really strongly in second place only .6% behind Nova and are dominating the 40 to 45 and 55 to 64 demographics. They’ve closed the gap with Nova’s breakfast show to finish at No.2 only .6% behind and had the biggest rise overall in Breakfast. They are also now No. 1 in Mornings and Afternoons.

96FM has moved from No. 2 to No. 3 position overall. They had strong growth with people 25 to 39 but big drops in the 40 to 54 and 55 to 64 demographics. Surprisingly they had their biggest growth of 3.4% with People 65+. 96FM is sitting in close third position in Mornings, Afternoons, Drive and Weekends. Overall 96FM has had a consistent year and are No. 1 Men 10+. With the departure of General Manager Gary Roberts leaving after his two year contract ended with the station last week, Dan Underhill is now the Market Lead.

6PR has finished the year in No. 4 position overall and are No. 1 People 65+. Tod Johnson is still dominating in the No. 1 position in Evenings. All sessions across the day had increases and Gareth Parker has finished in No. 4 position in Breakfast.

6IX has again cracked the No. 5 position having a .4% increase and have had a big jump with People 65+. It’s the second time this year they have topped Triple M for #5 overall. 6IX had increases across the Morning, Afternoon, Drive, Evening and Weekend sessions.

92.9 Triple M have finished the year in No. 6 position after big changes to their format in 2021. 92.9 Triple M Breakfast with Basil & Xav had no movement in this survey sitting in No. 5 position. Jenna is no longer part of the Breakfast Show but is still reading the News.

The station has announced a new local Drive Show for 2022 – The Rush Hour with Andrew Embley and Michelle Anderson, which will hopefully help increase their audience going up against some of the national Drive shows.

On a non-commercial side note, the ABC had a big increase in their Breakfast Show leading the way overall in No. 1 position with 13% Share. Stan Shaw became the new host after the sad passing of Russell Wolfe earlier this year.

Nova – 12.6% (No Movement)
Mix 94.5 – 12.0% (0.8% Increase)
96FM – 10.7% (0.7% Decrease)
6PR – 8.9% (0.6% Increase)
6IX – 5.5% (0.4% Increase)
92.9 Triple M – 5.3% (0.6% Decrease)

Nova’s Nathan, Nat & Shaun – 12.7% (0.4% Decrease)
Mix 94.5’s Pete, Matt & Kymba – 12.1% (1.2% Increase)
96FM’s The Bunch with Clairsy & Lisa – 8.9% (0.6% Decrease)
6PR’s Gareth Parker – 9.9% (0.6% Increase)
92.9 Triple M with Basil & Xav – 5.8% (No Movement)
6IX’s Ian Blackley – 5.1% (No Movement)

Cume Audience:
Nova have consistently had the biggest cume audience in 2021. Mix 94.5 were the only station to have an increase finishing the year with the second biggest cume audience. 96FM had the biggest drop of 40,000.

Nova – 559,000 (2,000 Decrease)
Mix 94.5 – 493,000 (5,000 Increase)
96FM – 410,000 (40,000 Decrease)
92.9 Triple M – 275,000 (11,000 Decrease)
6PR – 171,000 (20,000 Decrease)
6IX – 157,000 (6,000 Decrease)

Perth DAB+ Stations
Overall there were increases with digital listeners. 96FM 80’s (ARN) retain #1 position followed by Nova’s Smooth. SCA’s Old School had the biggest increase with 8,000 listeners. New to the line up is Tik Tok Trending sitting at No. 8 out of 26 digital stations.

96FM 80’s (ARN) 61,000 (6,000 Decrease)
Smooth (Nova) 54,000 (1,000 Increase)
Old School (SCA) 32,000 (8,000 Increase)
Coles Radio (Nova) 30,000 (3,000 Increase)
MMM Classic Rock (SCA) 28,000 (3,000 Increase)
Double J 27,000 (5,000 Decrease)
MMM 90s (SCA) 26,000 (2,000 Decrease)
Tik Tok Trending 24,000 (N/A)
Urban Hits (SCA) 16,000 (4,000 Decrease)
Buddha Hits (SCA) 16,000 (2,000 Increase)

Survey 8, 2021 was conducted by GFK for Commercial Radio Australia from September 26th to December 4th. There were no lockdowns in this time but the consistency of a few different border closures within some of the States. This was the final survey for 2021. Most of the summer holiday formats have already kicked in with the majority of the Announcers on holidays.

Survey 1, 2022 will be reported from January 16th to February 26th and results reported on Thursday March 10th 2022.

Following a 25 year career at SCA, Fairfax, Macquarie Media, ARN and Nine, Marianne Stelmach (pictured below) has launched media representation company Stela Media.