GFK Radio Survey: Nova 93.7 kicks off 2023 on top followed by 96FM, Mix 94.5 and 92.9 Triple M

Nova 93.7 and Smooth FM Perth off and running in #1 positions in the 1st GFK Perth Radio Survey in 2023. Stela Media’s Marianne Stelmach, who has over two decades of radio industry experience, takes a closer look at the results of the last ratings period of 2022.

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

Radio overall in Perth has kept up it’s strong listening audiences and Nova has continued their dominance in the #1 position with a 17% share and a weekly cumulative audience of 704,000 listeners. They are #1 with 10-17, 18-24, 25-39 and 40-54 year olds. They are also #1 in Breakfast, Mornings, Afternoons, Drive, Evenings and Weekends. I’m sure the champagne is being popped!

96FM have started the year off really well moving into #2 position overall. They’ve had really strong increases in Breakfast (#2), Drive (#2) and Evenings (#2) and will be really happy with their 2.9% increase with 25-39 year olds. Their 25,000 cume increase of new listeners has given them a great start with 507,000 listeners overall.

Mix 94.5 have moved to #3 position but still have the second biggest audience of 557,000 listeners. Their Breakfast Show is a close #3 and they had their biggest growth on weekends taking them to #2. They also had good increases and moved to #2 with 25-39 and 55-64 year olds. They moved from #2 to #3 with the Carrie & Tommy national Drive Show.

92.9 Triple M will be happy to start the year off in #4 position overall. They’ve had a strong increase with 10-17 year olds and their biggest growth with 18-24 year olds taking them to #2 position. They are sitting at #5 with their Breakfast Show and #4 with Mornings, Afternoons, Drive and Weekends. They’ve had the biggest Cume increase giving them a weekly listenership of 390,000. Their Triple M Rocks Footy coverage will be starting from today.

6PR have moved to #5 position overall. Traditionally the station doesn’t have a great Survey 1 and builds right up from Survey 2 with the start of their AFL coverage. The fairly new 6PR Breakfast Show with Karl & Millsy have moved to #4 position after a slight dip. 6PR is #1 with the 65+ audience.

6IX have stayed in #6 position. They have good growth with 40-54 year olds taking them to #5 position and they’ve had promising growth in Evenings.

People 10+
Nova – 17.0% (0.9% Decrease)
96FM – 12.1% (1% Increase)
Mix 94.5 – 11.2% (No Change)
92.9 Triple M – 6.7% (0.2% Decrease)
6PR – 6.5% (2% Decrease)
6IX – 4.0% (1.7% Decrease)

Breakfast
Nova’s Nathan, Nat & Shaun – 18.,6% (2.2% Decrease)
96FM’s The Bunch with Clairsy & Lisa – 10.9% (1.1% Increase)
Mix 94.5’s Pete, Matt & Kymba – 10.4% (0.3% Increase)
6PR’s Millsy & Karl – 9.7% (1% Decrease)
92.9 Triple M with Xav & Michelle – 6.9% (0.5% Increase)
6IX’s Classic Breakfast with Rob & Nat – 2.7% (1.6% Decrease)

Cume Audience
Nova has started the year with a strong audience of 704,000 weekly listeners and good to see listenership increases with 92.9 Triple M, 96FM and Mix 94.5. It’s showing people in Perth still highly value local radio overall!

Nova – 704,000 (5,000 Decrease)
Mix 94.5 – 557,000 (10,000 Increase)
96FM – 507,000 (25,000 Increase)
92.9 Triple M – 390,000 (27,000 Increase)
6PR – 191,,000 (16,000 Decrease)
6IX – 137,000 (15,000 Decrease)

Perth DAB+ Stations
Smooth FM Perth have had a big increase of 33,000 weekly listeners giving them a total of 101,000 DAB+ listeners. It’s only their 4th Survey since starting up the national brand in Perth. 96FM 80’s continues to hold #2 position and SCA’s Oldskool 90’s Hits had a good increase taking them to #3 position. Double J have moved right up the rankings from #10 to #4 position. I have no doubt overall DAB+ numbers will increase during the year as more digital radios become available in cars and more bought for homes etc.

Smooth FM Perth (Nova) 101,000 (33,000 Increase)
96FM 80’s (ARN) 69,000 (4,000 Increase)
Oldskool 90’s Hits (SCA) 62,000 (18,000 Increase)
Double J 50,000 (24,000 Increase)
Easy 80’s Hits (SCA) 48,000 (7,000 Increase)
RnB Fridays (SCA) 43,000 (No Movement)
MMM Classic Rock (SCA) 42,000 (10,000 Increase)
Triple J Unearthed 40,000 (8,000 Decrease)
ABC Sport 34,000 (1,000 Increase)
Coles Radio (Nova) 34,000 (9,000 Increase)
My Perth DAB Radio 34,000 (15,000 Decrease)
MMM 90’s 29,000 (3,000 Increase)
MMM 80’s 24,000 (8,000 Increase)
ABC Jazz 21,000 (13,000 Decrease)
Blender Beats 21,000 (9,000 Increase)
MMM Country 10,000 (6,000 Decrease)
KIX Digital 10,000 (5,000 Decrease)

Interesting fact from the East … KIIS FM in Sydney has moved to #1 position overall after 2GB dominating this position for 18 years.

The AFL Season commences tonight and 92.9 Triple M will be broadcasting the major games, including Eagles and Dockers, and 6PR will be broadcasting all Eagles and Dockers games only.

GFK are rolling out Media Watches in 2023 to collect survey data in addition to diaries. Specific details to come.

Survey 1, 2023 was conducted by GFK for Commercial Radio Australia from 15th January to 25th February 2023. This period included two weeks of school holidays.

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