Mix 94.5 finishes the year on a high going back to Number 1 in the last GfK Radio Survey for 2019

Mix 94.5 has finished the year on a high note by bouncing back to #1 in GfK Radio Survey 8 2019 released today.

Mix 94.5’s P10+ Share was up + 2.3 to 13.6%, while rival Nova 93.7 slipped -0.7 to 12.6%, with a resurgent 96FM third and continuing to close the gap on 12.0%.

It means mix94.5 and Nova 93.7 have split the year with four #1s each.

Mix94.5’s strongest demo was P55-64 (+2.7% to 18.8%) closely followed by P40-54 (18.6%).

Nova’s strongest was P10-17 (31.0%) however the station lost share across all demos except P40-54.

In a clear validation of their Real Music strategy, 96FM consolidated its #1 position in P40-54 with +2.8% gain to 20.6% Share.

Hit92.9 had the slightest -0.1% dip to 10.6% P10+. It suffered bigger losses of -7.0% to 21.6% P18-24 and -2.2% to P25-39 but still maintained it #1 position in both of those target demos.

AM stations 6PR and 6iX went in different directions: 6IX was up -0.7% to 4.9% P10+ while 6PR went down -0.7% to 6.9%.

Across the year, 96FM has been the big improver, with solid gains in Surveys 5 and 6 that it has managed largely to hold.

As headlined, mix94.5 has bounced back strongly after falling to an uncustomary third in Surveys 6 and 7.

And after spending most of the year in single figures P10+, SCA stablemate hit92.9 has finished with double-digit results in Survey 7 and 8.

In Breakfast, Nova 93.7’s Nathan, Nat and Shaun slipped -0.3 to 14.1% but were still #1. Mix 94.5’s Clairsy, Matt and Kymba closed the gap  to just 1.5% with a +1.4% gain to 12.6%.

96fm’s Botica’s Bunch gained +1.1% to 10.6%, cracking double-figures for the first time.

6PR’s Basil Zempilas and Steve Mills dropped back -1.4% to 8.9%, while 6IX was steady on 4.1%.

Once again, the trend across the year shows 96FM is the big improver, with SCA’s mix94.5 and hit92.9’s Heidi, Xavier & Pete with Julez also finishing the year on an up-tick.

Nova recorded the biggest Cumulative Audience P10+ with 572,000 while mix94.5 recorded the biggest Average Audience with 30,000.

Across the year, Nova held a comfortable lead recording Cumulative Audiences well above 500,000 in all 8 surveys, and reaching a high of 607,000 in Survey 4.

SmoothFM was the top ranked DAB+ digital station with a P10+ Cumulative Audience of 36,000 followed by 96FM 80s, Coles Radio and Hit Oldskool each on 22,000.

It has been one of the most disrupted years in Perth Radio in recent memory, punctuated with the sadness of Nova 93.7 Commercial Lead Jamie Martinovich’s untimely death in September. Gary Roberts move to 96FM and, latterly, Nine’s takeover of 6PR owners Macquarie Media have precipitated several changes, and the market suffered a sobering 15.87% drop in revenue YOY for the September quarter.

The stations are undoubtedly looking forward to the Christmas break but well aware that 2020 will be a highly competitive and challenging year.