Radio ratings: Kyle Sandilands threatens to pull his show out of Melbourne after another bad result

Welcome to our special coverage of the results of survey 2 radio ratings for 2025, where all eyes will be on the Melbourne breakfast radio wars.

The survey dates released today cover February 9 to April 12 and you can watch the video version of this article in the player above.

MELBOURNE

THE STORY: In survey 1 Jase & Lauren on Nova fell to second place (if you’re only counting the FM frequency – which has never made sense to me), to be beaten by The Christian O’Connell Show on Gold 104.3.

Jase and Lauren are considered the underdogs who’ve come good after being flicked by KIIS to make way for The Kyle and Jackie O show, which has failed to have any major impact on the Melbourne market.

For their part, K&J have toned down the show after making headlines for overtly sexual content which doesn’t seem to have gone down well down south.

Previous results have even forced the show to do a live show and competition from the city, despite previous claims they wouldn’t be partaking in any localism to try and get listeners.

And on the eve of the ratings results things took a dramatic turn with Kyle threatening to take the show off air in Melbourne by the end of the year if ratings don’t improve.

As The Age reports, Sandilands warned he and Jackie O were not going to “super serve Melbourne and ignore our Sydney audience”.

“You either glue on in Melbourne or you [expletive]. One or the other. Here’s something I haven’t even discussed with Jackie... if we don’t rate better by the end of this year, I’m pulling the carpet out. I’ll just take the show off Melbourne,” Sandilands said.

You can hear the comments in the video player above.

THE RESULTS:

3AW continues to dominate the Melbourne market with the station bringing in a 14.1% share followed by GOLD on 12.5%. Then there’s a big gap with SMOOTH coming in third on 9%.

In the all-important breakfast battle, Kyle and Jackie O have had a slight increase of 0.7%. That result doesn’t even get them into the top 5 and their lowly 5.8% share won’t do anything to please Kyle, but will he follow through with his threat to pull the show out of Melbourne at the end of the year?

Only time will tell – but that decision will have a major impact for ARN which has made a LOT of people redundant to pay for the Kyle and Jackie O expansion experiment.

Meanwhile, Ross and Russ have done it again with a massive 18.8% share, easily making them Melbourne’s #1.

On the FM dial, GOLD’s Christian O’Connell takes bragging rights at #1 with a 10.8% share, ahead of Jase & Lauren on 10.2% on NOVA.

The new ABC breakfast team of Sharnelle Vella and Bob Murphy has shed -0.7% of its survey 1 audience, now sitting at 5.6%.

SYDNEY

THE STORY: 2GB has started the year in a very strong position despite major changes at Nine’s radio station. Mark Levey retained the #1 position in Mornings after taking over from Ray Hadley and newly installed Clinton Maynard managed to increase his audience in the Drive slot.

This will be the one to watch in Survey 2 to see if audiences like the new hosts across the station.

THE RESULTS: Overall, 2GB remains Sydney’s top station, with SMOOTH coming in second on 11.8%.

Mark Levey has increased his audience from survey 1 after taking over from Ray Hadley. With an increase of 1.2% Levey managed to secure a 15.6% share.

Ray who?

Clinton Maynard has also increased his audience in drive to bring in a 8.2% share.

Back to breakfast and it’s a much better story for Kyle and Jackie O in their hometown with the show coming in second overall and #1 on the FM dial. While the show dropped -1% K&J still managed to bring in an impressive 12.3% share of the audience.

BRISBANE

THE STORY: Just like in Sydney, the AM dial is the main focus of attention in Brisbane, but for very different reasons.

Nine has faced many hurdles with a string of line-up and format changes which has seen ratings slip to record lows. The two slots to keep an eye on are breakfast and drive.

Meanwhile, B105’s Stav, Abby and Matt have been a strong #1 while Robyn and Kip and KIIS are trying to hang onto their jobs before the expected invasion from Kyle and Jackie O, who plan for a national breakfast show.

THE RESULTS: There will be a sigh of relief at AM talkback station 4BC (where I once worked) with audience rising across the board.

In something of a shock at breakfast, B105’s Stav, Abbey, they’ve been ousted from the #1 spot by Ash, Luttsy & Nikki Osborne on NOVA who had a 13.6% share of the audience. The team at B105 were forced to share second spot with Triple M Breakfast With Marto & Margaux. Both shows had 13.2% share, but B105 saw a drop of -0.9%.

Triple M took top honours overall with 12.9% of the audience, followed by NOVA on 11.7.

ADELAIDE

THE STORY: Listeners in the city of churches love Roo, Ditts, and Loz on Triple M who took out survey 1 with a 14% share. That result in breakfast helped the station increase its audience and take out the top slot.

MIX will be hoping to reclaim its spot at the top but the competition is expected to be fierce.

THE RESULTS: While MIX have claimed the #1 position overall with a 14% share, ahead of NOVA (12.5%) and Triple M (12.2%), the news isn’t so good in breakfast.

Despite a drop of -0.8% Roo, Ditts, and Loz have done it again with a 13.2% share, ahead of NOVA (12.8%) and MIX (12%).

PERTH

THE STORY: The people in Perth have fallen in love with Nova, with the station increasing its share in the previous survey, keeping 96Fm in second spot.

6PR dropped overall by a small margin despite major programming structure changes, but its nights program, networked from Melbourne, actually increased audience by 2.6% in the previous survey.

THE RESULTS: NOVA is #1 out west with a 17% share, followed by 96FM on 15.2% and MIX (11.8%). 6PR saw a slight increase of 0.2% for a 7.3% share.

Nathan, Nat & Shaun continue to be a dominant force in breakfast with a 21.7% share – an increase of 1.9%. 96FM’s Clairsy & Lisa were way behind in second place with a 13.3% share.

6PR continues to defy traditional thinking in the Nights slot, with its show from Melobourne increasing audience share by 1.1%.

Rob McKnight is a content specialist for 7NEWS, previously worked for Nine radio (and still appears as a regular guest on 2GB) and is the co-owner of TV Blackbox.

INSIDE MEDIA is published every Monday and Thursday on the 7NEWS website.