Sydney radio ratings: Ben Fordham, 2GB topple from podium with worst ratings in two decades

Georgina Noack

The Nightly

2 Min Read

01 Oct 2024

2GB has recorded its worst results in the last two decades. Credit: KIIS FM / 2GB

Talkback giant 2GB has taken a major tumble in the latest radio ratings — recording its worst result of the last two decades.

The station dropped to fourth overall in Sydney with an audience share of 10.2 per cent, down 3.1 percentage points, according to the latest GfK survey ratings of 2024.

KIIS FM has claimed the title of Sydney’s number one station with a share of 10.8 pre cent (down 0.1 points), followed by WSFM with a share 10.7 per cent (up 1.3 points) and smoothfm with 10.3 per cent (up 1.0 per cent).

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In the all-important Breakfast show market, 2GB’s Ben Fordham fell behind controversial KIIS shock jocks Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O Henderson.

Fordham’s breakfast program won a share of 12.2 per cent (down 3.4 percentage points), to Kyle and Jackie O’s 13.7 per cent (down 0.6 percentage points).

Meanwhile, Brendan Jones and Amanda Keller of WSFM’s Jonesy and Amanda Show climbed 1.9 percentage points in the sixth survey of 2024, claiming 10.6 per cent of the breakfast market. smoothfm grew 0.8 percentage points to 8.4 per cent of the market.

In a brutal turnaround from previous surveys, where it is usually dominant across all time slots, 2GB’s only chart-topping programs were Ray Hadley on mornings, starting at 9am, and John Stanley in the evenings, from 8pm.

Hadley claimed gold in the morning slot for the 160th time, with a 12.4 per cent audience share (down 3.3), and Stanley’s evenings program came in at 14.4 per cent (down 4.8).

The number of overall listeners at breakfast had also taken a dive: 2GB was down 50,000 listeners to 436,000, KIIS’ listeners fell 15,000 to 735,000.

It is perhaps a breath of relief for the infamous Kyle and Jackie O Show, which announced it was syndicating its Sydney program to Melbourne in April.

The move meant local KIIS Melbourne breakfast hosts Lauren Phillips and Jason Hawkins were given the flick. But the ousted duo found a new home in Nova, where they have triumphed ever since.

The Lauren and Jase program sits four places higher than Kyle and Jackie O’s in the Melbourne survey, with 4.4 percentage points more of the audience share.

The Nova program holds 9.6 per cent of the Melbourne audience share (down 0.3 percentage points on the last survey), while the KIIS FM product holds only 5.2 per centage points (declining almost a whole perfentage point from 6.1 per cent the previous survey).

3AW’s Ross Stevenson and Russel Howcroft breakfast program reign supreme on Melbourne radio with a 22.5 per cent share of the audience (up 1.2 percentage points). The station’s overall listenership held steady at 14.7 per cent.