Kyle and Jackie O back losing listeners as ABC picks up market share

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The progress Kyle Sandilands and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson made in Melbourne has stalled, with the radio duo losing more listeners in the city, at a time the media regulator prepares sanctions on KIIS Network’s owner for failing to rein in their stars.

The Kyle and Jackie O Show, which this month picked up seven new breaches of broadcasting decency codes, surrendered 0.1 of a percentage point in Melbourne, according to the latest radio ratings.

Kyle Sandilands and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson have had their ratings slip as they await the media regulator to announce penalties for their station’s owner.

The show has shown recent signs of life after a horror first year in Melbourne, growing its share in the two previous ratings survey, but now landing on a 6 per cent share. It fell back to eighth place in the market in the all-important breakfast slot. The set survey timeslots do not always completely line up with the run time of different shows.

Despite the recent gains, The Kyle and Jackie O Show finds itself largely with the same audience size compared to the same survey one year ago, with 427,000 Melbourne listeners across the survey period, which spanned July 20 to September 27. In the corresponding survey in 2024, there were 420,000 cumulative listeners.

Christian O’Connell is Melbourne’s number one FM breakfast host.

The KIIS Network’s owner, ARN, was offered some respite by the performance of its other station, Gold FM, which was again Melbourne’s top rating FM network with an 11.2 per cent share.

ARN is preparing to fight potential sanctions on its radio operations in Melbourne and Sydney, with the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) currently considering additional licence conditions, which could include stipulating further requirements on what content the show puts to air.

Gold FM breakfast host Christian O’Connell, who will expand into Sydney next year, grew his Melbourne share, up by 0.9 of a percentage point to 10.9 per cent. He was only beaten by 3AW’s talkback pair, Russel Howcroft and Ross Stevenson, who recorded a 20.3 per cent share. 3AW had a total audience share of 14.6 per cent, up 1.1 percentage points. 3AW is owned by Nine, also the owner of this masthead.

Meanwhile, Radio National’s news breakfast show hosted by Sally Sara delivered its best result of the year with a 3.5 per cent share, up 1 percentage point compared to the previous survey. The ABC station’s total share was 2.4 per cent, up from 2.2 per cent.

ABC Radio Melbourne also grew its share, up to 6.5 per cent (up 0.7 of a percentage point), with its breakfast pair of Sharnelle Vella and Bob Murphy jumping 0.9 of a percentage point to sit on a 6.4 per cent share.

Radio National’s news breakfast show hosted by Sally Sara has delivered its best result of the year.

Every ABC Melbourne show delivered an audience share jump in survey six. ABC head of audio Ben Latimer told this masthead he was pleased with the performance of the Melbourne breakfast show, and said the new program could take three years to fully settle in.

“They’re going to take a while to build, but they’re sounding great, and today, the numbers show that we are we’re connecting with the audience,” Latimer said.

Nova’s Jase and Lauren fell back 1.6 percentage points to an 8.4 per cent share, beaten by rivals Fifi, Fev & Nick on Fox FM in the competitive commercial breakfast battle, where the lion’s share of advertising dollars are spent.

ARN announced a succession plan for its chief executive last month, with Ciaran Davis to depart, and be replaced by former Nine chief sales officer Michael Stephenson, who joined the company this year.

The company is hoping Stephenson’s record as one of Australia’s most experienced sales executives will help regain lost ground to its two commercial competitors, Southern Cross and Nova, which is privately owned by Lachlan Murdoch.

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