Originally filed at 12:13am, September 24 Updates are now complete. All ratings data is below.
Nielsen will release the 2nd and last Canberra radio ratings for 2009 later today and, as usual, I’ll post the results here when they come in.
The figures were sent to radio stations yesterday and some details have leaked. According to Jock’s Journal, 104.7 leads the pack on 18.3% and Mix 106.3 is in 2nd place on 18%. This means that 104.7 have retained first place, but lost audience share, dropping from 20.5%. 666 ABC Canberra have been bumped from 2nd place and have lost audience share, they were on 19%. Mix have climbed from 3rd to 2nd and gained audience, jumping from 16% to 18%.
Unlike the ratings for “metropolitan markets”, the publicly released ratings for Canberra are only overall figures and not shift-by-shift and age group figures, which means those figures get selectively released in the press releases from the stations…and in leaks. So far all that I have heard is a figure which relates to 2CC…apparently the Mark Parton breakfast show, the Steve Price morning show and weekends all increased their audience share, while the Mike Welsh drive show lost audience share. I’m awaiting confirmation of this. (Update: Breakfast audience share didn’t move but the number of listeners went up, and evenings went up as well)
More details to follow.
Update: The ratings are in, and we have shift-by-shift figures as well.
1st: FM 104.7 18.3% (down from 20.5%)
2nd: Mix 106.3 18.0% (up from 16.0%)
3rd: 666 ABC Canberra 16.1% (down from 19.0%)
4th: JJJ 13.5% (up from 8.8%)
5th: ABC Radio National 7.5% (up from 6.9%)
6th: ABC Classic FM 7.4% (down from 7.7%)
7th: 2CC 6.3% (up from 5.6%)
8th: Combined unlisted 5.4% (down from 5.5%)
9th: 2CA 4.1% (down from 5.9%)
10th: ABC NewsRadio 3.4% (down from 4.1%)
Summary since Survey 1, 2005
Gains and losses this survey
JJJ +4.7
Mix 106.3 +2.0
2CC +0.7
ABC Radio National +0.6
Combined Unlisted -0.1
ABC Classic FM -0.3
ABC NewsRadio -0.7
2CA -1.8
FM 104.7 -2.2
666 ABC Canberra -2.9
Gains and losses since Survey 1, 2005
Leaderboard positions since Survey 1, 2005
Click here to download the full Nielsen summary including shift-by-shift and demographic data. (link fixed…my usual trick of uploading to the wrong folder, sorry)
I’ll come back and update this with further details, including a summary of shifts later on. Unfortunately I don’t have any time to do so right now.
Update 3:23pm: OK, back again, and time to go in to detail about the ratings, and as I’m in the unusual position of having a metro-market style report in my possession, I might as well cover the shift-by-shift and demographic figures, albeit without graphs as I’m not going to drastically alter my spreadsheet for what is probably a once off occurrence. This will take a little while so I’ll update the page every few minutes as I go.
Weekends 5:30am-Midnight
1st: Mix 106.3 (16.9%)
2nd: 666 ABC Canberra (15.7%)
3rd: JJJ (15.1%)
4th: FM 104.7 (13.6%)
5th: ABC Classic FM (8.9%)
6th: 2CC (7.6%)
7th: ABC Radio National (7.1%)
8th: 2CA (5%)
9th: NewsRadio (3.1%)
Unlisted: 7%
Demographics (age groups), 5:30-Midnight every day 10-17yo
1st: FM 104.7 (47.1%)
2nd: Mix 106.3 (27.2%)
3rd: JJJ (13.8%)
4th: 666 ABC Canberra (3.3%)
5th: 2CA (2.4%)
6th: ABC Radio National (1.8%)
7th: NewsRadio (1.5%)
8th: ABC Classic FM (0.4%)
9th: 2CC (0.3%)
Unlisted: 2.2%
18-24yo
1st: JJJ (40.7%)
2nd: FM 104.7 (37.5%)
3nd: Mix 106.3 (10.2%)
4th: 666 ABC Canberra (2.4%)
5th: 2CC (2.3%)
6th: NewsRadio (1.3%)
7th: ABC Radio National (0.7%)
8th: ABC Classic FM (0.3%)
9th: 2CA (0%)
Unlisted: 4.6%
25-39yo
1st: FM 104.7 (29.6%)
2nd: Mix 106.3 (23.5%)
3rd: JJJ (22.8%)
4th: 666 ABC Canberra (8.6%)
5th: NewsRadio (3.5%)
6th: 2CC (2.7%)
7th: ABC Radio National (2.5%)
8th: 2CA (1.6%)
9th: ABC Classic FM (1.4%)
Unlisted: 3.8%
40-54yo
1st: Mix 106.3 (29.1%)
2nd: 666 ABC Canberra (18.9%)
3rd: FM 104.7 (13.4%)
4th: ABC Radio National (8.3%)
5th: 2CA (6.6%)
6rd: JJJ (6.2%)
7th: 2CC (5.5%)
8th: ABC Classic FM (3.7%)
9th: NewsRadio (3.4%)
Unlisted: 4.9%
55+yo
1sy: 666 ABC Canberra (27.2%)
2nd: ABC Classic FM (18.9%)
3rd: ABC Radio National (14.3%)
4th: 2CC (12.4%)
5th: Mix 106.3 (6.3%)
6th: 2CA (6.1%)
7th: NewsRadio (4.4%)
8th: JJJ (1.6%)
9th: FM 104.7 (1%)
Unlisted: 7.8%
Music Vs Talk Music 61.3% (up from 58.9%) Talk 33.3% (down from 35.6%) Combined Unlisted 5.4% (down from 5.5%)
Music Vs Talk since survey 1 2005
Music Vs Talk: Average per station Music 12.26% (up from 11.78%) Talk 8.325% (down from 8.90%)
ABC Vs Commercial ABC 47.9% (up from 46.5%) Commercial 46.7% (down from 48.0%) Combined Unlisted 5.4% (down from 5.5%)
ABC Vs Commercial since survey 1 2005
ABC Vs Commercial average per station ABC 9.58% (up from 9.30%) Commercial 11.675% (down from 12.00%)
AM Vs FM AM 34.0% (down from 37.4%) FM 60.6% (up from 57.1%) Combined Unlisted 5.4% (down from 5.5%)
AM Vs FM since survey 1 2005
AM Vs FM average per station AM 8.50% (down from 9.35%) FM 12.12% (up from 11.42%)
Company Results
This is a new rating which I have introduced for this survey and produced backdata for, comparing the audience share of the companies who own the radio stations. Participating in the Canberra Ratings are:
Canberra FM Radio (Mix 106.3 and FM 104.7)
Capital Radio (2CC and 2CA)
ABC (666, Radio National, NewsRadio, Classic FM)
ABC 47.9% (up from 46.5%) Canberra FM Radio 36.3% (down from 36.5%) Capital Radio Network 10.4% (down from 11.5%) Combined Unlisted 5.4% (down from 5.5%)
Company Results since survey 1 2005
Compan Results average per station ABC 9.58% (up from 9.30%) Canberra FM Radio 18.15% (down from 18.25%) Capital Radio Network 5.20% (down from 5.75%)
WIN’s Canberra bulletin (which looks like it has as much useful news tonight as my left sock) is going to air at the “special time of 7pm” tonight. Why do I get the awful feeling that this means Nine News will run for an hour due to a dust storm.
Strangely, I could be sure that I saw a promo for A Current Affair “tonight at 7pm” in the preceding ad break.
I won’t be home to watch it…I’ll set up a recording to cure my curiosity.
Update: It’s 6:09pm and Seven are still banging on about how the dust killed the wonderful and picturesque views of Sydney. Meanwhile Nine are having a 60 minute bulletin…they might be able to mention something other than the dust. Whether A Current Affair will screen on WIN…who knows? It wouldn’t be a bad thing if it didn’t. End Update
Update 6:11pm: Seven Dust has finished for the night. Seven News after the break, followed by Today Tonight where their lead story is “Sydney and Brisbane covered in dust, earthquakes in Melbourne. We’ll find out why and what’s next in a special report”. Matt…if you can do it without misplacing your script and having to look around the set like you did the other night…your report still won’t be credible. End Update
2GB and the ABC will continue to broadcast Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon matches, with the ABC having access to a few Monday night matches for restricted broadcast, while MMM retain the exclusive commercial rights to Monday night matches.
The big change is that 2GB will be forced to pump the webstream of their NRL coverage through the NRL website and Telstra’s dodgy servers, bringing NRL webstreams in line with AFL webstreams which, it must be noted, have failed a number of times this year. There is no word on whether 2GB will be forced to switch their own webstream off during NRL matches, although it is probable that they will.
It’s not a loss for 2GB though, as having their webstream available directly from the NRL website, in the same manner as ABC and MMM broadcasts have already been available, will boost their audience, whilst for the NRL it makes their website a more authoritative “one stop shop” for NRL news and information.
Who will criticise A Current Affair first? Today Tonight or Media Watch.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority has found that General Television Pty Ltd, the licensee of GTV, breached the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice 2004 (the code) by failing to present factual material accurately in a segment of A Current Affair about a debt recovery company broadcast on 6 January 2009.
5AA Adelaide’s Bob Francis is a bit like Stan Zemanek on steroids. He knows where the line is, he knows how to negotiate it, and he knows how to get his audience to respond in a way which doesn’t involve official complaints. Put simply, he is a professional shock jock who could teach a few people in the radio industry a thing or two.
Bob stirred the pot last week when a woman named Sylvia called him to give him a piece of her mind, which resulted in him responding with a string of “insults” from which The Sunday Mail decided to remove most of the letters. In fact, the way the article was written, you’d think Bob had rung up the local seniors club and abused them for breathing, when in reality the woman gave as good as she got and is probably younger than Bob.
But enough of my interpretation of it, judge for yourself (viewer discretion is advised…you know what to expect).
It is wrong of me to put Bob Francis and Kyle Sandilands in the same category because, quite frankly, one is a media professional with a well-honed sense of what his audience expects and tolerates, whilst the other is an arrogant buffoon who keeps blindly yelling at a potential avalanche. There is a mild similarity of style though…and I think Kyle could escape from the current witch-hunt (a deserved witch-hunt) if he were to learn a thing or two from Bob Francis. Firstly, he needs to be seen to be targeting an older demographic, which probably means he should take a night shift…secondly there is a significant difference between having fun at the expense of somebody else, and having fun with somebody who is getting as much out of it as you. Kyle needs to learn to master the latter and stop doing the former.
Kyle could make it as a shock jock, but he needs to seriously reconsider his act first.
Anyhoo, back to Bob, I was surprised to see a University lecturer being quoted by a newspaper who actually made sense…maybe I just far too used to them all droning on about global warming.
UniSA communications lecturer Dr Jackie Cook said the foul-mouthed exchange “should not surprise anyone”.
“Conflict creates good radio,” she said. “It’s performance, it’s persona, it’s not him, and sometimes they push it a bit far.”
But of all of it, Bob deserves the last word on this.
“It’s after nine o’clock and under the rules of radio you can do almost what you like,” he said. “She was harsh on me, I didn’t say a thing. I let her go and she kept having a go.”
Francis said Sylvia’s call “lit up the switchboard” and was “one of the best calls I’ve had”.
“She made my day. I wish that would happen every night of the week, I’d have the best bloody rated radio show in the world,” he said.
[..]
“It was absolute entertainment and if anyone didn’t like it they can go and get f—ed,” he told the Sunday Mail.
The Australian Christian Lobby are quite upset about a raft of proposed changes to the codes of practice which govern free-to-air commercial television in this country, and in some ways they may have a valid point, especially when it comes to the proposed ways of submitting and handling complaints, however the rest of their points seem to be along the lines of “there’s too much violence and sex on television, and there should be less, much less”…I think they’ve missed a crucial point in their attempt to further their crusade against naughtyness on the box.
One of the proposed changes which has caused significant alarm in the ACL ranks is the idea of, on the extra digital channels, removing the restrictions which require G rated programs to be shown at certain times of the day.
The commercial TV stations are trying to change the Code of Practice to allow PG programs to be screened at any time on their new digital multi-channels (which everyone has to switch over to by 2013). If this happens it would mean there would be NO set time of the day when commercial stations had to screen G-rated programs – representing a big deterioration in standards. We already have the problem of PG-rated programs containing greater levels of sex and violence. Do we want parents to NEVER have a guaranteed time when they know they can let young kids watch TV?
Oh goodness, how horrible it is that parents might actually have to monitor what their children are watching!
I have massive reservations about the blocks of time which are allocated to “child friendly” programming as, just because a program doesn’t contain violence, swearing or people being intimate, doesn’t mean that it is suitable for children to watch, and too many parents just turn a blind eye to those blocks of “child-friendly” programming because “the TV guide said it was OK for my child, who is under 15 years of age, to watch”.
Many of the shows push a particular world-view or attitude, and this can very easily differ from the values which parents are trying to instil in their children. Removing these blocks of “child-friendly” programming might just force parents to actually parent their children by paying attention to what their children are consuming from the box. Possibly more importantly, if parents notice that television programs aren’t suitable for their kids, the kids might just go outside and play.
I actually think that forcing a “the world is wonderful and everyone stands around sharing songs about the alphabet” view of the world on kids through “child-friendly” programming, especially once the kids have reached the latter half of primary school, is harmful, as an incredibly important part of growing up is finding out that you can’t trust everyone, and that bad things do happen. Children need to learn about the real world…obviously not all of the details all at once, but if they don’t learn about the real world, they will grow up to be overly trusting and ignorant.
The Australian Christian Lobby seem to favour the “wrap everyone up in wool” approach, which is unfortunate for a group which wants to positively influence the direction of the country. I fail to see how anybody can keep the many bad influences in the world at bay, if they are wrapped in enough wool to not be able to understand the problems with the bad influences.
Geraldine Nordfeldt has written a short story on page 18 of today’s The Canberra Times about the Mike Welsh/Michael Thompson documentary All Talk which was launched on Tuesday. The article is rather good for a game of “spot the errors”.
OK, from the top.
spent three years interviewing five of their most passionate and quirkiest listeners.
It was probably three years or more from the time the idea was conceived to the final product, but filming started in 2007, not 2006.
Lon Morgan [..] spends many hours riding his bike with his radio strapped to the handlebars in Dickson, where he made a special crossing for his cat.
I’m pretty sure that you’d be more likely to find Lon’s radio dangling from his neck…but I’ll have to watch the video again to confirm it.
Lon’s cat crossing is on his driveway, not in some random part of the Dickson shops as implied by the article.
Former school teacher Betty Gill is not very tolerant of the current generation
When did she say that Geraldine? I don’t recall that being in the documentary, or being her general demeanour at the launch. She’s not afraid to use her sharp tongue on people who cross her, but that’s not the same thing.
while local blogger Samuel Gordon Stuart spends many hours recording radio and making news tapes.
Ummm, what? Firstly, you got my name wrong Geraldine. Blogger’s name + Google = Accuracy. Gordon hyphen ess tee eee double-you ‘ey are tee.
Secondly, if only I had the time and storage space of Media Monitors…I’d love to record hours of radio. I record it occasionally Geraldine, very occasionally.
And what in seventy-three types of manufactured magnetic audio cassettes are “news tapes”? Are you perhaps referring to the brief bit of footage from a couple years ago where I was reading the news for Australian Independent Radio News?
Unfortunately Bruce “The Goose” died during filming
The late Bruce “The Goose” Bennett sadly passed away on the afternoon of the 25th of June, 2007, a couple months before filming. (I sent an email to Stuart Bocking about it, which is why I can be sure of the date).
I suppose this all just gives me more reason to write about the documentary…and an angle to work with, as I’ve been struggling to decide how to approach it given that I don’t think I can write a review due to my involvement.
Whilst Jane presented her final news bulletin for 2CC and 2CA a few days ago, she is still working there. Today is Jane’s final day with Capital Radio. Susie Thompson takes her place on Monday.
Jane is heading back to Tasmania, and I, for one, wish her all the best. Her dulcet tones will be missed in Canberra.
According to Alan’s fill-in Jason Morrison, via The Right Aussie, Alan Jones will be back on air on Monday the 28th.
This will be good news for 2GB who lost ground in every daytime rating slot in the latest radio ratings, however still remain number one in every slot except for Drive, and will be keen to move Jason Morrison back to Drive to boost the ratings again.
Perhaps I’m overreacting, but I’m shattered. Livenews.com.au is dead. The product of the 2GB newsroom which has grown in to arguably the best news website in the country on a skeleton staff, had the plugged pulled this afternoon.
This will require grieving. This will require serious adjustments to my online rituals…livenews.com.au is the only Australian news website which I visit regularly, with others being the result of searching for specific stories on Google News. This is personally devastating. News.com.au could disappear tomorrow and I wouldn’t care…but for livenews.com.au to die suddenly like this…
I’m starting to hope that this week is just some awful dream and that I will wake up before it spirals further.
Farewell livenews.com.au, your faithful combination of AAP material (which you kept in context, unlike some other places) and Macquarie National News material will be sorely missed.
(Thanks to Frank for the heads up…I wouldn’t have know for another hour or so otherwise)
The Culture and Media Institute has a very interesting piece on the liberal bias of the big three TV networks in the US, and how they appear to be deliberately avoiding interviews with conservative authors unless the author can be easily antagonised.
But no matter how commercially successful conservative books and authors have been, they were slighted by the three broadcast networks. The most glaring evidence of bias against conservative books was the networks’ complete neglect of the single most successful book on the list, radio host Mark Levin’s “Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto.” Levin’s book spent 12 weeks at No.1, and as of this writing had yet to fall out of the top 10.
[..]
Reaching No. 1 on the Nonfiction Hardcover List is a notable achievement. To maintain that spot for more than a single week is truly impressive.
Two liberal authors reached the No.1 spot on the List in 2009. Elizabeth Edwards’ “Resilience” was No.1 for just one week and Thomas Friedman’s “Hot, Flat, and Crowded” held that spot for two weeks.
They received media coverage befitting No.1 best-sellers, garnering nine instances of coverage on the networks between the two.
But there was another book that hit No.1. In fact, it held the No.1 spot for 12 of 18 weeks, and has yet to fall under the No. 4 spot. (Also, at this writing, it ranked No. 24 on Amazon.com, and has enjoyed 186 days in Amazon’s Top 100.)
That book, “Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto,” by conservative political commentator and nationally syndicated radio-host Mark Levin, was by far the most successful book on the list – nothing even came close.
What makes the success of Levin’s book more impressive is its subject. It’s a work of political philosophy, a serious, scholarly exploration of conservative first principles. As CNSNews.com recently reported, “‘Liberty and Tyranny’ draws on thinking, and points to the influence, of the 17th century English philosopher John Locke, the 18th century Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith, and the 18th century Irish-English statesman and writer Edmund Burke.”
And as Levin himself wrote on the first page of “Liberty and Tyranny,” “… what follows are my own opinions and conclusions of fundamental truths, based on decades of observation, exploration, and experience, about conservatism and, conversely, non-conservatism – that is, liberty and tyranny in modern America.”
So “Liberty and Tyranny” is an improbable best-seller. And that makes it all the more newsworthy.
Yet Levin’s book received zero coverage from any of the networks since its release on March 29. Nor did his name appear on any of the news programs since the release.
Contrast that with Edwards’ and Friedman’s nine instances of coverage for books that spent one and two weeks respectively at the top of the list. Equivalent coverage for Levin would require 36 mentions on the networks.
And the media blackout of “Liberty and Tyranny” extended beyond the networks and has been nearly complete.
Levin confirmed to CMI that “we have not heard from any of the major networks, and the only major newspaper that has interviewed me is Philadelphia Enquirer, and that’s because I’m from Philadelphia.”
The lack of mainstream media attention made “Liberty and Tyranny’s” success the more stunning. “The book is selling by word of mouth,” Levin said. “I’ve done very little media, and its chugging along.”
And the author, whose radio show just celebrated its sixth anniversary, said he wasn’t “stressed about” being ignored. “I don’t need Matt Lauer’s imprimatur to believe what I believe and to speak to my audience,” Levin told CMI.
But he did have thoughts about why Lauer and the networks withheld coverage.
“Maybe the book’s too darned complicated for these people,” Levin said. “It’s not your typical book – not even your typical conservative book, with a laundry list of what’s wrong. It’s a deeper look at the roots of conservatism, of our God-given liberties, of society and civil order and at why conservatism is humane. It’s also a look at the roots of statism and why it’s a threat.”
The morning shows, which Levin said have their talking points and hosts with a clear political bias may have other conservatives on. But they do so if they believe they can marginalize those guests. “But in my case, I think they fear I would marginalize them. They fear me, they fear the message of the book.”
It’s a quite extraordinary analysis of the way liberal and conservative authors are treated by the so-called mainstream media. It’s well worth a read when you have a spare ten or fifteen minutes.
The first story on A Current Affair last night, which was about the damage speed humps can do to your car, featured the song “Streets Of Your Town” by The Go-Betweens quite prominently. I haven’t heard this song in yonks, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard the full version…and it was driving me nuts…”I know this song, but why?”. I had the vague notion that it may have been from one of the old Prime TV IDs, but I couldn’t place it, as I recall the “this is where we live”, “millennium television” and “bringing it home to me” campaigns, each of which had their own song, so I dismissed the idea.
Anyway, I found the song, and listened to the whole thing, and the visuals started flooding back…it was a Prime ID…but I still had no idea where in the line-up it fitted. YouTube to the rescue. It looks like the song was used in the early stages of the “bringing it home to me” campaign, before they found somebody to sing “bringing it home to me…bring-ing it home to meeeeee”.
And just for fun, here’s the song.
Prime also had an instrumental-only version which used the bridge of the song up around the 2:10 mark. It’s the last one in this compilation of Prime IDs.
I suppose I should thank A Current Affair for bringing back memories of music I loved hearing between shows, and never realised was a real song until now.
A Current Affair had a story this evening about tips for job interviews. It was the usual fare…make eye contact, dress appropriately, etcetera, but what made this interesting was that they found two people who have been unsuccessful in job interviews for some time, gave them a crash course in interview technique, dressed them, gave them a haircut, and sent them in to job interviews that they (the people, not ACA) had already lined up.
One of the people went for an insurance job in a “Sydney skyscraper”. The candidate told us that the interview was short and to the point…he got the job, apparently. The other person went for a customer service job with Woolworths, and the ACA camera followed her in to the interview which just happened to be with a “HR executive” which one can only assume is code for “a high-ranking HR person” in the Woolworths organisation. ACA interviewed the executive after the interview and showed us a snippet of her describing the candidate with positive remarks. Not surprisingly, she also got the job.
A Current Affair then told us that they didn’t influence the outcome of the interviews. For the first job, that may very well be true…but highly questionable for the second. There is absolutely no way that Woolworths would allow a camera in to a job interview and then turn around and not hire the candidate, unless the candidate had done something on-camera to make them unemployable.
The Woolworths executive makes the whole thing even more suspicious. Either ACA took a camera in to the job interview and forced Woolworths’ hand in doing so, or the candidate got the job, and Woolworths agreed to a dummy interview for the sake of publicity…in which case ACA have misled their viewers by claiming that they were in the real interview, and claiming that the executive was the original interviewer (they had previously gone on and on and on about “first impressions).
Either way, it was a dodgy story, which is a real shame considering that, until then, the episode had been pretty good.
I’m glad I wasn’t eating at the time when I saw this ad, as my gastrological needs would probably have reversed…I was about to have dinner though, so I did delay eating.
The ad was on WIN TV’s Shepparton service during the news this evening and was for one of the kebab shops and featured a voiceover touting the excellence of their food and service…sadly the video didn’t back up the claims. The video showed some rather pale looking greasy meat being “cooked” (sorry, I’m just not convinced that the meat was actually being cooked…it looked like it was merely rotating), which was followed by a shot of the meat dripping.
Yes, dripping! Perhaps they were thawing it. Whatever was going on, the sight of pale greasy meat dripping some sort of gunk is rather off-putting.
Unfortunately I have no idea which shop was being advertised as I had to turn away. I suppose I’ll just have to avoid all kebab shops for a while, lest I get that awful mental image again.
