…also, the former Fairfax Radio boss, writing exclusively for radioinfo, explains why stations get nervous waiting for ‘THE WAVE’

It seems journalists are not the only ones that have trouble understanding radio surveys.  In what must go down as one of the stupidest comments I’ve seen, 3AW’s new Drive host, Tom Elliott, told The Age, “The way radio ratings are done is notoriously inaccurate.”

Wow, Tom must have been really ticked off by a 2.1% drop in 3AW’s Drive ratings.  Tom Elliott has only been in the chair since January and rightfully claims that he is responsible for only half the result because the survey is run over 2 periods known as Survey Waves.  Derryn Hinch was on-air for the 1^st Wave in the Nov/Dec period and Tom was on-air in the 2^nd Wave in Jan/Feb.

Note: For more on how Waves work, see the explanation at the foot of this article.

Now, back to Tom Elliott.  Survey 2 will be released on Tuesday 9 April, and it will be Tom’s – 100%.  Given what Tom said after Survey 1, it’ll be interesting to see what he says about the survey if he goes up.  I guess we won’t hear: “The way radio ratings are done is notoriously inaccurate.” However, if Tom goes down again, he has already set up his excuse.

It seems there is never a question or any mystery at all if a station goes up, BUT when the ratings go down… well that’s when we hear the Best Variety of Better Excuses.  I thought I’d heard them all until Tom Elliott came out with his little purler.

Tom, it’s only early days, there’s a long way to go – think before you speak.  When you go up, be humble and thankful.  When you go down, cop it on the chin and get on with making things better.

HINCH Vs ELLIOTT

There were many times when Derryn had his listeners glued to the radio due to his amazing ability to tell a story and to debate with anyone who had a different view. Derryn took his listeners on a roller coaster ride of emotions and there were times when he put 3AW on the front page of the paper or the leading news item on TV.  Derryn broadcast with great emotion and even if you didn’t agree with his point of view you had to listen because it was compelling. 

There were times when I didn’t like some of the stories Derryn covered, but I defended his right to tell the story. I believe some of the people at 3AW got caught up in playing the man, which caused them to lose sight of what he brought to the station.  So, enter Tom Elliott.

Elliott is a competent broadcaster, who covers a range of stories; however his presentation style is so different to what the 3AW audience was used to with Hinch, that I believe they are having trouble working him out.  The Talk audience like familiarity and they like strong opinions from people who they know well and trust.  They will get restless when they are put in a situation of having to work out where someone is coming from – they don’t have time for that.

Tom, regardless of what some people might be telling you, it’s not about the number of stories and the number of talkback callers that make a great program.  It’s about compelling stories that are presented in a manner that hits the key emotions of day to day life – head, heart and hip pocket.

I’m a huge fan of Hinch – I reckon everyone knows that – nonetheless I wish Tom well in his radio career.  So Tom, get on with producing and presenting compelling stories and forget about making stupid, uninformed comments about radio surveys.