ARN‘s Duncan Campbell has disputed claims in today’s Courier Mail the current diary system used in radio surveys doesn’t reflect what listeners hear in the market place.
The Brisbane paper’s article suggests, “radio insiders are hoping for a digital overhaul of ‘archaic’ radio surveys, which still rely on paper diaries to rank radio programs”.
“”Well that’s absolutely absurd… The diary system is statistically robust,” says Duncan. “Like anything that involves statistics there are occasional anomalies and that’s why you look at trends.
“If you look at FOX in Melbourne last survey, that was an anomaly and that corrected itself pretty quickly.”
Survey 3 results came out this morning with the Hit Network‘s Melbourne station regaining its place atop the FM tree in that city with a 9.8 share.
“What has happened in Brisbane this year is completely normal, there’s been multiple changes in breakfast shows on Hit, on 97.3, on Triple M etc. and there was audience movement as a result of that,” he says.
Referring to the loss of Robyn Bailey from 97.3 last year to Triple M breakfast he says the results in the three surveys so far this year between the stations was a reflection of audience movement in that market.
“What was very clear in our research was that the audience movement from 97.3 to Triple M was not driven by a single personality in Robyn Bailey.
“That is now settling back to norm.
“So when you go back through history and look at the survey’s there’s nothing abnormal about it. The diary system is used globally in multiple countries but again, like anything that involves statistics it has its variations and that’s basic statistics 101.”
Still in Brisbane, the venerable 4KQ cemented its number one spot on the AM band with a resounding 9.0 share on the back of a +0.9 jump. Meanwhile, 97.3 FM, which was over a long time trading places survey by survey for the #1 spot with NOVA now finds itself 4.5 behind on 11.3.
As mentioned, in Melbourne, FOX FM is back on top.
“Sensational Fox result and back to where we know it belongs!” says the Hit Network‘s Gemma Fordham, whom also referred to the last survey result for the station as an anomaly.
“Last book seemed very unusual to us and the team have dug deep to make sure FOX is back on top. The breakfast show has delivered compelling content this last book and clearly the listeners agree. AB has done a stunning job leading the team,” she says.
Meantime marketing will commence next week for Sydney’s 2Day FM.
The station suffered a -0.8 slump (breakfast was down -1.0) to be back to 3.5 overall.
“It’s a hard one to comment on to be honest,” says Gemma. “Namely because Em/the show was off air for the last few weeks of the survey due to personal reasons. We absolutely support that decision and I would never want it to be any other way.
“We did know that was going to have an impact on our numbers but that’s life. Em is back on air this week and we know the show is good and we are proud of it.”
Nova Entertainment‘s Paul Jackson is once again celebrating a strong book for his network with Sydney’s smooth jumping 1.3 to land on 11.3, just 0.1 behind the rusted into first place, 2GB.
“This feels like one of the great radio results in a decade or more really…we’ve excelled on smooth it’s just one extraordinary number,” he says.
“We feel the station may well be blessed.
“We will keep doing what we do and keep trying to increase the gap.”
In Survey 2 both the smooth outlets in Sydney in Melbourne were in lockstep on a 9.9 share. Now they are separated by 1.9.
GfK Survey 4 will be handed down on Tuesday July 11th.
Read all the spin, figures and analysis from today’s survey on radioinfo.