SYN FM Melbourne 50% audience increase: McNair survey

With the overall national McNair Ingenuity listenership results now released for the community radio sector, individual stations have also begun releasing their station-specific figures. Melbourne youth station SYN 90.7 FM is one of those with a good news story to tell, scoring an estimated 124,000 people (15+) listening to the station each week.

For community stations with a big enough audience and enough funds to pay for the extra research, McNair Ingenuity can break out listeners from its wider sample and go back to them, zeroing in on specifics for each station.

SYN, which targets a youth audience, found that it’s average listening time is 9.3 hours per week, with its most popular shift being drive, 4-7pm, with 53,000 listeners. The next most popular shift was 7pm-midnight with 49,000 listeners. The majority of SYN’s listeners are located in Melbourne’s East and North.

The station has a core audience of 41,000 young people who mentioned unprompted that they
‘regularly listen to’ SYN, and a further 84,000 (3%) who mentioned after prompting that they
had listened to the station in the last seven days.

Since the last listenership survey in May 2004, SYN’s audience has increased by 52% and its number of active projects has rapidly expanded. The station publishes a magazine and has a tv show on community television.

Station President Alicia Kegele has told radioinfo SYN has more weekly listeners (124,000) than triple j (216,000) in Melbourne. “Young people just don’t listen to triple j like they used to. SYN offers a local, authentic style that people can relate to. It’s radio programmed by youth for youth… SYN has emerged as a major player in this market.”

According to General Manager Bryce Ives, SYN’s most popular programs are also the most innovative, including: ‘The Naughty Rude Show,’ which is about sex and relationship issues for young people; current affairs show ‘Panorama;’ ‘Asian Pop Night;’ and the female focused ‘Lip Radio.’

Victorian Employment and Youth Affairs Minister Jacinta Allan announced the
results of the extensive audience survey, saying increasing numbers of young Victorians are embracing SYN:


“It has built a large and loyal listener base. The fact that an estimated 124,000 young people listen to SYN in any one week is terrific. SYN has emerged as a major player in a radio market dominated by powerful commercial operators… I have always been impressed by the energy, innovation and diversity SYN represents and have often had the opportunity to speak to SYN reporters on key issues facing young people.”