ABC Melbourne’s ratings jump despite Pickering’s Grace Tame controversy

ABC Radio Melbourne has lifted itself off the mat, delivering a ratings rise of 1.4 per cent, aided by a boost from Charlie Pickering in his first survey period as new host of its Drive program.

Pickering joined the station as a full-time host at the start of June, replacing Ali Moore in the crucial drive slot, though his first week was marred by controversy after comments he made to right-wing media figure Avi Yemini about Grace Tame.

The Drive slot, which had started the year with the show’s worst ever ratings results, jumped from 2.7 per cent share to 5.2 per cent. However, the majority of the survey period that ran between April 19 to June 27 was under Moore’s tenure. Shows often receive a ratings bump as hosts step down.

Pickering told Yemini the decision by the ABC to interview Tame as part of a four-part podcast series on autism was “problematic”.Pickering later partially walked back the comments, saying he “should have known better”, but that the comments were from his personal perspective.

The station’s overall rating share jumped from 4.1 per cent to 5.5 per cent in the fourth survey, released on Tuesday morning. The station’s increase was the largest in the Melbourne market. It comes after historically poor results in back-to-back surveys.

There were also minor boosts to the Breakfast show, hosted by Bob Murphy and Sharnelle Vella (up from 4.9 per cent to 5.3 per cent), as well as Raf Epstein’s Mornings show, which jumped up 1.4 percentage points to a 6.2 per cent share.

KIIS remains relatively unchanged in Melbourne following the exit of The Kyle and Jackie O Show, with the ARN-owned station’s breakfast show dropping 0.2 percentage points to a 4.8 per cent share. The show had a 5 per cent share in the first survey of the year when the now-sacked duo were at the helm. The slot on KIIS actually picked up cumulative listeners, however, rising from 440,000 to 447,000 during the survey period. This figure refers to the total number of individual listeners who sampled the station for at least eight minutes during the survey period.

Among the commercial breakfast competitors, Nova’s breakfast duo Jase & Lauren were top once again with a 10.4 per cent share, up from 9.4 per cent, overtaking Gold FM’s Christian O’Connell Show, which fell from 10 per cent to an 8.7 per cent share.

Closely behind was Fox’s Fifi, Fev & Nick, rising from a 9.5 per cent share to 10 per cent in a three-way battle for listeners and advertisers.

Talkback station 3AW, which recently moved into new ownership under pokies and publican family the Laundys, continues to lead the market with a 14.2 per cent share. The breakfast show with Russ & Ross held a 20.1 per cent share, up from 19.1 per cent. Gold FM was the leading station behind 3AW, with an overall share of 10.8 per cent, down from 11.5 per cent.

The ABC’s Radio National fell once again, dropping to a 1.4 per cent share, down from 1.8 per cent. Its Breakfast show hosted by Sally Sara dropped from a 1.7 per cent share to 1.2 per cent in Melbourne.

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