![\"Karl](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/8c50b3df29f0bcf7c5c79c2544a28eba75538e424ae1fbc71e23b5ac052c5337.png\")
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June 11, 2026 \u2014 12:11pm<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n If management at ARN is looking for vindication of its national syndication strategy, the third radio ratings survey of the year, covering March 1 to May 23 (excluding the two weeks of Easter school holidays), offers mixed results.<\/p>\n On the one hand, the costs of the Kyle and Jackie O debacle are starting to register in the listener numbers as well as in the legal bills, with KIIS1065\u2019s share of the breakfast market \u2013 where the pair had been dominant for much of the past two decades \u2013 dropped precipitously from 11.7 per cent of the total radio audience to 8.2. The average audience decline in the first full survey without the pair on air was even starker: down one-third from 93,000 listeners to 62,000.<\/p>\n Year-on-year, the numbers arguably look even worse: in survey three of 2025, the pair \u2013 who are separately suing ARN for wrongful dismissal following the termination of their 10-year, $100 million -per-person contract with almost eight years left to run \u2013 enjoyed a 12.5 per cent share of the Sydney market. The 4.2 point drop year-on-year represents a 34.4 per cent decline in market share.<\/p>\n On the other hand, ARN\u2019s syndication strategy is starting to turn into gold over on Gold, where Christian O\u2019Connell\u2019s Breakfast show added a quarter in average audience numbers (up from 44,000 to 55,000) and 1.7 points in share, up from 5.5 to 7.2 per cent. While O\u2019Connell was down slightly in his home market of Melbourne \u2013 from a 10.5 per cent share to 10 per cent \u2013 Gold\u2019s owners will take the win.<\/p>\n In the first survey since Nine (owner of this masthead) got out of the radio business, its former station 2GB, now owned by Tapt Media, took a hit, dropping from 13.3 per cent share to 11.8. Nonetheless, that still left it in second place behind SmoothFM, which recorded a 13.1 per cent share (down from 13.3).<\/p>\n Smooth remains one of the great audio success stories. Of the 4.679 million cumulative listeners in the Sydney radio market \u2013 those who tuned in for at least eight minutes at some point over the survey period \u2013 almost one in three (1.448 million) tuned into the contemporary easy-listening station.<\/p>\n The reliance on classic playlists isn\u2019t a guaranteed winner, though. On the FM band, adult contemporary station 2Day is down slightly to a 4.3 per cent share (from 4.7), but over on AM, 2UE \u2013 once the arch-rival of 2GB in the talkback space \u2013 is finding success as a purveyor of 1970s and \u201980s hits, climbing from a 2.7 per cent share in the last survey to 4.2.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the ABC\u2019s struggles in the Sydney radio market continue, despite a small lift in audience share.<\/p>\n Across the week, the station recorded a 4.6 per cent share, up from 4.3 per cent in the last survey. But that result was its worst ever<\/a> in the modern ratings era, having dropped from 5.1 per cent share in the first survey of the year.<\/p>\n For the optimistic, there are green shoots of recovery to be spotted in lifts across all slots of the day, while cumulative audience is up too, by 50,000 listeners (those who tuned in for at least eight minutes at some point over the survey period) to 518,000. But surely the greater concern is the average audience number: this time last year, 27,000 people were tuned into ABC Radio Sydney at any point across the day. That number is now 21,000, unchanged from last survey.<\/p>\n Want more radio stories? We\u2019ve got you.Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n![\"In](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/58dde6cb9aab1422e23c96bd433d8ca3bea1be06.jpeg\")
In happier times: Kyle Sandilands and Jackie \u201cO\u201d Henderson.Facebook<\/p>\n![\"Christian](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/e4a65cb346f8eb99f5017a191207049d2c6b9e09.jpeg\")
Christian O\u2019Connell is starting to build audience share in Sydney.Eddie Jim<\/p>\n