Alan Jones' program on 2GB has maintained the top rating breakfast spot and increased its share despite the scandal surrounding the shock jock, with Macquarie Radio Network (MRN) chairman Russell Tate saying the “audience doesn't care” about the controversy.
MRN's 2GB was the highest rating station in Sydney, according to the latest Nielsen survey, increasing its audience share by 0.3 percentage points to 14.5% share. Alan Jones' breakfast show increased its lead by 0.5 points to 17.3% share.
Tate told AdNews: “We're up everywhere. These results are consistent with our own internal research which showed that our audience was not moving. We're happy with the result but it's not a surprise.
“All the nonsense was from people who don't even listen to the program and never will. They are not 2GB listeners. Alan Jones' audiences doesn't care about the advertiser departure.
“We've increased our audiences across all peak programming, and this is our 68th consecutive survey at the top. That's not bad.”
Alan Jones has experienced as advertiser exodus following remarks at a Sydney University function that Julia Gillard's late father "died of shame".
Companies which have boycotted the show include 7-Eleven, Big W, Bing Lee, Foxtel, Mazda and Coles.
In Sydney, the largest increase was seen by DMG's Nova96.9, which jumped 0.8 points to 7.5% share. Meanwhile, DMG's newly rebranded SmoothFM has continued to pay off for the network, increasing 0.3 points to 5.3% share.
In Melbourne, the top spot was held by Fairfax's 3AW, despite dropping 0.3 points to 15.9% audience share. SmoothFM has not fared as strongly in Melbourne as Sydney, dropping 0.1 point to 4.5% share.
In the highly competitive Brisbane market, DMG's Nova106.9 took the top spot after an impressive 2.1 point jump to 14.3% share. Much of this audience seems to have been taken from Southern Cross Austereo's 4MMM, which fell 2.4 points to 9.2% share.
The Adelaide market saw ARN's Mix102.3 take the top spot with 15.2% share.
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