Vega starts slow as Trioli improves
December 6, 2005 - 12:58PM
Baby-boomer station Vega FM has failed to make a dent in the crucial breakfast, morning and drive slots in both Melbourne and Sydney, latest radio ratings show.
Virginia Trioli's presence as morning host on Sydney ABC local radio has brought some new listeners to the station.
Since the former Melbourne ABC drive-time host's appointment, the Sydney station's percentage has increased from 6.5 to 6.9 per cent since the last survey.
The ABC's Melbourne 774 drive program, with new host Lindy Burns, has held on to listeners since Trioli's departure, with an unchanged 10.8 per cent since the last round of results.
Burns' show was in third spot after Derryn Hinch (3AW) with 13.2 per cent and Fox FM's `Higgo' with 11.1 per cent.
Vega, the much-vaunted sister station to youth-oriented Nova, FM took 1.2 per cent of Melbourne's overall radio listenership between September 18 and November 26.
Its breakfast team of Shaun Micallef, Beverley O'Connor and Denise Scott snared 0.7 per cent and morning show presenter Wendy Harmer 1.4 per cent of the audience for their timeslots.
Tony Squires and Rebecca Wilson, who achieved success with ABC television show The Fat, attracted 1.1 per cent of the drive-time listeners.
The news was slightly better in Sydney, where Vega had 2.4, 2.1 and 1.6 per cent of the breakfast, morning and drive audiences respectively, and 1.9 per cent overall.
3AW took a clean sweep of the key ratings in Melbourne, only missing out on the top spots in the afternoons to Gold FM and in the evenings to Fox FM.
However, both women started in their new roles on October 24, half-way through the ratings period.
- theage.com.au
