After dominating last year, Triple M has lost the lead to a resurgent Mix 102.3, despite the rock and football station maintaining top position in the key breakfast shift.

Triple M lost listener share across the board in the survey taken from January 14 to February 24, to see it fall to second with 11.6 per cent of listener share (down from 14.4), just ahead of Nova (11.3, up from 10.1).

Mix’s performance (up to 13.3 from 11.9) was the opposite, putting on listeners in every shift despite months of intense negative focus from News Corp.

The celebrations at Mix will be matched by a grim post-mortem at Collinswood where ABC Radio Adelaide has sunk to a distant bottom place among local stations.

The ABC upended its line-up this year, with experienced drive and afternoon announcers Jules Schiller and Sonya Feldhoff teaming up in breakfast, former breakfast presenter Nikolai Beilharz moving to afternoons, Darwin announcer Jo Laverty moving south to take over drive and comedian Jason Chong filling the big shoes of retired Peter Goers in the evenings.

The first survey shows the magnitude of the challenge to turn around the ABC’s decline in listeners, with losses in all shifts.

Overall listener share for Adelaide stations in survey 1, 2024, taken from January 1 to February 24. Source: GfK

In breakfast, Schiller and Feldhoff lost 2.3 percentage points from the final survey of 2023, when Beilharz and former on-air partner Stacey Lee were in the chairs (Lee created headlines late last year by moving to FIVEaa). They move from second place to fifth, with 9.5 per cent of share, in a shift once owned by the ABC.

Triple M’s breakfast team of Chris Dittmar, Laura O’Callaghan and Mark Ricciuto kept first position (14.6), despite losing significant share, while FIVEaa’s Will Goodings and David Penberthy gained listeners to take second place (12.6). Next in line was a rising Mix breakfast show (11.8), with Max Burford sharing top billing now with Ali Clarke, followed by Nova (11.4).

In mornings, Triple M remained in top spot despite the gap narrowing sharply with Mix. In the talk battle, FIVEaa’s Matthew Pantelis turned the tables on the ABC’s David Bevan.

In afternoons, Mix took top spot from Triple M.

In that shift, the anticipated showdown between former on-air partners Lee and Beilharz was a bit of a damp squib, with both losing share. The ABC came out on top in that micro-battle with 5.4 per cent of listener share; FIVEaa fell from 3.6 to 3.2 in what has become a problem shift for the station.

In drive, Mix and Nova are equal top.

Very few listeners were interested in the drive talk offerings on the ABC and FIVEaa. At Collinswood, Jo Laverty’s introduction to Adelaide radio was difficult, dropping to an almost unheard-of sub-5 per cent level (down to 4.9 from 6.4), while FIVEaa’s sports talk team of Stephen Rowe and Tim Ginever dropped to 5.7 from 7.9). As an indication of how low these numbers are, the ABC’s national youth station Triple J outrated them both (5.8).

In evenings, FIVEaa’s Leith Forrest bounced back up to extend his lead (19.1 from 13.8). The ABC lost a huge chunk of listeners, dropping from 12.4 to 5.8 in the first survey after the retirement of veteran Peter Goers.

In what is likely to be an unprecedented occurrence, the ABC’s local station was outrated in the evenings by ABC Classic, which soared to 6.4 per cent of listener share (up from 2.9). The Classic station also outrated Triple M (which recorded a shocking 3.9 per cent to also be beaten by Triple J) and Cruise (6.0).

The demographic data shows strong gains for Mix among older listeners. Mix made a giant leap in the 55-64 age group to take 21 per cent of share (up 7.2 percentage points).

The ABC sunk to once-unthinkable levels in this demographic, plummeting from 6.4 to just 3.5 per cent of listeners.

Listener share by shift for Adelaide stations in survey 1, 2024, taken from January 1 to February 24. Source: GfK