Sydneysiders shifted away from news and sport to easy listening music in the final radio ratings survey of 2025, with Smooth FM capping the year as the city’s No.1 station but talkback king Ben Fordham retained his crown in the breakfast slot.
Smooth, owned by Lachlan Murdoch’s NOVA Entertainment, recorded a 13 per cent share of the Sydney radio market while Nine-owned talkback station 2GB fell from 13.8 to 11.2 per cent, and ABC Radio Sydney remained static on 5.5 per cent.
The eighth and final survey period for 2025, released on Tuesday morning, spanned October 5 to December 13.
The last 12 months marked a year of transition for 2GB, after veteran Mornings presenter Ray Hadley stepped down at the close of 2024 and several parties opened discussions with Nine about a potential sale of its radio assets. Nine also owns this masthead.
Mark Levy, who replaced Hadley in the Mornings slot fell from a 15.8 per cent share in survey seven (which was his best result of the year) to a 13 per cent share in survey eight. His show was beaten by Smooth’s Ty Frost in the most recent survey. 2GB Breakfast host Ben Fordham once again topped his timeslot with a 14.9 per cent share, despite dropping 1.9 percentage points.
Behind Fordham in the breakfast slot was The Kyle & Jackie O Show on KIIS FM, which ended the year on 12.7 per cent, up 0.2 percentage points on the previous survey. The duo maintained a strong audience and second spot in Sydney despite their performance in Melbourne dropping to its equal worst result on Tuesday morning amid a stalled national rollout.
Nine radio boss Greg Byrnes said 2GB and 3AW had dominated their markets during 2025.
“Across the network, listeners this year will reconnect with their favourite presenters and be introduced to a host of exciting new voices,” Byrnes said in a statement. “It’s been a relentless summer news cycle, but our talk stations will always set the agenda and provide the reassurance and context our audience expects.”
It was another poor result for ABC Radio Sydney, which also capped off a year of change, having lost its long-time Drive host Richard Glover. The station ended on a 5.5 per cent share, unchanged from the previous survey, despite a growth for breakfast host Craig Reucassel, whose show rose from 6.7 to 7.7 per cent.
Glover’s replacement, Chris Bath, announced she was stepping down from the show after just one year, prompting criticism of the station’s male-dominated line-up for 2026 after ABC NewsRadio host Thomas Oriti was appointed her successor.
Bath’s Drive show ended the year with a 4.8 per cent share, down 0.1 percentage points. ABC Classic was the only one of the ABC’s five station’s in Sydney to grow its audience in the final survey, up from 3.2 to 3.3 per cent, while Triple J, Radio National and NewsRadio all had minor drops.
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Calum Jaspan is a media writer for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, based in Melbourne. Reach him securely on Signal @calumjaspan.10Connect via Twitter or email.
