Perth radio ratings: 6PR’s Oliver Peterson’s mammoth task to boost ABC Drive listeners after defecting to ABC

Oliver Peterson has a mammoth task ahead of him after defecting to the ABC Perth’s Drive program, with the latest radio ratings survey revealing the prime time show suffered a big drop in listeners. New GFK radio ratings released on Tuesday for the August to November period showed the program lost 2 per cent of its audience Monday to Friday. It comes after Peterson announced on Monday that he is hanging up the microphone at 6PR to take the helm of the Drive program at Aunty. Peterson’s appointment comes after current ABC Drive host Gary Adshead — also a former 6PR presenter — announced in October that he would step down at the end of the year. “Radio is the best medium, and I can’t wait to reconnect with the passionate and informed ABC audience,” Peterson said on Monday. “I want to build a show around you with a strong emphasis on talkback, as I see it as the original social media. “Our phone lines will always be open so we can share with each other what is going on and what matters to you. “Drive will continue to inform and entertain as we steer into the news, the stories and issues to set the agenda and get Perth talking.” The Drive show wasn’t the only program to take a hit, with all other sessions across the ABC seeing a decline in people tuning in. The evening time slot lost the most amount of fans, dropping by 2.6 per cent, followed by Mark Gibson’s breakfast program, which lost 1.5 per cent of listeners. Mornings with Nadia Mitsopoulos and Afternoons with Jo Trilling both lost 1 per cent of their fan base. A decrease in ABC listeners is also happening over in Sydney, with ABC Radio Sydney dropping overall to a 5.5 per cent share of the Sydney radio market, down 1.1 percentage points. It has been a turbulent year for ABC Radio Sydney, after popular hosts Sarah Macdonald and Simon Marnie were dumped and station manager Katrina Palmer and the ABC’s head capital city radio Mike Fitzpatrick quit. Over on the FM band, Nova 93.7 is wrapping up the year as Perth’s number one station — holding 16 per cent audience share — with Nathan, Nat and Shaun taking out the top spot in the breakfast time slot. Tuesday’s survey marks the 50th consecutive week that the show has been number one in Perth, despite Nathan Morris’ absence since March. While the reason has been a mystery, he said in May that he was dealing with legal issues. The second-most listened to station is Mix 94.5, securing a 13.4 per cent audience share, with Pete and Kymba with Ben Cousins, the number two breakfast show. Third and fourth spots were taken by 96FM and Triple M at 12.2 per cent and 8.6 per cent respectively. Radio rankings: