It’s been a long, long time since one Newcastle radio station dominated this market, you’d have to go back to the early 80’s and it was probably 1341 2NX, but NXFM have hit No. 1 in all sessions BMADE with an all time record cume of 194,000 listeners.

Good news also for 1233 Breakfast host Aaron Kearney jumping almost 3% to 14.4% to be No. 3 Breakfast overall behind NX and KO.

It’s been a fairly consistent year for KOFM while at Sandgate, the closed door meetings begin. 2HD loses No.1 Mornings and Nights… NEW FM slight improvements might give some heart but it’s a long slow climb from the bottom when the No.1 station has almost 4 times the share.

Plus NEW FM now has to look for new talent once again with Meryl Swanson resigning from the breakfast show, she and Steve St John have been the most consistent breakfast team (about 15 months) NEW FM has had for many years.

In other radio rumors we hear Garth Russell has resigned from 1233 ABC Newcastle to pursue other business interests.

Mon – Sun       3/09            2/09          1/09

NXFM              23.2%         21.5%         20.4%

KOFM              17.3%          17.9%         17.4%

2HD                12.6%          13.5%         13.2%

1233                12.0%          10.0%         11.3%

NEW FM           6.2%             5.6%           5.8%

JJJ                    5.7%             6.9%           8.4%

Breakfast

NXFM              23.8%        22.0%           20.2%

KOFM              18.5%         20.5%           19.1%

1233                14.4%          11.6%           13.5%

2HD                 13.0%          13.4%          14.1%

JJJ                    5.2%            6.5%           7.2%

NEW FM            4.7 %           4.1%            4.6%

We’ve been swamped with traffic for the launch of new digital television station 7TWO and plenty of emails and comments asking when the channel will launch in Prime regional viewing areas.

Prime is the affiliate station for the Seven network in much of regional Australia. Like their regional competitors, Southern Cross (TEN) and NBN & WIN (Nine), Prime are anticipated to take on the new digital station from their affiliate partner….and they will….eventually.

There is one hitch in the plan, though. The new station’s name.

Southern Cross were happy to take on OneHD from TEN. NBN were happy to take on GO! from Nine. But for Prime the 7TWO name and branding is too closely identified with the Seven Network. Its not an easy brand for them to work with and Seven clearly weren’t thinking much about their affiliates when they settled on the name.

So regional Australia, that’s why you won’t be watching 7TWO for a while. We’ll let you know when an agreement has been reached and launch is scheduled.

The Newcastle TV Ratings, week ending October 31

Note: These ratings results are compiled using the combined resources of SC TEN, NBN & Prime’s weekly AGB Nielsen Media Research reports.

This week sees NBN fall nearly 3% in it’s viewing audience. Prime increased by 1.7% and SC TEN by 0.7%.

Last week the Hunter enjoyed ABC’s ‘Midsomer Murders’ more than the weekly NBN News.

Prime & SC TEN also managed to get two programs each, up on the ‘Most Watched’ leader board.

Read on for the full results…

What Newcastle Watched:

1 NBN Evening News Sunday NBN 116000

2 Midsomer Murders ABC 87000

3 NBN Evening News Monday to Friday NBN 84000

4 RSPCA Animal Rescue PRIME 83000

5 Packed To The Rafters PRIME 81000

6 NCIS TEN 79000

7 60 Minutes NBN 79000

8 A Current Affair NBN 77000

9 The Simpsons Tues TEN 74000

10 The Big Bang Theory NBN 71000

Stations Ratings:

       Week 44-2009 Week 44-2008 Prog-2009 Prog-2008
NBN              31.9              30.8              33.0          33.1
PRIME           23.0              26.4              20.4          24.5
TEN              20.9              19.1              20.3          18.7
ABC             18.4              17.5              18.1          17.1
SBS              5.6                6.3               6.8             6.4

The National TV Ratings
Week ending October 31
Source: David Dale, Sun Herald Blogs

The prime time audience shares for the week were: Seven&7TWO 28.8 per cent, Nine&GO 26.4, Ten&ONE 20.8, ABC1&2 18.4, SBS1&2 5.7.

This was Pay TV’s account of itself: “The Saturday night broadcast of the third one day international cricket test between Australia and India, Live: Cricket: ODI Ind v Aus 3rd ODI S1, topped the week for STV with 214,000 viewers. The FOX Sports’ coverage of Live: Rugby Union: Bledisloe Cup was watched by 144,000 people, 66,000 watched Live: Cricket: Ford Ranger Cup and 65,000 watched Live: Football: A-League Bris v Newc (all on FOX Sports).

“Midsomer Murders on UKTV had its best result of the year with 133,000 viewers, The Simpsons on FOX8 was watched by 114,000, Law & Order: SVU on TV1 was watched by 111,000 and Location, Location, Location on Lifestyle had a year-to-date high of 104,000 people. Deadliest Catch on Discovery Channel was watched by 85,000 people, Go, Diego, Go! on Nick Jr. was watched by 78,000 and Ultimate Gamer on FOX8 had its best audience of the year so far with 70,000 people.

“In week 44, STV channels represented 21.6% of all metropolitan viewing between 6am and midnight, 20.7% of all regional viewing and 58% of all viewing in subscription TV homes.”

What Australia Watched:

1 PACKED TO THE RAFTERS Seven 1,960,000

2 RSPCA ANIMAL RESCUE Seven 1,515,000

3 ALL SAINTS-THE FINALE Seven 1,505,000

4 LAST CHANCE SURGERY Seven 1,477,000

5 THE FORCE – BEHIND THE LINE Seven 1,449,000

6 TWO AND A HALF MEN -MON Nine 1,438,000

7 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS Seven 1,397,000

8 MIDSOMER MURDERS ABC1 1,385,000

9 NCIS Ten 1,377,000

10 BORDER SECURITY – WED (R) Seven 1,359,000

11 BORDER SECURITY – AUSTRALIA’S FRONT LINE Seven 1,358,000

12 NINE NEWS SUNDAY Nine 1,334,000

13 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,327,000 355,000

14 DESTROYED IN SECONDS Seven 1,300,000

15 HIGHWAY PATROL Seven 1,294,000

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Source: The Chronicle

TOOWOOMBA radio station 4WK’s parent company has been fined $8500 for underpaying one of its staff at a rate of just $6.66 an hour.

The Federal Magistrate’s Court in Brisbane imposed the penalty against Amalgamated Marketing Pty Ltd, which trades under that name and as radio station 4WK, after being prosecuted by the Fair Work Ombudsman.

The company admitted underpaying a full-time advertising consultant $15,000 over 19 months in 2006 and 2007.

Amalgamated Marketing admitted paying the consultant substantially below the Federal minimum wage and not paying her at all for some hours worked.

The company paid the consultant wages of just $250 a week, or just $6.66 an hour.

The Federal Minimum Wage was $12.75 to $13.74 during the relevant period, the court heard.

After the consultant lodged a complaint, the Fair Work Ombudsman repeatedly asked Amalgamated Marketing to back-pay the employee, but it failed to do so until after legal proceedings commenced earlier this year.

Fair Work Ombudsman Queensland director Julie Wade said the case sent a message to companies that they cannot simply ignore requests to rectify underpayments when they are identified.

“The Fair Work Ombudsman takes its role of protecting workers’ rights seriously and we do not hesitate to pursue companies who fail to respect those rights,” Ms Wade said.

Editor’s note: 4WK is part of the Bill Caralis-owned SuperRadio Network

Source: MediaSpy

This Sunday’s launch of 7TWO won’t be seen across Seven’s biggest affiliate as Prime Television delays the start of broadcasts of the new multichannel into Regional NSW and Victoria.

Prime are yet to commit to a start date and have told interested viewers inquiring about the new service that an announcement will happen soon.

Thank you for your enquiry. PRIME hopes to make an announcement on its multi-channels in the near future

Meanwhile, The Canberra Times report that 7TWO will not start until at least January next year.

Seven Queensland will commence broadcasting 7TWO from Sunday and as reported yesterday, Southern Cross Television have confirmed that they will commence broadcasting 7TWO from December 1st.

Editor’s note: Our agency hasn’t heard a peep out of Prime since the announcement of 7TWO, despite the relative interest from viewers and advertisers as to when we might see the launch.

According to ABC TV’s Media Watch last night, some stations in the Bill Caralis owned Supernetwork are not meeting their local content obligations under the Broadcasting Services Act. Caralis is relaying his Grant Goldman breakfast program around the network and claiming it to be local content.

Superstation spokesman Bob Scott said that they comply with local content
requirements and that no one had complained. However Media Watch presenter Jonathon Holmes said that ACMA says it has received a complaint and that ACMA will be investigating.

Holmes claimed that Bill Caralis was “cynically dudding his regional listeners.”

You can view the episode here on ABC online.

The Newcastle TV Ratings, week ending October 24

Note: These ratings results are compiled using the combined resources of SC TEN, NBN & Prime’s weekly AGB Nielsen Media Research reports.

SC TEN this week is back on its game, reclaiming 3rd position on the ratings score board.

Although this week if it wasn’t for ‘Packed to the Rafters’ giving Prime a nice slice of an 85,000 viewing audience, it would have been in deep trouble. SC TEN just missed out on 2nd place by 1.1%!

What would happen I wonder without Prime’s favourite family?

What We Watched:

1 NBN Evening News Sunday NBN 107000

2 NBN Evening News Monday to Friday NBN 92000

3 Packed To The Rafters PRIME 85000

4 NBN Evening News Saturday NBN 84000

5 20 to 1 NBN 82000

6 Spicks & Specks ABC 76000

7 Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader TEN 71000

8 60 Minutes NBN 71000

9 A Current Affair NBN 70000

10 The Mentalist NBN 66000

The Stations Ratings:

Week 43-2009 Week 43-2008 Prog-2009 Prog-2008
NBN              34.7                30.8               33.0             33.1
PRIME           21.3                26.4               20.4             24.4
TEN              20.2                 19.1               20.3             18.7
ABC             17.8                 17.5               18.1             17.1
SBS              5.6                  6.3                 6.8               6.4

Week ending October 24
Source: David Dale, Sun Herald Blogs

Without doing anything special in the way of new programming, Channel Nine won the week. That’s because Ten is chipping away at Seven’s audience. It might be a different story next month when Seven launches its new channel. The prime time audience shares were: SBS1&2 5.5 per cent; ABC1&2 18.7; Ten&ONE 21.1; Seven&7TWO 26.9; Nine&GO 27.9.

This was Pay TV’s account of itself: “The Simpsons on FOX8 topped the week on STV with 137,000 people, followed by Family Guy with 111,000 viewers and New Zealand’s Next Top Model with 110,000 (both on FOX8). Erin Brockovich on TV1 had 106,000 people, The Outlaw Josey Wales on FOX Classics was watched by 100,000 and Grand Designs on Lifestyle was watched by 96,000.

“The FOX Sports’ coverage of Live: Football: A-League Melb v Adel was watched by 77,000, the Newcastle/Central Coast football game Live: Football: A-league Newc v C’Coast was seen by 69,000 people and Live: Motorsport: Motogp Round 15, Australia was seen by 62,000 viewers. In week 43, STV channels represented 21.2% of all metropolitan viewing between 6am and midnight, 19.5% of all regional viewing and 56.6% of all viewing in subscription TV homes.”

What Rich Australians (Occupational groups 1 and 2) Watched:

1 PACKED TO THE RAFTERS Seven 722,000

2 FLASHFORWARD Seven 550,000

3 CELEBRITY MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 549,000

4 SPICKS AND SPECKS ABC1 534,000

5 TWO AND A HALF MEN -MON Nine 525,000

6 NCIS Ten 514,000

7 THE FORCE Seven 506,000

8 20 TO 1 -TUE Nine 499,000

9 A TRIBUTE TO DON LANE Nine 491,000

10 BORDER SECURITY Seven 475,000

11 TWO AND A HALF MEN -WED Nine 475,000

12 AUSTRALIAN IDOL Ten 464,000

13 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS Seven 447,000

14 THE MENTALIST Nine 443,000

15 THE BIG BANG THEORY Nine 441,000