‘King’ Mike Hosking builds on his radio crown
Already king of the airwaves, Newstalk ZB’s breakfast host Mike Hosking has surged to a new record of more than half a million listeners.
The Mike Hosking Breakfast now commands an audience of 511,700 listeners, the highest for any breakfast show in the country, ever.
Newstalk ZB also remains top of the pops (and talk), having again enjoyed strong growth. The station now has an audience of 744,000 New Zealanders.
Hosking thanked those who tuned into the station every morning.
“I’m very grateful yet again,” he said.
“This is more people than we ever imagined. I thought last year’s number couldn’t be topped, and yet, another record. Thanks to all our loyal and wonderful listeners.”
The strong results helped push New Zealand Media and Entertainment (NZME) over the 2 million listener threshold across all its radio stations.
The latest GfK Commercial Radio Audience survey — released yesterday — shows growth of more than 91,000 listeners across NZME’s radio brands this ratings period.
Across the commercial radio market, Coast led the charge with an additional 36,000 people tuning in, followed by Flava (30,600), Newstalk ZB (30,500) and The Hits (28,400).
NZME’s breakfast radio success doesn’t end with talkback — music radio station ZM’s breakfast show — Fletch, Vaughan and Hayley — has the most listeners across key demographics 18-39 and 25-44.
NZME chief radio officer Jason Winstanley says the results are a true reflection of NZME’s focus on delivering world-class, engaging, informative, high-performing news and entertainment.
“Today’s exceptional results mean NZME now reaches more than 2 million people across our radio stations.
“The success we’re seeing in radio continues across our digital audio platforms, with iHeartRadio now
reaching more than 1.3 million Kiwis and boasting 6.8 million listening hours, and 2.7 million podcast downloads.”
NZME chief content officer Mike McClung says the team is committed to being listener and customerfocused, delivering sustainable audience growth across NZME’s audio brands.
“We’ve worked extremely hard over the past year to continually build our brands, which has included being adaptive and flexible to changing audience tastes and demands, as well as building great teams including much-loved radio hosts backed by exceptional, talented people working on each brand.”
NZME chief executive officer Michael Boggs said the results showed the company’s clear and strategic focus on growing audio brands was working.
“NZME is focused on continuing to deliver growth across our audio platforms, engaging with our audiences, providing world-class news and entertainment, and providing the very best commercial opportunities for our valued customers.
“It’s fantastic to see growth across our music radio networks, as well as seeing Newstalk ZB continuing to hold the top spot for the fourteenth year running. With iHeartRadio also going from strength to strength, the future is looking bright and it’s testament to the hard work of our committed and loyal team.”