Australian Radio Network, which owns Kiis, has dismissed 2Day FM as "no longer a competitor" after the latter's much-touted new Sydney breakfast team failed to achieve any real growth against Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O (Henderson) in the latest rating period.
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Dan Debuf and Mandy Compton were moved into the breakfast slot after 2Day FM's troubled four-handed breakfast team made up of Merrick Watts, Jules Lund, Sophie Monk and Mel B imploded late last year.
But the latest ratings period revealed they are yet to make inroads into the Sydney market, opening the year with a flat 3.0 in the first ratings survey of 2015.
The pressure is on the young DJs after 2Day FM (owned by Southern Cross Austereo) lost high-profile stars Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O last year. The pair defected to Kiis 1065, taking many of their listeners with them. Their ratings share stayed fairly steady, dropping by only 0.6 points to 10.7.
Duncan Campbell of ARN said their position was now so strong they "no longer viewed 2DayFM as a competitor".
"I'd go so far as to say the strategy of the 2Day FM hits programming has failed around the country, and I'm sure they'll be looking to improve that," he said.
SRC's head of content Craig Bruce dismissed concerns about Compton and Debuf's performance and said they had no intention of abandoning their current strategy.
"Outside looking in, people expect these numbers to move faster than we do," Bruce said. "Dan and Maz have done everything we asked and we know if we're good enough for long enough, the audience will grow."
Bruce said they expected to be in a much stronger position in six months, adding it took Sandilands and Henderson 18 months to build their following.
"No single show will save us, but we aren't doing a Kiis strategy," he said. "They've got a good show, but they bought it. From us. And now we're growing another one."
Sandilands and Henderson came in at number one on FM, followed by ARN stablemates Amanda Keller and Brendan Jones of WSFM, who dropped 1.5 points.
Campbell said his team would be focusing on bolstering WSFM after it lost 1.5 points in the breakfast slot, down to 8.4. Keller and Jones briefly pipped Sandilands and Hendersen by 0.1 in the September survey of 2014.
"We want WSFM to bounce back a bit," Campbell said. "It took a slight dip and we don't know why yet, but it is challenged a little bit by Smooth (FM)."
Nova Entertainment's Smooth FM was the only FM breakfast station to achieve a significant jump, up 2 points to 6 per cent. Their other FM station, Nova, dropped 0.3 points to 6.3.
"We're not changing anything about Nova but it's really all about Smooth for us at the moment. We're genuinely not that far off number one," Paul Jackson from Nova Entertainment said.
Smooth's breakfast program now has more listeners than Nova, but would need to climb another 4 points to rival Sandilands and Henderson on Kiis.
Jackson added the new year advertising binge was an unavoidable splurge for radio stations, but the millions spent across the board had resulted in fairly stable numbers for all the FM stations.
Meanwhile on AM radio, Alan Jones (2GB) continues to ride high at the top of the breakfast ratings, putting on 2 points in this survey to 16.8.
Robbie Buck on ABC 702 Sydney can also be happy with his start to the year, adding 1.7 points to 11.5.
At the other end of the day, 2GB's Ben Fordham turned in a strong drive result, lifting 2.3 points to 10.9, placing him neck-and-neck with Nova 96.9.
Fairfax Media's 2UE consolidated its morning share with 5.2, an increase of 0.5 points. But the evening program, helmed by Walter Williams, has almost halved, sinking by 4.2 points to 4.9.
