The latest radio ratings in Melbourne, which were conducted during the period that the Olympics were on make for interesting reading. I’ve taken the liberty of comparing the market leader, Fox FM to the four stations that specialise in sport, so for a full breakdown, you can go here.
| Station | Audience Share (Survey 6) | Audience Share (Survey 5) |
| FOXFM | 15.1 | 14.2 |
| 3AW | 14.9 | 16.6 |
| SEN | 5.2 | 5.4 |
| 3MMM | 6.5 | 6.7 |
| ABC774 | 10.0 | 10.2 |
(The survey results are Copyright 2008 Commercial Radio Australia).
Fox FM is more or less a youth station that specialises in popular music, and features a number of popular comedy shows, Matt and Jo for Breakfast and Hamish and Andy. All the other stations 3AW, SEN, 3MMM and ABC774 specialise in sport.
3AW and 3MMM didn’t cover the Olympics, but did feature regular updates and had programming that tied in with the Olympics. 3MMM’s breakfast show Pete and Myf featured the Pete and Myf Games where the co-hosts competed for medals in different events. 3AW, being a news driven talkback station, featured regular updates from Beijing. ABC 774 and SEN had full coverage of the Olympics.
From a still incomplete content analysis of the way in which the mainstream media covered the Olympic Games, there were constant appeals to people’s sense of national pride, and even attempts to invoke regional pride (for example stories from Perth would make mention of Western Australian athletes competing in the games). There was also an inbuilt expectation about whether the particular teams that I covered, football’s Olyroos and basketball’s Opals, were medal chances or not.
Perhaps as I am beginning to explore the idea that sport is becoming increasingly globalised and is moving away from its communal and regional roots , this argument is demonstrated in these radio ratings. In this very concentrated event that is the Olympics, the mainstream media’s employment of these frames only dissuades people from watching and listening.
