Abbie Chatfield has shared a TikTok in response to Kyle Sandilands blaming Melbourne listeners for the declining ratings of his radio show, The Kyle & Jackie O Show.
ICYMI, the shock jock presenter delivered an on-air rant on Sunday following news that The Kyle & Jackie O Show — which only recently launched for Melbourne listeners on KIIS 101.1 — was languishing in the city’s radio ratings.
The breakfast show is currently the seventh most popular for Melbourne listeners, down from the results of the previous ratings survey.
In response to the poor ratings, Sandilands declared that he “blame[s] everyone in Melbourne,” saying the audience is “late to the party” and describing them as “pearl clutchers” for not listening to the often raunchy and controversial show.
He also took a dig at Jase Hawkins, who co-hosted The Jase and Lauren Show that was replaced by Kyle & Jackie O earlier this year.
“[Melbourne listeners] all love the shit show that used to be on here,” Sandilands said of the former breakfast slot they took over.
“At the end of the day [Hawkins] is a ranga from Brisbane, he is not even a Melbourne guy, so who is the joke on? Pests.”
In her TikTok, Abbie Chatfield shared her take that it “isn’t because, as Kyle said, people from Melbourne clutch their pearls too much or because… [the show] is too offensive or problematic”.
The Bachelor alum went on to accuse the decline on the actual system used to determine ratings, which she said is “bullshit” and “can not be accurate”.
Chatfield — who previously hosted the Hot Nights With Abbie Chatfield show on 2Day FM Sydney — claimed that Australian radio ratings are not based on listening data or numbers like streams, downloads or airtime, but on a “paper survey” sent out to random people.
“It’s a paper book that comes around to random houses,” Chatfield said.
She claimed that the results from this survey could be inaccurate, because respondents might lie in their answers or just pick whichever name they’re most familiar with despite not actually listening to any radio shows.
“There’s no way giving away random pamphlets to random people, most of which probably don’t even listen to radio, gives an accurate representation of who’s listening,” Chatfield said.
As a result of this system, Chatfield said she finds it “fucking deplorable that [presenters] are on millions of dollars a year based off a ratings systems that’s a lie”, and suggested The Kyle & Jackie O show is probably suffering in Melbourne because the city doesn’t “recognise their names as much”.
In a follow-up video, Chatfield said she’s “obviously not a fan of Kyle and Jackie O,” but that Melbourne listeners who think the show is failing just because of Sandilands “aren’t realising how these ratings are done”.
A spokesperson for Commercial Radio Australia has refuted Chatfield’s claims, telling PEDESTRIAN.TV: “GfK has a rigorous ratings system in place which draws on data collected from 50,000 respondents annually across the five capital cities and over 60,000 when including the Main Regional markets. New respondents are included in the surveys every week ensuring a constant refreshing of the data included. The sample used is also controlled both by region, age, and gender, ensuring it represents the population that it is reporting on.
“GfK Radio360 data is collected via multiple data sources, not solely a paper diary. In fact 80 per cent of diaries are done online using eDiaries while 20 per cent from paper diaries. The new GfK Radio 360 ratings system, introduced in 2023, ensured we collect live radio streaming data directly from the radio stations and established a 2000 panel with the GfK MediaWatch (wearable listening meter) which also supports the industry ratings system.”
Chatfield left her 2Day FM radio show last year, but currently hosts her It’s A Lot podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Lead images: Abbie Chatfield/TikTok and KIISFM
The post Abbie Chatfield Says She Knows The ‘Bullshit’ Reason For Kyle & Jackie O’s Low Radio Ratings appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
