Sydney radio stars Kyle Sandilands and Jackie “O” Henderson have had an underwhelming start to their quest to dominate the airwaves in Melbourne.

Official radio ratings released on Tuesday showed the duo’s station, KIIS FM, fell 0.5 per cent in recent weeks.

That puts it equal seventh in Melbourne’s hotly contested breakfast radio market.

The Kyle & Jackie O Show is being broadcast to Melbourne, as well as Sydney (where the pair have been dominant for years), as part of Sandilands and Henderson’s $200 million 10-year deal signed last year.

Jase Hawkins and Lauren Phillips, who were behind KIIS’s Jase and Lauren breakfast show, were unceremoniously dumped to make way for the Sydney pair. Phillips and Hawkins swiftly moved to rival Nova, where they boosted their share of the market by 0.4 points to 8.7 per cent in the latest survey.

Nova Entertainment CEO Peter Charlton said, with all eyes on the Melbourne radio market, Phillips and Hawkins had continued to demonstrate an incredible connection with their audience.

“Overall, we’re delighted that Nova Entertainment continues to retain the highest total audience of any metro network, providing listeners and advertisers alike with Australia’s best all-of-audio offering,” he told AdNews.

The survey is the third for 2024, and covered the period February 25-March 30 and April 14-May 18. Only three of the 10 weeks took in Sandilands’ and Henderson’s bid to woo Melbourne listeners from late April.

ARN chief content officer Duncan Campbell said it was too soon to get a true idea of how Melburnians were warming to The Kyle & Jackie O Show, given the periods it covered.

“We will continue to deliver audiences in both cities the engaging content and star power Kyle and Jackie O are renowned for and look forward to seeing their full impact in the coming surveys,” he said.

Melbourne’s top-rating radio show remains Ross Stevenson and Russel Howcroft at 3AW.

Meanwhile, The Fox’s Fifi, Fev & Nick (featuring Fifi Box, Brendan Fevola and Nick Cody) had its 12th consecutive win as Melbourne’s most listened to breakfast show.

“Melburnians have made it clear that their favourite FM breakfast show is Fifi, Fev & Nick,” Hit Metro network content and 101.9 The Fox content director Amanda Lee said.

“These incredible results reflect that our listeners are loving the entertaining work of the focused, passionate, and positive team at The Fox.”