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Radio ratings: Hamish and Andy's nosedive continues, Eddie McGuire pips Nova

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Hamish and Andy's drive show has once again taken a tumble in Melbourne's radio ratings, while 3AW continues to crush the competition and dominate breakfast airwaves. 

The comedy duo's Fox FM show dropped 1.4 points to command a 10.3 point market share in the highly competitive drive slot, down from 14.8 at the end of 2016.

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Audiences have been turning away from Hamish and Andy ever since they started pouring time and money into their new TV show and started pre-recording their drive slot. The pair are set to leave radio at the end of the year. 

Despite seeing a 4.5% drop in ratings since last year, Hamish and Andy are still the number one drive FM show - tied in first place with Nova's Tim, Kate and Marty.

3AW continues to mow down the competition during the coveted breakfast slot, recording a healthy 1.0 point bump in market share to secure an impressive 19.3% slice of the market. 

Neil Mitchell also grew the 3AW audience for his top-rating morning timeslot by 0.7 points.  His closest rival, the ABC's John Faine, is hot on his heels with a 1.6 point audience growth.

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Eddie McGuire's Hot Breakfast, meanwhile, pipped Nova's Melbourne brekkie team this time around in order to reclaim his title as Melbourne's number one breakfast FM host. 

The Collingwood Football Club president and popular television personality clawed his way back with a 0.3 bump in audience share, landing him with 8% of Melbourne's breakfast radio market. Nova's Chrissie Swan, Sam Pang and Jonathan Brown slipped into second place thanks to a slight drop - giving them 7.6% of the FM breakfast pie.

However, it was always a tough feat for the Nova trio to remain number one given their massive ratings bump earlier in the year. Nova's general manager for Melbourne, Peter Colosimo, said he was proud of the team for maintaining a strong audience share given they came from towards the bottom of the ladder last year. 

"They're number two [on FM] now, but to consolidate their audience position is huge," he said. "From that perspective, we're in a really good position." 

Colosimo also pointed out the small bumps in growth for Nova's mornings program and the drive slot - with Kate, Tim and Marty - are areas the network is hoping to steadily grow over the long term. 

Mike Fitzpatrick, the content director for Triple M Melbourne, said it was great to see Eddie back at number one. 

"It has always been a number one show, we were just undercooked in the last few surveys," he said. 

Adam Lang, Macquarie Radio Network's chief operating officer, said he was happy with the way 3AW saw an increase across its breakfast and morning time slots. 

He said the healthy bump - despite 3AW already dominating morning airwaves - was a testament to how "incredibly driven" Neil Mitchell, Ross Stevenson and John Burns are. 

"While the [external] competition is really important, most of the competition is with themselves," he said. "It's the daily ritual of wanting to do a better show tomorrow than you did today." 

Meanwhile, Fox FM's Gemma Fordham admitted there was room for improvement with Melbourne's breakfast show - hosted by Fifi Box, Dave Thornton, Brendan Fevola and Byron Cookie. 

"It is a show that two surveys ago was number one and standing out from the pack," she said. "We need to have a look at being a bit more ruthless and seeing what really resonates with [listeners]."

Overall, Smooth continued to be the most popular FM station among Melburnians, with Gold FM hot on its heels.