Comedic powerhouse Hamish and Andy no longer have the most-listened to drive program in Melbourne despite their radio station FOX FM making healthy gains across the board.
3AW's Tom Elliott is ahead of the iconic duo by 0.1 point, with a massive 12.8% market share. Hamish and Andy handed over the drive crown despite clawing back some listeners after bleeding audience share over the past few months.
That was just the start of the good news in the latest ratings survey for 3AW. The station's dominant breakfast show, hosted by Ross Stevenson and John Burns grew its already massive audience share by 1.8 points - taking it to a 21.1 point share.
Despite Hamish and Andy handing over their drive crown, the third survey of the year was far from bad news for FOX. Fifi, Dave, Fev and Byron overtook sister station Triple M to claim the most-listened to FM breakfast show.
FOX FM's morning presenter Keegan Bakker also saw a jump in listeners. He is now neck-and-neck with Smooth FM in the morning timeslot, wrestling 10% audience share a piece.
Neither could match the dominance of 3AW's Neil Mitchell, though, who recorded a 1.6% boost - giving him a mammoth 17.1% audience share for his timeslot.
Austereo's Gemma Fordham said this survey's ratings were a correction off the back of the "anomaly" last survey when the figures were not as impressive.
"FOX is back to number one overall [in FM] and is also number one in breakfast," she said. "It's also gained over 100,000 listeners."
As for Hamish and Andy losing out to Tom Elliott by just 0.1 points, Fordham said comparing an FM network to 3AW is like comparing apples and oranges.
But Adam Lang from Macquarie was happy to make the comparison. After all, it's the first time 3AW has officially had more drive listeners than Hamish and Andy in 12 months.
"It's a pretty exceptional result. Hamish and Andy have had a stellar career. So when the breadth of our number one station also includes number one in drive, it's precious. Tom Elliot and his team have worked incredibly hard to get that," Lang said.
The question on everybody's lips is how the FM networks will go in Melbourne once Hamish and Andy sign off for the last time.
Duncan Campbell from the Australian Radio Network - owner of KISS FM - is confident Hughsey and Kate will be able to scoop up some of the comedy duo's loyal audience.
"The chemistry between them is obviously unique, as it is with Hamish and Andy," he said. "It's infectious. Once you understand Hughesy and Kate, you fall in love with them."
Mike Fitzpatrick from Triple M said while he never likes to see Eddie McGuire knocked off his top spot in FM breakfast, it was comforting to see the Collingwood president hadn't lost any audience share.
While Nova's breakfast team did see a small drop in audience share the station's Melbourne boss, Peter Colosimo, said it's all about the long game for Chrissie, Sam and Brownie who started the year at the top.
"There's a lot of volatility in the Melbourne market," he said. "People are testing the likes of Chrissie, Sam and Brownie even if their home is FOX. You'll continue to see volatility in the next few surveys... early next year it will settle down."