"To be number one in such a competitive radio market is exceptional and we don’t take it for granted at all." The traditional top dog Mix 94.5 - a station that once achieved 100 consecutive radio surveys at number one - is ranked equal second with 96FM, which was number one in the last survey. Despite the overall win, Triple J's breakfast show Tom and Alex are sitting in fourth place. 720 ABC’s king of breakfast radio Eoin Cameron still rules by a large margin, followed by Nova’s Nathan, Nat and Shaun and Mix 94.5’s The Bunch.

ABC Perth's local content manager Deborah Leavitt said it was great to see that ABC content had now captured a third of the Perth market – spread between Triple J, 720 ABC, Radio National, News Radio and ABC Classic FM. Scaddan put the win for Triple J down to a recent celebration of two decades of The Hottest 100 and building a loyal fanbase. "We had a huge response to the Hottest 100 20 years campaign in May & June which had everyone talking about their favourite music and turning to Triple J to hear the countdown," he said. "We’ve been very focussed on making sure our programs are great every single day, playing really strong new Australian music and standing out by knowing our stuff, having fun and being genuine. "And we focus across all our platforms – online, on social media, on mobile.

"It all adds up to a broad and loyal audience." Scaddan said Triple J had won increases across the board. "All five cities went up," he said. "It caps off a year of great growth for Triple J nationally where we’ve enjoyed our biggest audiences on record.

"That’s currently 1.832 million listeners per week." Nova 93.7, while sitting in fourth place overall, has achieved its largest-ever audience of almost half a million during the survey period. It’s also the first time the station’s breakfast show, Nathan, Nat and Shaun have retained the number one FM breakfast spot three times in a row. This time they’ve marked a record number of listeners at almost 300,000. Earlier this year, Nathan Morris and Natalie Locke celebrated ten years on-air together.

While the commercial-free Triple J has fewer listeners than other stations, their 'time spent listening' is generally higher than commercial networks, which pushes up their market share. Rockers 96FM have captured the daytime market with number one rankings in the morning and afternoon timeslots. The drive slot, which has become increasingly competitive, is now held by Triple J’s ‘The Doctor’ – Frenzal Rhomb guitarist Lindsay McDougall – for the first time. "The Doctor has been steadily growing his audience all year," Scaddan said.

"Plus our Hack program - 5:30pm weekdays - is a completely unique take on current affairs and daily life, so we’re delivering two strong programs during that period." Nova, 92.9, Mix 94.5 and 96FM are following - all in closer quarters than ever since the departure of Hamish & Andy from daily drive. Southern Cross Austereo general manager Linda Wayman said 92.9’s current drive show was "probably still wearing the impact of Fifi [of duo Fifi and Jules] not being there for a while", following her maternity leave period which was filled by Sophie Monk. It was a lacklustre survey for 6PR, the station which is yet to name a replacement drive host following Howard Sattler’s high-profile sacking. But Fairfax Radio’s Perth general manager Martin Boylen said it was "heartening to see 6PR maintain its audience given the changes we made in the past few months".