Triple J’s grip on the youth market has taken another blow with its Melbourne audience share in the key 18-24 age demographic dropping 5.2 points, from a 14.4 per cent share to 9.2 per cent in the fourth radio survey of the year.

In the same period and demographic segment Smooth added 4.6 points, to climb to a 12.2 per cent share of 18-24-year-old listeners, while Triple M added 2.8 points (from 4.4 to 7.2 per cent) while Fox increased by the same margin, lifting its share of the 18-24 demo from 10.7 to 13.5 per cent.

Across the board, Triple J’s average audience in Melbourne dropped from 23,000 to 19,000 listeners, a 17 per cent decline.

Its cumulative audience – a measure that counts as a listener anyone who has tuned in to a station for eight minutes within a 15-minute period at any time during the week – dropped from 624,000 to 548,000, a decline of 12 per cent.

The biggest drop in terms of total numbers came in the 25-39 demographic, where 66,000 fewer people listened to Triple J in Melbourne in this survey period, from April 17 to June 25, than in the last one.

The radio survey blues aren’t confined to the ABC’s youth network, however. The national broadcaster’s grip on older listeners was also loosened with ABC Melbourne dropping marginally across the board, down from a 7.3 per cent share of the week to 6.9.

Troublingly, the biggest dip came in mornings, where Virginia Trioli’s show dropped from a 9.4 per cent share to 7.5 while rival Neil Mitchell on 3AW (owned by Nine, which also owns this masthead) climbed from 17.5 to 19 per cent. Only Ross Stevenson and Russel Howcroft on AW’s breakfast slot, with a 19.1 per cent share, did better.

In terms of audience numbers, the dip was even more marked, with Trioli losing an average 18,000 listeners, down from 71,000 to 53,000.