Breakfast
Argentinian soccer fans sit for breakfast inside a camper vehicle set up on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro June 17, 2014. Dozens of camps of mostly Argentinian soccer fans are lined along Copacabana beach, as fans follow their national soccer team around the match venues for the 2014 World Cup. REUTERS/Pilar Olivares (BRAZIL - Tags: SOCCER SPORT WORLD CUP SOCIETY)
Argentinian soccer fans sit for breakfast inside a camper vehicle set up on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro June 17, 2014. Dozens of camps of mostly Argentinian soccer fans are lined along Copacabana beach, as fans follow their national soccer team around the match venues for the 2014 World Cup. REUTERS/Pilar Olivares (BRAZIL - Tags: SOCCER SPORT WORLD CUP SOCIETY)

The latest ratings released on Tuesday, July 8, named ABC broadcaster Red Symons as Melbourne's new king of breakfast radio. He overtook two long-time breakfast radio hosts by getting 17.2 per cent share.

In contrast, Ross Stevenson and John Burns of 3AW got 16.6 per cent share each.

In the FM band, topnotcher is Eddie McGuire's Hot Breakfast on Triple M with 8.5 per cent share, followed by Chrissie Swan and Jane Hall of Mix FM with 7.3 per cent each. Swan and Hall were the number 1 in the previous survey.

In the top 5 for the FM band are Fifi Box and Dave Thornton of Fox FM in third place with 7 per cent share, Brigitte Dulos and Anthony "Lehmo" Lehmann of Gold in fourth place with 6.5 per cent share and Tommy Little and Mishell Laurie of Nova at fifth place with 6.3 per cent.

In the AM band, in third and fourth places are John Faine, talkback host of 774ABC with 14.2 per cent share and Neil Mitchell of SAW with 13.8 per cent share.

For the Brisbane radio market, topnotcher is pop music station 97.3FM, which increased its overall listenership to 15.9 per cent in the fourth ratings survey of 2014, higher than its previous 13.4 per cent rating.

Also big winners are breakfast talk hosts Robin, Terry and Bob of 93.2FM who got 14 per cent rating, overtaking Ash, Kip and Luttsy of Nova.

The Brisbane survey covered 2,000 homes in the city, measuring six-week blocks.

Radio fans, however, are no longer limited to broadcasts from AM and FM bands. There are newer sources of audio broadcasts such as podcasting, digital radio and those that use digital platforms like those provided by Audioboom Group PLC (LSE: BOOM.L).

Audioboom offers a Software-as-a-Service platform that allows straightforward upload or download of content. It has positioned itself as the global leader in spoken audio content, or the audio equivalent of the YouTube, the most popular video sharing site.

The UK-based publicly listed company is the provider of social media platform for audio producers to record either live or from the studio, upload and share audio by syndication and social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

By tapping these social media sites, audience reach expands dramatically since the popular microblogging site and favourite social media site have millions or even buillion of followers in different parts of the world.

At present, Audioboom has about 2,000 content channels from the initial 19 channels during the platform's launch in March 2013, said Rob Proctor, company CEO. Audioboom currently has 2.5 million registered users and 12 to13 million monthly active users across platforms.

The regular surveys confirm that the AM and FM bands could thrive in the age of digital radio and podcasting as well as SaS platforms that broaden the reach of talk show hosts, especially during breakfast time.