Ray Hadley suffers devastating ratings blow for first time in decades

Ray Hadley suffers devastating ratings blow for first time in decades

• Outgoing talkback king drops to third place in latest radio ratings
• Popular WSFM duo Brendan Jones and Amanda Keller rise to top spot
• Kyle and Jackie O take out breakfast show crown again in Sydney
• Controversial combo fail to gain any further traction in Melbourne market

The once unbeatable titan of talkback Ray Hadley will wrap up his long-running career at 2GB on a low note after being knocked off top spot in the ratings for the first time in two decades.

The veteran broadcaster's morning show slipped to third place in the latest radio survey, released on Thursday, bringing to an end his record-setting reign in the critical Sydney timeslot stretching back to 2003.

Brendan Jones and Amanda Keller's hit morning program, Jonesy and Amanda, on Pure Gold Network's flagship WSFM outlet took out pole position after attracting 12.7 per cent share of the available audience after lifting 0.5 percentage points.

Hadley had enjoyed an unbeaten 160 ratings survey run until this week when his show dropped 1.3 percentage points, pulling in 11.1 per cent share, coming third after smoothfm 95.3 with 11.2 per cent of the audience.

The shock result comes just one week after Hadley announced he was hanging up his microphone with 2GB for the final time at the end of the ratings season on December 13 despite having two years left to run on his multimillion-dollar deal.

The drop will create major headaches for Nine Radio's senior executives who are already anxious about retaining Hadley's audience in the highly profitable 9am to 12pm stretch.

The slip up also comes at a critical time for 2GB with talkback upstart 2SM's new owners planning to take advantage of the dominating station's vulnerability to try to attract a large chunk of Nine's radio audience and ad revenue.

The low-profile station's management has already been in talks with a bunch of former 2GB stars about joining the outlet, in a move that would pit them against their old paymasters.

Former 2GB hosts Chris Smith, Jason Morrison and Deb Knight have all been spotted at 2SM's Sydney headquarters, along with former Seven breakfast television star Melissa Doyle.

Elsewhere, in the tightly contested Sydney breakfast show timeslot 2GB's Ben Fordham finished runner up again to Kyle and Jackie O, though the duo failed to make any further in-roads in the Melbourne market with their audience share stagnant at around 5.1 per cent, well behind 3AW's 20 per cent.

Daily Mail Australia revealed that, within hours of revealing he was retiring from Nine Radio, Hadley was spotted in secret talks with Sky News Australia about a potential move to the political news channel.

Sources said Hadley arrived at the news channel's Sydney HQ for the covert chat on Thursday night last week after most of the broadcaster's staffers had already headed home for the day.

He then spent more than an hour in deep conversation with the News Corp-owned network's chief executive, Paul Whittaker, and head of programs, Mark Calvert.

Sky News Australia insiders said the network was determined to lure the award-winning broadcaster - and his loyal audience - with Whittaker personally rolling out the red carpet for the potential marquee signing.

Although it is understood Hadley's contract precludes him from appearing on a rival radio network, sources said he could be free to join Sky News Australia under the terms of the agreement as the television channel does not directly compete with Nine Radio.

Any deal between Hadley and the network would likely see him taking a break over the summer to spend time with his family before commencing on-air duties in the new year.

Sources said Hadley's strong political views actually meant he had long been more in step with Sky News Australia's sensibilities than those of Nine and would be a natural fit for the network.

There are suggestions the potential deal could also see the rugby league commentating great continue calling football games for Fox Sports.

Sources within Nine have said the network's executives would be looking to an established radio star to replace Hadley in the highly competitive timeslot.

Fordham has emerged as one of the early favourites to be given the task of winning over Hadley's audience having successfully replaced Jones at the equally important breakfast show timeslot four years ago.

The only drawback is that the network would then have to find a replacement for the award-winning Fordham at breakfast.

Mark Levy, who currently hosts the evening Wide World of Sports show six nights a week, is another key contender, while there is speculation the station could even attempt to poach the Jonesy and Amanda show.