KEY POINTS:
Paul Holmes is ending his 20-year stint as Newstalk ZB's breakfast host on a high, with the latest commercial radio survey confirming the network's dominance.
Holmes hailed "wonderful" results which gave him almost 21 per cent of the Auckland breakfast audience, three times more than its nearest rival, ZM.
"It's very nice for me now in my final survey on breakfast and I'm really, really pleased for the company," said Holmes, who hands over to Mike Hosking next month.
The Radio Network-owned station claimed 14.3 per cent of the Auckland market and was the most listened-to network nationally, with 448,500 people tuning in each week, said Research International.
In overall Auckland market share, Coast held on to second place with 8.6 per cent, followed by The Rock which moved up to third place with a 6.8 per cent share.
Nationally, The Edge was second to Newstalk with 424,200 listeners, followed by the Rock with 413,200.
The results brought little cheer for RadioLive, which was outside the top five despite heavy promotion of key hosts, including breakfast presenter Marcus Lush.
Station manager Mitch Harris put the ratings down to "growing pains" after restructuring.
RadioLive was already reaching its 5 per cent audience target in Christchurch, Tauranga and Manawatu, he said.
The survey was conducted over six weeks, sampling 3211 people aged 10 and over.
