Both 666 ABC and Mix 106.3 have new presenters in the crucial breakfast slot, 2CC has a new drive presenter and the monitoring of Canberrans' radio listening habits will go for longer throughout the year.

New provider GfK will conduct two rather than three ratings surveys in Canberra covering 24 weeks of the year, a big jump from the previous eight weeks monitored.

The first Canberra radio ratings survey starts in mid-February, with the results to be released on April 30. Some listeners will also be recruited online and asked to fill out an e-diary, another first for the national capital.

In the meantime, MIX 106.3 starts its new breakfast show on Monday, with Kristen Henry replacing Carla ''Biggzy'' Bignasca, joining returning presenter Rod Cuddihy.

Sydney broadcaster Philip Clark starts the 666 breakfast shift on January 20, replacing long-time presenter Ross Solly. Luke Bona has already replaced Mike Welsh on drive for 2CC. Lish Fejer will also take on the Sunday shift on 666.

Canberra FM Radio general manager Eoghan O'Byrne, who oversees MIX 106.3 and the national capital's number one station, FM 104.7, said the new ratings system would ''give a better indication of what the market is doing''.

Mr O'Byrne said ratings were still important in the ACT, a market in which the two big commercial FM stations, under one owner, were usually only ever challenged by 666 ABC Canberra.

''There's no room for complacency,'' he said. ''We're in a really great position having the two FM licences in the same building, but at the end of the day we're targeting different demographics. We really want to be number one in the 18 to 39-year-olds on 104.7 and MIX needs to be in number one to 35 to 54-plus.

''Our friends at the ABC are a great product as well and even though they're non-commercial I see them as a competitor. We all want to identify with the community.''

Mr O'Byrne said he was confident Henry and Cuddihy had the essential chemistry because they had been friends for years. Henry worked as the Canberra FM news director before spending a year with a sister station in Newcastle.

''The dynamic between them already exists, it's not something we pushed together, and I think it will go from strength to strength,'' he said.

''Scotty and Nige [from 104.7] have got that, they're great friends and you see that with people like Hamish and Andy, when you've got friendship that's the first box you need to tick. And from there, it's just like two people on air having a chat.''

ABC local content manager ACT Andrea Ho said Philip Clark was due to arrive in Canberra next week, ahead of taking on breakfast, which has the big audiences and sets the agenda for the day.

''I'm quite confident that Canberra listeners will like Philip because he's smart, he's funny, he's a nice bloke. And he loves Canberra, which is really great too,'' she said.

''It will take a little bit of time for people to get to know him and people will spend a bit of time missing Ross, I'm quite sure about that as well. But Philip doesn't want to be another Ross, he wants to be his own person.''

Ms Ho said the longer ratings periods would give a better indication of audiences throughout the year.

''I think it's going to be really interesting to see what the results will be under this new system,'' she said. ''It's harder to influence when you're in survey for a longer period.''

Ms Ho said the ratings were important to the ABC.

''We obviously don't use ratings to sell advertising because we don't have any but it's one of a number of external measures to chart how we're going with the audiences. It's not the only one,'' she said. ''But that's as important for us as it is for anyone else because we need to know we're meeting the audience. We are providing a civic service to people with taxpayers' money, we need to know how we're going. So, of course, it's important to us.''

Michael Jones, general manager of AM stations 2CC and 2CA, said the change in the breakfast lineups elsewhere might be a plus for its established breakfast presenters, Mark Parton in 2CC and Chris Tennant on 2CA.

''When there's flux in the other programs, there's always opportunity there,'' he said.

Mr Jones said he believed Luke Bona had been embraced by listeners on 2CC drive.

''I think we're going to have some really good results,'' he said.

But he didn't anticipate major changes with the new system.

''The FMs have got that under-40s market sewn up and we really focus on the over-40s market. So amongst the commercial stations, it's just at the fringes where we get a bit of audience crossover.''