‘He agreed to do that, he wants to win in Melbourne’: KIIS boss says Kyle Sandilands will cut the smut in 2025
Millions of dollars were spent launching Kyle and Jackie O into the Melbourne radio market, but the duo have so far failed to make a dent – even repelling many who don’t want sex talk over breakfast.
As ARN’s chief content officer Duncan Campbell tells Mumbrella, even Kyle agrees it might be time to tone it down.
Kyle and Jackie O have been on air in Melbourne since late April, and are currently ranked eighth in the breakfast radio ratings, with a modest 5.1% audience share.
Worse, their share seems to be slipping: the first full ratings book they were on air for saw them take a 6.1% share, which dropped to 5.2% the following survey, and again to 5.1% in the latest survey this week.
When Mumbrella spoke to ARN’s chief content officer Duncan Campbell in August, Kyle and Jackie O had just won their 45th FM breakfast survey in a row in Sydney – but fumbled the ball in Melbourne.
The desperation is palpable.
There is no (graceful) plan B now that the commitment has been made invest $200M and roll these two out across the Nation. And unfortunately for ARN, according the breakfast ratings, the K&JO show seems to have already peaked in Sydney, which begs the question.. If the K&JO smut was the only thing propping up the Sydney ratings, what happens when they gentrify it for the Melbourne market. ARN have now put themselves into an almost impossible position imo.
Can someone explain to me what Ciaran Davis has achieved at ARN
No Shareholder Value – A1N down over 40 %
25-54 ratings nationally are abysmal
SCA takeover a complete failure
No movement in Radio share as chair of CRA
100’s of redundancies – via poor employment decisions at senior management level
The Board continues to believe the snake oil salesman and shareholders should be screaming for change
Very optimistic outlook above. The mood of Melbourne isn’t ambivalent it’s openly hostile to presence of K&J, gonna take a lot more than a modest shift in tone and some marketing I’d hazard to guess
If I wanted to listen to a talentless hack with a god complex I wouldn’t have moved away from my former housemate.
I only listened once to gauge the show and will never listen again no matter what they do…for parents taking lids to school in the morning it is totally unacceptable to have this crap on the radio…go Jase and Lauren….
Rather than cut the smut ,Kyle’s program would probably do much better in Melbourne if the network simply cut both Kyle…and Jackie…and got the previous presenters back. These two no-talents from north of the Murray have already proven that they can not compete in a market where the competition is tougher and the standards are higher. Nothing complicated about it. I can only assume that the powers that be are airing Kyle’s mess in Melbourne as a tax write off. Kyle and Jackie are about as “funny”as a serious outbreak of cholera and as “interesting” as a boring collection of sea shells. What have Melbourne listeners done to deserve this terrible punishment? Please stop.
I absolutely love the Kyle & Jackie’O show.
If you don’t like it then don’t listen it’s that simple. If boring G – rated radio is what you like then GREAT, that’s fine go listen to it and stop ruining it for everyone one else!!!
Shout out to Kyle & Jackie’O, im in Melbourne and love the show cheers!
It’s like Trump— you just can’t figure out how he’s getting away with it— or how the Prime Minister is considering inviting him to his wedding. I suggest Elbo actually listen to 5 minutes of the show before he sends out the invite.
Yep, i turned off a long time ago. Will the adult in the room please stand up, we can all be smutty – but ALL THE TIME? YEAH, NAA.
Kyle get paid big all he does is bag everyone , hardly entertaining
Congrats Melbournians. Sandilands is offensive. A mea culpa to gain some traction won’t work. Leopard/spots.
I think it is time for them to hang up the mic. They are so irrelevant. We want entertainment, not rich people with connections (how else are they getting these deals) telling us their opinions.
They’re too well known and too synonymous with Sydney to relaunch, people have an opinion on them already.
Their show is obviously a non listen to anyone with kids in the car or at the breakfast table. Parochially Melbourne people hate the arrogant Sydney people who thought they could just show up and grab the crown. The Melbourne radio audience are either old fuddy duddies listening to the AM dial or conditioned to expect NICE people on the radio. I can’t remember the last FM show that did well in Melbourne that you wouldn’t categorise as nice.
Should bite the bullet, refocus on Sydney, and find someone young, cheap and nice for the Melbourne market.
Kyles fortunes seemed to have fallen in the same trajectory of the PM they latched on to each other after the election thinking it was a savvy move. That was always a poor judgement. Now albo is on the nose and the KJO radio show has sailed with him. Always pick your friends carefully.
They’ll end this ratings and financial disaster at the end of financial year 2025. Sydneysiders will start to lose interest too, after realising what failures they have been in Melbourne.