Radio’s multi-million dollar man, Kyle Sandilands, has declared he will stop networking The Kyle and Jackie O Show into Melbourne if ratings do not improve by the end of the year.
The broadcaster made the comments on his KIIS FM breakfast show this morning saying: “Just get one thing right here, and I’ve told our management this, we’re not going to super-serve Melbourne and ignore our Sydney audience.”
Sandilands continued: “Listen to this, here’s something I haven’t even discussed with Jackie, if we don’t rate better by the end of this year, I’m pulling the carpet out. I’ll just take the show off Melbourne”.
The declaration was met with laughter by his co-host Jackie ‘O’ Henderson, who said: “Settle down. Geez, you go from zero to a hundred quick”.
His comments come on the eve of the release of the national radio ratings, the second survey of 2025, and one advertisers will be keeping a close eye on to see if his networked show has finally gained traction in Melbourne.
Struggle street
In 2023, the broadcasters signed a massive $200 million joint deal with the Australian Radio Network (ARN) to remain at KIIS for another 10 years.
Part of the deal included networking their Sydney-based breakfast show into Melbourne.
That occurred in April of last year to much fanfare, but listeners were overwhelmed by the sexual content and it is currently ranked fifth with a market share of just 5 per cent. In Sydney, the pair have a winning 13.5 per cent share.
The show enjoyed a slight increase in the first survey of 2025 recording a 5.1% share.
Earlier this year, Henderson admitted the show was struggling to find its place in the highly competitive market.
“We launched into Melbourne, obviously, and it didn’t go gangbusters straight away,’ she said.
“And I think people are nervous to ask me about that, because maybe they associate that with a loss of pride or something. But Melbourne not being a success instantly is weirdly a good thing for us,” she added.
Live and local-ish
Meanwhile, ARN’s original decision to network show has come under even greater scrutiny, after the company’s chairman, Hamish McLennan, spoke publicly about importance of live and local content.
In an interview with ABC Radio National’s MediaLand, McLennan defended the move, pointing to the local news and production staff supporting the show in Melbourne.
“We have local news, we employ people right across all of our networks in those markets,” he said.
Hamish McLennan.
McLennan also tackled the issue of the pairs failure to launch with surprising honesty.
“I think in some regard, the guys pushed the envelope too hard … Melbourne is a distinct market, and we haven’t got the content platform right,” he said.
But he was quick to defend the pair saying that “at the end of the day Kyle and Jackie O are performers”.
He also had this message for listeners who were unhappy with the show’s content: “turn the dial off”.
But if the show’s Melbourne ratings continue the same trend across the next seven months, and Sandilands’ threat hold true, maybe the network will do the job for listeners themselves.