Sharp shooting: Probe into Kyle and Jackie O, Hadley’s solution to ebike scurge and the ABC spinner set to leave
Seven weeks into the new radio season and Kyle and Jackie O were already off air. So could the duo find themselves in trouble with the regulator?
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Seven weeks into the survey year and Kyle Sandilands and Jackie “O” Henderson were on leave this week as their KIISFM audience was treated to another week of highlights shows.
The $20-million-a-year duo took the opportunity to escape Sydney – Sandilands to the Central Coast where he recently bought a beach shack and Henderson to Berlin – as the first official survey period of the year wrapped on March 1.
A one-week industry-wide hiatus followed, though Sandilands managed to extend this by calling in sick on February 28. He was also absent three days earlier on February 25.
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The results of the first radio survey of 2025 will be released on March 27, around the time the findings of two historic ACMA investigations into the Kyle & Jackie O show are expected to also be released.
The investigations relate to sexually explicit content broadcast by the duo in June of last year.
The communications regulator last month confirmed it has four investigations underway that scrutinise the often offensive and misogynistic material broadcast on the KIISFM breakfast show.
A further two new investigations were also launched last month on February 7.
These look at possible systemic issues in relation to the decency and complaint handling provision of the Code and also at the compliance of KIISFM owner ARN.
Last year ARN breached the Commercial Code of Practice by failing to respond to complainants.
The Kyle & Jackie O show has previously breached decency standards. It did so twice in 2023 alone with comments about gay men/the mpox virus and paralymians competing in the Tokyo Olympics.
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Last month a belligerent Sandilands told his audience his KIISFM bosses have no control over his program.
“The bosses have no control whatsoever over what we do on this show. Zero. None. Jackie and I … it starts and ends with what we want to do,” the shock jock raged on air.
ACMA came under fire last year for failing to investigate a swath of complaints relating to the show which may dominate the Sydney market but has continued to shed listeners in conservative Melbourne.
In November ACMA’s chair Nerida O’Loughlin told a Senate Estimates hearing the authority received 59 complaints about the program between July and November of 2024.
Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young challenged the ACMA chair saying the material broadcast on the radio show was a “blatant” breach of decency standards.
Biv subject to PR ban?
Two episodes in and fans of BINGE’s The Real Housewives of Sydney are still wondering if Terri Biviano is going to make an appearance.
As reported here last week, the former WAG was missing from the pre-series publicity schedule leaving the other seven housewives to shoulder the PR load.
It prompted claims Biviano had been banned – for reasons best known to program producers and the cast – from giving interviews.
Then out of the blue she gave an interview to The Sunday Telegraph last weekend.
In the interview Biviano offered a series of vague yet grandiose responses to Q&A formatted questions.
Q: Why was she the last to sign on to the season three series?
A: “Would you blame me for not wanting to return? In my real life, I like to surround myself with friends who empower and inspire me.”
Q: Why hadn’t she done any press?
A: “For me it’s not about the five seconds of fame. It’s about integrity and self respect.”
Q: How did she find the first (Biviano-less) episode?
A: “True friendships are not the people who act true to your face. It’s about the people who remain true behind your back.”
Okaaay.
So last week we once again approached the PR reps from production company Matchbox Pictures and streaming platform BINGE with a list of very specific questions about the returning series.
Among these was had Biviano been banned from giving interviews, as we’d been informed. Also, had production staff behind the scenes resigned after becoming frustrated with the cast?
For the second week in a row the reps refused to answer any questions; a very bizarre way to promote a TV series, you’ll agree.
We understand Biviano finally makes her first series appearance this coming week.
Hutton takes swipe at Qantas
Deborah Hutton made a fortune spruiking for Qantas during a lucrative association that lasted 12 years.
However, when her role as paid ambassador came to an end in 2010 and the contracts, said to have been worth six-figures, dried up, so too did the love.
This week the airline’s one-time postergirl published an old photo or herself sitting in the cockpit of a plane with sometime Qantas pilot John Travolta, the airline’s US ambassador, to her social media account.
Accompanying the image was a swipe.
“A step back in time when Qantas was regarded as a premium brand. Fair to say things have changed,” 63-year-old Hutton, the former presenter of Qantas’s in-flight welcome videos, grumbled.
A week earlier the homewares spruiker posted a shot of herself being “#grateful” during a “#time-out” in “#Kohsamui”.
In an attempt to establish if perhaps something went wrong in transit, this column attempted, without success, to reach Hutton for comment.
(It’s possible she hasn’t yet forgiven us for expressing our views on a series of boyfriends she’s had, including her current, yoga guru Andrew Marsh, with whom she’s currently building a house at Wombarra.)
Had Hutton been expecting overwhelming public support for her Qantas put-down, she’d have been taken aback.
“My husband is a Qantas pilot … still trying his best … but you go for gold Deb and kick a crew when they are down,” responded one, diving into Hutton’s DMs.
“I’m sure you got your fair share of free flights,” posted another.
“Qantas is still a great brand,” posted a third. “Challenging time yes but it served you well clearly.”
Hutton’s Qantas take-down is becoming a regular event.
In 2023 Hutton again gave her former employer, who she previously said she loved working for, a spray.
“Syd-Melb … 45 mins late so far and counting …@qantas … 2virginaustralia much better airline,” she posted to Instagram.
Once again Qantas’s supporters leapt to the airline’s defence.
Hutton, who was signed to Qantas when James Strong was CEO, was eventually replaced in 2010 by younger Melbourne model Pia Miller.
Bike beat with Ray Hadley
Two months after signing off from 2GB in December, Ray Hadley made a brief return to the airwaves during the week, if only via Facebook.
The veteran commentator couldn’t help himself after discovering a solution to Australia’s bike-share crisis on the streets of Honolulu.
In a short video, a casual Hadley, who was en route home from Las Vegas, took a crack of Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore and her Gold Coast counterpart Tom Tate.
“Here’s the solution, not a complicated one” Hadley opined on the subject of dockless council bikes left scattered across footpaths or abandoned in parks and garden beds.
“I’m sick of walking the streets of Sydney and falling over these damn bikes. The same on the Gold Coast. Get the people who own the bikes to install racks so we don’t have people tripping ace over apex over the bikes,” he said.
“When you rent them, you tap your credit card. When you put them back in the rack, the rental finishes. If you don’t put them back in the rack you keep paying for it.”
The idea drew plenty of support from the majority of 800+ respondents.
Meanwhile Hadley’s next move remains a hot topic of speculation and his post reignited talk he will soon reveal some career news.
Leys off
This column sends a word of cheerio to the ABC’s Head of Communications Nick Leys, aka Mr Louise Milligan, who is set to depart the ABC for a job in the office of Melbourne Lord Mayor Nick Reece.
After 10 long years in the role, it’s not a minute too soon, as many in the media, and we’re sure Leys himself, will agree.
The forthright and sometimes fiery Leys broke the mould of the usually understated and ice cool comms executives who have long held the job before him.
Leys received a special mention in the ABC’s Antoinette Lattouf unlawful dismissal case last month when it was noted the ABC’s former content boss Chris Oliver-Taylor had been attempting to get presenter Lattouf off the air on December 20, 2023, before The Australian newspaper published word of her sacking.
Oliver-Taylor told the court after taking a call from a journalist at The Australian about the sacking on the day, he directed her to Leys.
Leys will now follow Oliver-Taylor, who resigned from the ABC in January and left last week, out the door of the broadcaster.
Originally published as Sharp shooting: Probe into Kyle and Jackie O, Hadley’s solution to ebike scurge and the ABC spinner set to leave
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