Annette Sharp: ARN staff sweating over contract renewal in light of Kyle and Jackie O pay demands

Staff whose contracts are about to end at KIIS radio’s host company ARN are sweating over news that costs may be cut to fund Kyle and Jackie O’s monster pay deal, writes Annette Sharp.

Retaining and pleasing breakfast stars Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O, whose monster proposed new 10-year $200m contract was revealed in The Saturday Telegraph yesterday, has been a top priority for the duo’s bosses for years.

In 2021, the KIIS duo’s host company, ARN, negotiated to buy a network of regional radio stations, Grant Broadcasters, for $307m.

For that sum, ARN could expand their almost exclusively metropolitan operations into 46 new regions nationally, something that would give ARN chief executive Ciaran Davis the means to deliver on promises made to Sandilands and O about broadening their audience nationally.

Staff formerly employed by Grant were initially retained after the deal was finalised, but according to industry sources they can be retrenched from January 2024 following a two-year employment guarantee.

This would potentially represent a fiscal saving that might go into the pockets of Sandilands and O, or so fear employees.

Kyle Sandilands and Jackie Henderson at his 50th birthday bash. Picture: Instagram

Insiders on Saturday said staff brought over to ARN following the Grant deal are now sweating as they wait to learn their fate.

In 2021, Alison Cameron, then chief executive of Grant Broadcasters and now a director of ARN’s parent company HT & E, reassured staff their jobs would be safe.

“We had discussions about (job security) with Ciaran (HT & E boss Ciaran Davis) during the merger and I know that ARN is not looking at sackings,” she said.

“Their philosophy is that our family will become part of their family.”

Davis too, at that time, claimed job cuts were unlikely.

“We are not looking to cut costs, we are looking to expand revenue by increasing advertising to nation,” Davis said.

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