Kyle, Jackie O’s former producer blasts ‘incompetent’ bosses

Two months after quitting his “stressful” gig, Kyle and Jackie O’s former executive producer has unleashed on his old employers.

Kyle and Jackie O’s former executive producer has blasted his ex-KIIS FM bosses, calling them “incompetent” and accusing them of lying to him about his workload.

Pedro Vitola, who quit his job a couple of months ago after nearly two years as EP, let rip at ARN (the company that owns KIIS FM) management in the latest episode of his podcast, I Wear the Pants.

“In my opinion … certain people in management were incompetent when it came to dealing both with the show and the people,” he said.

Mr Vitola accused ARN management of getting “too involved in the show”, which he says created an “us versus them mentality” between those running the radio network and those actually working on the popular breakfast show.

MORE:Jackie O: My ‘soulless’ $11m deal during addiction

“Instead of me focusing on the show and creating great content, I felt like I was spending a lot of time just cleaning up their (management) mess,” he said.

One of Mr Vitola’s main grievances had to do with the way he said management handled Kyle and Jackie O’s expansion into Melbourne in April this year.

“There were no actual content producers added to the roster,” he said on I Wear the Pants.

“I know people say, ‘oh, this show (already) has 20 producers, you’ve got a mega team and there’s so many people,’ (but) trust me, it’s understaffed.

“We were already under the pump when we were just the Sydney (breakfast) show, so imagine going into a new market and management wanting big ideas and moments every day … with the same team we had in Sydney.

“You’d think they’d hire experienced, innovative content producers to match the workload they wanted, but that never happened.”

Kyle and Jackie O have a large team of producers.

News.com.au understands ARN did bolster the show’s producing team at the start of the year, adding three extra team members including Kyle’s manager, Bruno Bouchet, who came on board as “show director” having previously been the executive producer several years ago.

Mr Vitola claims ARN management assured him that his workload would not increase as a result of the show broadcasting into Melbourne as well as Sydney.

“We were told as the team that the only thing we were going to do for Melbourne was lift the fader up,” he said. “But in reality, I reckon my workload went up by 10 times.”

Mr Vitola claims he asked his radio bosses for a pay rise due to the increased workload, which was denied.

“From that moment … you’re just working with resentment,” he said. “You lied to me, you hoodwinked me, and now you want me to work a hundred times harder? No, thanks.”

The whole saga added to Mr Vitola’s stress, and he recently chose to quit his job months before his contract was due to come to an end.

“The moment that I handed in that (resignation) letter, that weight that came off my shoulders was incredible,” he said on I Wear the Pants.

News.com.au reached out to ARN who declined to comment.

Pedro with Hasbulla during his KIIS FM days.

Kyle and Jackie’s relationship with management

Last year it was announced that Kyle and Jackie O had signed a 10-year deal with ARN worth an incredible $200 million, which will see them remain on KIIS FM until the end of 2034.

But as Kyle has previously pointed out to news.com.au, just because the pair signed with ARN does not mean the company has complete control over the radio show.

“What people need to understand is Jackie and I actually own our show, and just like a cleaning service, ARN employs our company to execute the show, so we are actually our own bosses,” he said in 2022.

Having said that, ARN management is rumoured to have pushed for certain changes to be made to the show this year after a somewhat disappointing start in Melbourne.

The Kyle and Jackie O Show is the number one FM breakfast show in Sydney, but in Melbourne it’s languishing in sixth place, a result that’s partly been blamed on the show’s risqué content.

Kyle and Jackie are arguably Australia’s most successful radio duo ever.

ARN’s chief content officer, Duncan Campbell, told RadioInfo in October that management had requested the content be toned down.

“The show was overly sexualised,” Mr Campbell said last month. “Kyle’s realised that, and we’ve made the change there, which is a positive.

“The graphic sexual content’s gone. But it will take time for the audience to pick up on that perceptually and change.”

How does Kyle feel about that?

“They’ve (ARN management) tried to come up with a new slogan here to trick people,” he said on air last month. “The slogan is ‘less filth, more fun’.

“In real honesty I couldn’t give a s**t,” Kyle continued. “You either like this show or not, I don’t care.

“As far as I’m concerned, we’ve got 10 years to make it work before the next deal.”

Originally published as Kyle, Jackie O’s former producer blasts ‘incompetent’ bosses