Radio’s top duo Kyle and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson silence the haters and doubters

At their previous station they were warned their time was almost up, but now Kyle Sandilands and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson are more dominant and more loved than ever before.

Topping the ratings and having the most listened-to podcast in the country is a bit of an “I-told-you-so” moment for KIIS FM duo Kyle Sandilands and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson. And after 23 years on air, they’re happy to say just that.

“You’ve got to remember, we were told years ago over at the other radio station, ‘you guys are just about at the end of your career’ — and I was shocked, we both were,” Kyle said.

“We thought we were not even in the middle of our career at that stage, and then the other mob were winding us up and I thought ‘ah, we best go somewhere else, we might be appreciated’ — and that’s really why we moved.

“And here we are, more than 10 years down the track, with the biggest ratings any radio show has ever had in the history of radio.

“And that’s even before — remember when it was FM and Triple M, there was no Smooth, no Nova — so it’s impressive.”

“There is the sense of ‘you guys were wrong’,” agreed Jackie.

“And that’s nice, in a way, when you get told you’re not going to last, or you’re not going to make it beyond a certain point — it’s nice to prove somebody wrong.”

Kyle and Jackie O have taken out the number one spot in the first ratings period of the year.

The Kyle & Jackie O Show claimed a 15.9 per cent share in the recent survey this week — its biggest share ever, and 1.9 per cent ahead of closest rival 2GB’s Ben Fordham.

It’s the second time in the past three surveys Kyle & Jackie O have been named No. 1, and the third time ever. Their catch-up podcast also attracted a record 1.06 million listeners and 4.7 million downloads across February.

And along with calls of congratulations from Alan Jones, John Laws, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and even “the guy who played Agro”, Ben Fordham called Kyle three times — and when he didn’t answer or call him back, Jackie got a text.

“I’ll read it to you,” Jackie said.

“It said ‘Well done you two, enjoy it. No wonder Jackie can afford a $13m shed’.

“Ben is always lovely when these moments happen.”

Kyle told Insider he would normally send Ben a text when he had beaten him, so he deliberately didn’t send one on Thursday, just to mess with his talkback rival.

“I wanted him to think he’d won — so I didn’t text,” he laughed.

Kyle with his baby boy Otto.

“Don’t get me wrong, I socialise a little bit with Fordham — not often, but he’s a nice guy, a bit of a pest, but he loves sport and I don’t care about sport, but he’s come to my birthday party and stuff, so he’s not like the enemy.

“More a frenemy.”

LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIP

This survey was the first time a new way of recording ratings was used, leaving the pair to wonder if they could have been on top all along, unknowingly.

“It used to be you’d fill out a piece of paper and you’d have to fill it out every 15 minutes, like ‘I’m still listening, I’m still listening’, but now there’s some sort of strap like a watch that picks up who’s listening,” Kyle said.

“It’s a little bit more accurate,” added Jackie.

“So it’s interesting to see that has increased our ratings, and I mean, it could have gone either way, so it’s been nice to see that the first time that they’ve actually put this to the test, it’s been a win for us.”

And after two decades on air together, the pair have had a love-hate relationship, drifting apart when Jackie had daughter Kitty and “Kyle went through his break-up and went crazy”, according to Jackie.

Kyle and Jackie O have survived more than two decades together on air. Picture: Wikipedia

But in recent years, they’ve fiercely reconnected — and never more so than after the birth of Kyle’s son, Otto, last year.

“You know, I was just thinking yesterday ‘oh my God, I’m so lucky that I get to work with this guy who I love so much’,” she said.

“I was going to send you a text and say that but I never did,” Jackie told Kyle.

“Well lucky you didn’t because I would have misread that as a come on,” he joked.

“But it’s true, because I was a fan of Jackie’s before meeting her.

“I was at another station up in Brisbane and when I got the chance to work with her I was in shock, like I was almost paralysed with fear — and you know when you work with someone you admire, you can’t actually act normal?

“And we’ve been there through both of our ups and downs — multiple Jackie’s relationships, divorces — and they seem to be never-ending, like a revolving door.

“But she’s been good for a while, she’s put that vagina on ice.”

Like “an annoying big brother”, Jackie admits Kyle is her gatekeeper, and very protective of his old friend.

“And I do think the audience loves how much Kyle has my back,” she said.

Kyle Sandilands with his partner Tegan, who he will be marring in April.

While they agree their diehard fans have aged with them, there’s also a new generation of listeners who have come along for the ride.

“I think what I have noticed just from being out on the street and who comes up to you the most, I think we’ve got that audience that has stayed with us and grown up with us and are around the same age as us,” Jackie said.

“But what has really become prevalent in these last few years is their kids

“So we grew our audience of 10 to 17-year-olds massively, because they’re in the car, and mum and dad are listening so they then become fans and we’ve got this new generation of an audience that are also fans of the show.

“And thank God that’s happening because it gives us both ends of the spectrum, and you can’t ask for more than that.”

KYLE’S SOFT SIDE

Kyle as doting dad is also drawing people in.

“I think the biggest difference is seeing the change in Kyle,” Jackie explained.

“I think he’s gone from being that wild party boy who only could talk about sex and sex only — and, yes, he does still go there and that side of him hasn’t changed the essence of who he is. However, there’s just an added layer that is really nice to see after all these years.

“People have listened for over 20 years, and they’ve heard Kyle be this one kind of person and now they’re hearing something else.”

Jackie O and Kyle were told that their time was coming to an end at their previous station, but are now bigger than ever. Picture: Supplied

“But you’ve always known I’m a bit more than a guy who just talks about vagina,” Kyle interjected.

“Yeah but it took even me by surprise,” finished Jackie.

“Because I didn’t know how he would be as a father.

“I didn’t know if it would change him, but what has surprised me is how obsessed he is, and how besotted.

“Kyle used to say to me for years: ‘I will never be that person that shows people videos and photos on my phone’.

“And I would say five times a morning, I’m getting videos and photos of an update of what Otto is doing now.

“It’s not too much because I love it.”

Pictures of Otto are a welcome change from the naked pictures of women he used to send, laughed Jackie.

“You know what the big difference is + and yes I am doing all those things that Jackie said — but I’m noticing if there’s a fatal car accident that involves kids or a kid gets burned or a kid gets pulled alive out of the Turkish disaster, I just burst into tears,” he said.

“I’m more empathetic to humanity — I don’t know why, but it’s a real thing.”

Otto has been to work with his dad once, but if Kyle’s too tired to drive into the studio and works from home, the happy baby boy is always there and already a pro, by all accounts.

Jackie O with her daughter Kitty.

“If I’m doing the show from my home studio, Tegan will come in and say ‘I’m just walking down the shop’ and plop him on my lap, and I’m like, ‘I’m doing a national radio show’,” he laughed.

“He’s so good, though,” said Jackie.

“You can tell he knows — he’s already got a radio brain.

“He will literally make noises on command, and we’ll be nearing the end of the break and wrap it up and he’ll stop the cute little noises.”

Jackie, who according to Kyle is the happiest he’s seen her in years — has become more active on social media of late, particularly with 11-year-old daughter Kitty.

But despite the Harry Styles box tickets and allure of celebrity, the near-teen doesn’t always consider Jackie the “cool mum”.

“No,” she laughed.

“Well she does actually … she has been pestering me so much about getting somebody on from her favourite TV show, The Last of Us – I think she loves that side and she’ll go ‘mum, can you get them on, I want to talk to them’.

“So there is an element of like, ‘oh, wow, that’s really cool, what you do for a living’, and her favourite thing is to come into work and hang out, she loves it.”

“Hang out? You put her to work like she’s making Nike shoes in China,” joked Kyle.

But if you’ve seen more of Jackie on TikTok, it’s not Kitty spurring her on, more the other way around – although she’s the perfect person to keep Jackie abreast of the latest trends.

Ben Fordham has been relegated to second in the first ratings period of the year. Picture: John Feder.

“She doesn’t ever ask me to do it – it’s more me saying ‘can you do it’,” said Jackie. “It’s invaluable having a daughter that’s entering her teens, because it does give you an insight and it keeps us informed and not dated, because it’s the new generation of celebrity out there.

“Kids aren’t watching TV shows on commercial TV like we used to – it’s the TikTok stars and influencers and making sure you keep up-to-date with that end of celebrity is important for our show.”

But when is too much social media too much for Kitty? Like all parents, Jackie said it was about monitoring intake.

“And I’m lucky that my daughter doesn’t like to really post anything, she’s more of a watcher,” she said.

“She actually said ‘no, I’m not going to post anything because I know a week later I’ll cringe at myself’, so I’m lucky in that sense. But, in saying that, it’s a scary world out there, with Snapchat especially because they disappear and it’s harder for us to monitor everything that’s going on.”

WEDDING BELLS

With ratings out of the way, Kyle’s wedding to fiance Tegan Kynaston is less than six weeks away, but the self-confessed groomzilla has everything under control.

“I know on this radio show I come across like I don’t really know what’s going on, but in my life and in the business life, I’m looking at budgets all the time, I’m a big creative pest, so I get involved in the wedding invites – they were all me and Tegan loved it, obviously, but it was more me bullying her into what I wanted,” the Australian Idol judge said.

“And everything from the placemats to the napkins to the bands to the marquee to what sort of flowers, I’m all over it.”

Kyle will often do his breakfast show from his home studio. Picture: Supplied

When asked how they manage it all, in true Kyle style he said his key was to outsource, but Jackie said she liked keeping busy, particularly after suffering with her health last year, which saw her miss weeks on air.

“I drive on that sort of stuff, but you also have to have the balance,” she said.

Her welcomed busyness was a new thing, though, according to Kyle.

“A month ago, she loved being lazy … you can tell by the photos, you weren’t doing much – I was like ‘she’s gonna lose this WW ambassadorship, that’s for sure’,” he joked.

“But now you look amazing – I don’t know what you’re doing but it can’t be just one hour of tennis a week.”

“That’s true you know, last year I was so lazy,” the Weight Watchers ambassador admits.

“I’m surprised I didn’t get dropped.

“But it’s a combination of diet, exercise … but to get happy you have to start doing things that you don’t want to do to get to that point.

Kyle Sandilands are now the rulers of Sydney’s airwaves Picture: Supplied

“And it takes a while, but once you’re at that point, you just keep it going because you know those things make a big difference, whether it’s meditation, exercise or eating well.”

“You’re the happiest I’ve seen you for quite a few years — not that you’ve been a miserable bitch, but it’s a vibrancy, an energy,” agreed Kyle.

“Yes definitely I have that all back, and it’s so nice,” Jackie said.

Coming with her new-found happiness is a new home, after Jackie and Kitty bought a waterfront at Clovelly for $13.25m last week.

“I always dreamt of having a house that had a beach view because I love the beach, so for me, that was just such a moment — it was like a real dream come true, something I’ve been working years and years for, and I couldn’t believe I actually got to that point to be able to do it,” she said.

“So you’re not gonna have to sign up to OnlyFans to pay the mortgage?” joked Kyle.

“No, but I’ll have to maybe take on a few extra jobs,” she laughed.

In true Kyle and Jackie O style, the two fight over the best word to describe how they’re feeling after their ratings win. Kyle’s contribution of “orgasmic” was perhaps expected – as was his making fun of Jackie, who had to Google other words for “good”.

“Okay we’ve got some words to replace good here — astounding, astonishing, bewildering, perplexing — no we can’t use perplexing,” she said.

“We don’t even know what that means,” interrupted Kyle.

So how will they celebrate?

“Well, I thought we’d get on the bags, but Jackie’s not into it,” Kyle joked.

A lunch with staff next week was more likely, they said.

STRENGTH IN NUMBERS AS KIIS TEAM OVERWHELMs RADIO RATINGS

The numbers don’t lie in radio and last week the numbers revealed FM radio is dominant in Sydney where Kyle and Jackie O’s KIISFM breakfast show has propelled that station to number one overall.

After an 18-year battle, stealing the lead from AM station 2GB hasn’t come cheap for ARN station KIIS, formerly MIXFM.

Its breakfast show — hosted by two broadcasters earning a record-setting $5m a piece and pulling in a 15.9 audience share — is just the tip of an expensive iceberg.

In addition to their astonishing star salaries, behind the scenes Kyle and Jackie O’s top-rating show also has more than double the staff of its most competitive main rivals.

The Kyle and Jackie O team. Picture: Supplied

Following its ratings victory on Thursday, the victorious KIIS program posted a photo of its 16-strong crew.

It’s a strength of numbers that even put legendary broadcaster Alan Jones’s record-breaking team of 11 (including a driver, at the height of his fame) in the shade.

The KIIS breakfast team photo included the show’s two hosts, an executive producer, producers, digital producers, assistant producers, audience engagement consultants, newsreader and a censor — something other radio teams apparently don’t require.

That crew number far eclipses second-placed Sydney breakfast show employer Nova, which with Kate Ritchie as a new addition, has swollen to 10, something station bosses hope will lift the show’s ratings, which trail the frontrunners with an audience share of 6.9.

Coming in second in the Sydney ratings with a 14 share was Ben Fordham’s 2GB breakfast program which is pulled together by a team eight — one more than the number recruited by third-placed station WSFM, hosted by Jonesy and Amanda, who notched up a 9.5 share.

By comparison Smooth FM’s breakfast show hosted by Bogart Torelli (a 6.5 share) is pulled together by a team of just three.

Over in the morning slot on 2GB, the unbeaten Ray Hadley is produced by a crew of five.

All of which proves in radio there really is strength in numbers.

— Annette Sharp