Alan Jones tells Kyle and Jackie O they deserve ratings success

Alan Jones shot down suggestions from Kyle and Jackie O he could return to the 2GB brekkie show he hosted for 19 years in a bid to revive the station’s flagging ratings.

Alan Jones has officially handed the baton to Sydney’s new number one breakfast radio duo of Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O Henderson.

While not ruling out a return to radio himself, Jones graciously commended the KIIS 106.5 hosts on their hard work to become the king and queen of the airwaves.

“You people work hard, you put on a good product and so at the end of the day, the public respond,” Jones said. “You’ve been at it for a while, you know what you are doing. It is a good show, lots of laughs, a lot of entertainment, a bit of information, that is what it is all about.”

Alan Jones at his home in Sydney. John Feder/The Australian.

Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O are King and Queen of the airwaves.

Some might see Jones’ comments as a dig at 2GB’s Ben Fordham, who replaced him on the AM dial in June, 2020. At the time, Jones had been the number one breakfast host for a record 226 consecutive surveys.

Earlier this month, Sandilands and Henderson trumped Fordham as the top radio show in Sydney with a 15.5 per cent share of the breakfast market, a jump of 2.6 percentage points on the previous ratings survey. Fordham’s show slumped 0.2 of a percentage points to a 13.3 per cent share of breakfast.

Sandilands meanwhile said John Laws, another radio industry veteran at 85 years of age, called to congratulate the pair and suggested he would be keen to team up with Jones.

“It is a very good idea,” Jones responded. “The three of us could do it.”

Anointed.... Jones at his Southern Highlands home with Ben Fordham.

Jones now hosts a nightly TV show on Sky News Australia. Asked if he missed radio, he said: “I think you have greater scope in radio, there is a lot more stuff you can do.”

He continued: “Television is a much tighter format and we are Sky News so it is predominantly news whereas I think I have got a lot of other interests as well, which I used to like discussing with my audience.

“In a sense I think once you’ve been in it as long as I have been in it, I suppose part of it is still there. But I enjoy what I am doing. It is a good intellectual challenge and I think you’ve got to keep that going, that is the key to being with it in the world.”

Jones however said there was no chance of him returning to 2GB breakfast.

“Not threatening you two at number one slot,” he said. “I mean seriously, you’ve worked too hard to have that prestige challenged so readily.”

Much of the almost 15 minute interview was devoted to Jones’ views on the global pandemic and the current Sydney lockdown.

Sandilands and Henderson trumped Fordham as the top radio show in Sydney.

With the construction industry grounded for the next fortnight and many industries on their knees due to the increased restrictions, Jones called on NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian to freeze her pay.

“The first thing Gladys & Co ought to do is to say today, ‘Okay, I will forego my salary because I am telling all of those tradies out there to go without income,” Jones said.

“They have got no money. They can’t get any income. They don’t know when they will be allowed back to work and Gladys goes on collecting $400,000 a year. Righto Gladys, all you lot, you are making the rules, you play by the same rules as you are asking them to play by. No salary, no income until all of this stops.”

At one point, Jones also had a dig at Sandilands weight.

“I shouldn’t say this, no I won’t,” he started before continuing: “Kyle I was going to say a big factor in all of this is obesity.”