Kyle Sandliands: ‘We told 2DayFM to go f**k themselves’

Kyle and Jackie O have set the record straight on the rumours a rival network was offering mega bucks under the table while publicly backing their own under siege stars.

Love them or hate them, Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O rule the FM airwaves in Sydney. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

SUCH is the polarising nature of Kyle Sandilands, many stories about the shock jock start with the same cliched introduction: “Love him or hate him…”

There are only a handful of media personalities in Australia who stir up the same type of emotion and outrage as this 45-year-old radio veteran, every controversial word that comes from his mouth converted to news copy within minutes of hitting the airwaves.

Sandilands is acutely aware of the haters but doesn’t really care.

Sandilands doesn’t care for the haters. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

“There are three types of people,” he tells Insider.

“Those who are into what you do, those who aren’t, and those that hate you. That’s just the way it is, regardless of who you are. Jesus has the same problems,” he laughs.

Co-host Jackie ‘O’ Henderson is sitting opposite Sandilands during an exclusive chat with Insider and almost chokes on her coffee at Sandilands’ self-comparison to a higher being.

“For the record, I did not compare myself to Jesus — that was Kyle!” she says.

On air or off, Sandilands unapologetically says the first thing that pops into his head.

This filter-less approach is part of the reason he and Henderson have reigned supreme on the FM airwaves in Sydney for so many years. Despite the howls of disapproval from some, the pair have a ton of loyal disciples.

Henderson was shocked when her co-host compared himself to Jesus. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

The Kyle and Jackie O Show is a big deal.

The truckloads of advertising dollars the duo bring in can help make or break the network lucky enough to host them — or hapless enough to lose them.

Just how important they are is apparent when you walk into the Australian Radio Network offices in northwestern Sydney.

Three of ARN’s on-air studios — WSFM, The Edge and KIIS — are all on the same floor. As you walk past the first two during the lucrative breakfast hours, you notice a few producers per broadcast running the show.

Trek a little further down the corridor and you enter a whole new world where a huge team of producers keeps the machine well fed. It’s probably just an illusion but the computers look faster and the carpet looks cleaner down their end of the building.

Even the coffee cups from the rooftop cafe have Kyle and Jackie O’s faces on them. It’s not hard to pick who the favourite child is in this family.

The pair have been doing their thing for more than a decade and show no signs of slowing down. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Sandilands and Henderson have only just started a new lucrative five-year deal that is rumoured to have netted them at least $2.2 million a year plus ratings-based incentives.

In the first radio survey of the year, the pair were again firmly on top of the competition in the FM breakfast wars. 2GB held on to its stranglehold of the overall morning slot, and should increase its share after the return of Alan Jones after a period of illness.

There have been reports that former network 2DayFM threw huge amounts of money at the duo to return after the disastrous appointment of breakfast hosts Rove McManus and Sam Frost, who failed to attract listeners and were punted to a one- hour evening show late last year.

Sandilands confirms the rumours, saying his former employer was publicly backing McManus and Frost while simultaneously offering big bucks for the proven duo of Kyle and Jackie to return.

“They offered us huge money to go back there and we told them to go f**k themselves,” he says.

“I’m reading articles from their management saying they’re going to stand by Rove and Sam when I’ve got offers on the table to go and replace them, so I don’t trust that. I don’t like that sneaky behaviour.”

Many of the pair’s former colleagues at 2Day have since defected to ARN, Sandilands says.

“It was like a bloody Mexican drug tunnel of people just popping up here,” he laughs.

Henderson and Kyle are happy at KIIS FM. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

There’s no chance of a return to 2DayFM, Sandilands says. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Em Rusciano and Harley Breen have recently been installed as the fourth breakfast team in as many years at the station in what has become a cursed timeslot for the network.

While Henderson believes there will be a day when the 2DayFM breakfast slot turns its luck around, Sandilands thinks the writing’s on the wall.

“In my heart I say it’s impossible — they’re f**king finished. They are,” he says.

He maintains this merciless front even when confronted with talking about his mates.

The celebrity set in this country is pretty small so it’s inevitable that Sandilands and Henderson will sometimes be forced to discuss sensitive issues involving their friends.

“It does get tricky when you have to separate radio and your friends because over the years we’ve developed friendships with a lot of these people and a lot of the time you might get a Karl Stefanovic story that crosses your desk and you think ‘do I avoid doing that story?’,” Henderson says.

The duo have just started a new five year contract at KIIS. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Sandilands has no such qualms.

“Oh, I never think twice about running a Karl story, I’ll run that no problem,” he laughs. “I feel for him as a mate, but I did talk about it on the air then I read out a message on the air that he sent me and he thought that was crossing the borders.”

But there’s only one interview he actually regrets doing and it happened just this week. It was an chat with close friend Mel B’s brother-in-law who shared a little too much about the couple, who recently announced they were getting divorced.

Sandilands says he has held off messaging his former Australia’s Got Talent co-star because he ‘hasn’t got around to it’, but Henderson says the real reason is he‘s terrified of the reply.

“Yeah, I was too scared, she’s Scary Spice for a reason — because she’s f**king terrifying when you’re on the bad side of her,” he admits.

Love them or hate them, Kyle and Jackie O won’t be changing anytime soon.