Battle of Melbourne breakfast radio spills on to city streets
A bus from radio station KIIS — plastered with pictures of Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O — has tried to crash a Nova event at South Melbourne Market, as the breakfast airways war heats up.
Fiona Byrne
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The battle of breakfast radio spilt out on to Melbourne’s streets with a KIIS bus plastered with giant headshots of Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O Henderson trying to crash a Nova event at the South Melbourne Market.
The Saturday showdown developed as Nova’s Jase Hawkins and Lauren Phillips prepared for a live cross to the Today show. As they waited for the cross the bright pink KIIS bus — which has been decked out as a mobile studio for the Kyle and Jackie O team — came around the corner and crept along Cecil Street. The timing seemed too good to be true.
The bus lingered at the roundabout before doing four more laps of the block as Hawkins and Phillips met hundreds of listeners. The pair are on a mission to shake the hands of 10,000 Nova listeners as part of thanking Melbourne for supporting them after they joined the station in January.
“Jase and I know we’re extremely lucky to get to wake up with Melbourne every morning, so this is the perfect opportunity for us to say thanks, give out some cash and also see so many parts of our beautiful city,” Phillips said.
Hawkins and Phillips landed at Nova after they were jettisoned from KIIS to make way for Sandilands and Henderson who begin broadcasting into Melbourne from Sydney at 6am on Monday.
The gloves are very much off in the highly competitive FM breakfast space.
Fox FM’s Fifi, Fev and Nick show launched its Secret Sound competition on April 16 with $100,000 up for grabs.
Perhaps not by accident, KIIS’s Kyle & Jackie O revealed on Wednesday their new $150,000 competition, The Noise, would be kicking off on Monday.
To win listeners have to guess the (secret) noise … Is it just me or does this sound very similar to the secret sound?
On Friday, Fox upped its Secret Sound prize to $150,000. Game on.
While Sandilands and Henderson are not in Melbourne, their bus will be lapping the city like an oversized mobile billboard for the next few days.
Meanwhile, Fifi Box, Brendan Fevola and Nick Cody also appear to have a branded bus.
As well, they have a glossy new TV ad in which they zip around on motorbikes, Box in particular making a statement in tight black bike leathers.
Can we expect to see Sandilands and Henderson in leather on two wheels next?
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