Kyle Sandilands vows to end ‘boring’ radio in Melbourne

Kyle Sandilands has promised to shake up Melbourne’s “boring” radio landscape, but don’t expect him to modify his show for local ears or buy into the city’s AFL obsession: “I don’t give a f..k about that football.”

Sydney radio superstar Kyle Sandilands has vowed to end boring radio in Melbourne.

Sandilands and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson begin their assault on Victorian listeners via KIIS 101.1 on Monday after months of headlines, hype and consternation from critics.

But Melbourne won’t be the last territory they march into. Other states are in their sights.

“The end of boring radio is the promise,” Sandilands said.

“I am not saying the shows listened to now are no good, they are probably great, but this is like when Netflix started and everyone stopped watching TV.

“I am not really worried about any of the competition, they can do them and we will just come through with a tsunami of difference and then people can decide for themselves what they prefer.”

Melbourne has been good to Sandilands. His wildest time in the city was when he “rooted prostitutes at the Crown with about a kilo of cocaine, well, maybe not a kilo.

“I have never had a boring time there … it is not bad behaviour, it is just yahoos. I am usually in and out.”

He has no intention of buying into Melbourne’s AFL obsession: “I don’t give a f..k about that football. We don’t care about it here, I don’t care about it there.”

He won’t be making regular forays to Melbourne: “I live in Sydney.”

But when he does venture south, he’ll take a private jet.

“I go everywhere on it. Why line up like a donkey at the airport?” he said.

Kyle Sandilands said his career changed when he met Jackie ‘O’ Henderson in 1999.

He is an unabashed Donald Trump supporter.

“I love Trump, Jackie can’t stand Trump,” he said.

“I am a very wealthy man who loves making money. I like to make money. No good spending all the money and taxing everyone through the arsehole.

“Trump is a bit of a loon, let’s make no mistake, I don’t agree with everything he says, but some of it I do.”

And he voted for Anthony Albanese despite his political instincts being Liberal.

“Even though I am a fan of Albanese, I liked him, the man, not necessarily the politics,” he said.

“I thought he was a kind soul, so I voted for him for prime minister even though I am really a Liberal supporter. I am not hard and fast this way or that way. I actually think I am in the middle.”

He has no intention of modifying the Kyle & Jackie O Show to suit Melbourne ears.

“We are very, ‘you get what you get’; if I hate something, everyone will know, if I like something, everyone will know.”

Sandilands and Henderson serve up a noisy, funny, unpredictable and often crass shows from 6am – 10am, five days a week which features a heavy dose of head-spinning listener sexcapades, plenty of crude language, blunt commentary and celebrity interviews.

Sandilands is the king of his ever growing radio kingdom, valuing loyalty and honesty.

A production team of 11, who have character names and regularly appear on air, work daily on the show.

Among the team are newsreader Brooklyn, show director Bruno, executive producer Pedro, producer Intern Pete, and Alfie the barista, along with two censors known as the “fun police.” The show is on a 30 second delay and they are kept busy with the beeper.

Lachy the Geek (“he used to be Lachy the Virgin but he rooted a listener,” Sandilands explained) has been appointed Melbourne producer.

Kyle Sandilands and baby son Otto.

“We have a bunch of weirdos (in the team), every flavour and sexual orientation and god knows what experience, but that sort of reflects society to me,” Sandilands said.

Sandilands said his show was drastically different to anything heard in Melbourne.

“The Melbourne breakfast shows are pretty high quality, but they just don’t really do what we do, but neither does anyone else in Sydney,” he said.

“Everyone is talking for three minutes – ‘I found this bit in the paper’, the funny girl says something, the other guy (laughs) ‘It is 20 to 7 at the Fox’ – that is their formula. We don’t have that formula. Jackie does not find anything in the paper, we don’t cut it out and read it out and make a joke, we just chat amongst ourselves.

“We are like a bunch of naughty friends who get together every month. You know those naughty friends — you get together and you have the best time in your life with? That is what it feels like we do most mornings.”

He acknowledged his show would have to knock off current No1 FM breakfast team — Fox’s Fifi, Fev and Nick — to be top dog in Melbourne, something he is confident can happen by the end of the year.

“Fox are the incumbent, they have been there the longest, and they are a fine show but when I listen to them I think ‘that is sort of like what we were doing 20 years ago’,” he said.

Sandilands revealed taking Kyle & Jackie O national was a key part of the negotiations for the $200 million, 10-year deal he and Henderson signed with ARN, the parent company of KIIS FM, last year.

He confirmed that radio rival Southern Cross Austereo made a bid for their services, in fact matching the ARN offer, including the proviso that their breakfast show be networked into Melbourne and elsewhere.

“I pushed it hard, I believe the show should be fully national in every capital city,” Sandilands said.

Kyle & Jackie O will hit Melbourne airwaves on Monday. Picture: ARN

“You know the only reason I think it did happen (KIIS networking the show to Melbourne) is that Austereo (SCA owner of Fox FM) came back to us before our contract ended and offered us exactly the same thing that KIIS is giving us, to come and do it in Melbourne and Sydney and Brisbane and everywhere — so maybe they don’t have a lot of faith in their own show, because we were offered their job.

“We would have blown up everyone, but we stayed here (at KIIS) because we like this brand, this brand is a little cooler. This company has been fantastic. We have that iHeart platform which is worldwide and we liked it here.

“It (broadcasting into Melbourne) was going to happen one way or the other, with this company or the other.”

SCA refuted Sandilands claims on Saturday, throwing its support behind Fifi Box, Brendan Fevola and Nick Cody, the hosts of its Fox FM Melbourne breakfast show, Fifi, Fev and Nick.

“While we never discuss the nature of any talent contractual conversations, importantly, our hugely successful breakfast talent on The Fox, who are currently Melbourne’s number one FM breakfast show, are on long term Melbourne breakfast show agreements that have been in place for a while, and our ongoing firm commitment to this show has always been and remains unwavering,” SCA chief content officer Dave Cameron said.

Henderson and Sandilands have copped plenty of criticism about the grubby language that peppers their show, with radio veterans Neil Mitchell and Steve Price among those unenthused about them being networked into Melbourne.

“The funniest thing is Neil Mitchell, the 3AW guy, I heard some audio a while back of him going ‘Well, I would not listen to him in a pink fit, it is just not my cup of tea,’ but the guy has been ringing relentlessly every day to get me on his podcast,” Sandilands said.

“Steve Price, he is a very strange operator. When Steve Price got done for DUI (on a Vesper in Sydney in 2007) we had him on the air, because I am a very big believer in second chances.

“I am no friend of his, did not even know him, but we still stood by him (and did) not jump on board and kick him to death, and then when Pricey had the opportunity to return the favour he decided to say I was a big buffoon that should not be listened to.”

Sandilands is very much living his best life having come a long way from driving the 4TO Townsville station promo car in 1992. Meeting Henderson in 1999 was his career turning point.

Sandilands said a rival came hard, but sticking with KIIS was a no-brainer in the end. Picture: ARN

“I never thought I would be good enough to even get to the Gold Coast, so meeting Jackie, that was a weird pairing in the beginning, it was almost on a whim,” he said.

“One of our managers said ‘you can go down to Sydney and see how you go with Jackie’. We just got on pretty much immediately.

“I was making a lot of errors on the first night. (I) hung up on Victoria Beckham six times, live, not on purpose, all because I did not know what I was doing.

“By the next night it was all fixed and I was flawless.”

The pair have hosted night and drive shows and have dominated the Sydney breakfast shift since 2005. They were Sydney’s top rating breakfast team with 16.1 in the most recent radio survey.

The show is not bound by a strict programming structure, making it surprising and fluid.

“We are taught as radio announcers wrap it up in three minutes and play the five minute ad break and I have always thought that is weird, because radio ratings are done every 15 minutes,” Sandilands said.

“So why would you talk for three, then have a five minute ad break and then a three minute song? I would rather talk for 18 minutes, get them across two survey book ticks and it is more free flowing and real life conversation.

“Imagine if you had to have every conversation with your friends for only three minutes, we would never get any meat out of the conversation.

“The show used to be a lot about current music, but the music is there more as an addition, like icing the cake. It is really not about the music anymore, it is about the content of the conversation or the game.”

He admitted he would have liked to have launched into Melbourne in January, but had to wait for the new Kyle & Jackie O Sydney studio to be finished.

He and Henderson will launch off ratings of 6.4 per cent in the Melbourne shift.

“There is no guarantee of success,” he said.

“We hope that like everywhere else that has decided to listen, that they (Melbourne) will enjoy it and embrace it.

“If anything we have had time to dress up for this date with our Melbourne audience.”