The real reason Kyle Sandilands and his smutty sex talk radio has flopped in Melbourne

It’s not just his potty mouth that’s down the drain, but his radio ratings too. So, what’s the real reason Kyle Sandilands couldn’t land the Melbourne audience after his Sydney success?

The failure of Kyle Sandilands’ potty mouthed KIIS FM show to, so far, bulldoze its opposition in the Melbourne radio market has been put down to more than just the show’s tired, crass and crude content.

The slow start of Kyle & Jackie O has highlighted the quality of radio in Melbourne, with the breakfast FM market showing itself to be far more competitive and of a higher standard than Sydney.

While Sandilands and co have dominated the Sydney FM landscape for almost two decades their show has, at this stage, been met with a combination of outrage and indifference by Melbourne listeners.

Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O were wrong to assume they’d go no. 1 in Melbourne after success in Sydney. Picture: Supplied

OnlyFans interviews, peeing games and dick talk so far has not moved the dial for Sandilands, maybe because Melbourne listeners have a better choice of shows to pick from than their Sydney counterparts.

Radio industry consultant and co-host of the Game Changers Melbourne Radio Wars’ podcast, Craig Bruce, said Melbourne was an “incredibly competitive” radio market.

“Right at the moment I think the quality of shows in Melbourne is definitely stronger than Sydney and I think it has been that way for a while,” Bruce said.

“It is one thing to launch into a new market with a content plan that Kyle would say is not everyone’s cup of tea, but the central question is where are they going to take an audience from.

“Melbourne seems to just be a stronger market and a much harder market to break through in, particularly when you are being beamed in from Sydney and are not really making much of an effort to engage with the Melbourne audience at any kind of level.

“You can’t take anything away from how good Kyle and Jac have been, but they have not had a lot of competition on the pop side (of radio).

“They don’t have a Fifi, Fev and Nick or a Jase & Lauren equivalent in Sydney, there is nothing like those two shows. It is going to be very hard for them in Melbourne.”

Melbourne’s radio market is fiercer than Sydney’s. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

The Fox’s Fifi, Fev and Nick. Picture: Supplied

He said the Kyle & Jackie O Show was lacking momentum.

“To me it seems like (Nova’s) Jase (Hawkins) & Lauren (Phillips) have all of the momentum. This is not an overnight thing either, this has been developing for close to 18 months now,” Bruce said.

“They have essentially had increases for seven or eight (ratings) books in a row, previously on KIIS and now on Nova, so that does not look like that is coming off.

“Fox have been a leading brand in this market for years and Fifi, Fev and Nick have cultivated a really strong connection with their audience and you have Christian (O’Connell on Gold FM) who is world class, and Ross Stevenson (on 3AW) is also world class.

“It is an incredibly competitive market and …. it is a very different market dynamic.

“To be honest it has been happening for a long time where I think Melbourne has been a superior radio market.”

Bruce noted The D Generation, Richard Stubbs, Tracy Bartram and Matt Tilley, Martin Molloy, and Hamish Blake and Andy Lee as iconic radio shows that have emerged from Melbourne in the past 20 years.

In the most recent ratings survey, Sandilands and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson hold 6.1 per cent of the breakfast audience and are fifth in the FM race.

Conversely, the Jase & Lauren Show, which was booted from KIIS at the end of 2023 to make way for Sandilands and his crew, topped the FM breakfast ratings with 9.9.