Kyle and Jackie O’s shock move: How the duo pulled off their defection from 2Day to KIIS

For the first time, Jackie O has gone into detail about how she and Kyle negotiated in secret to defect to a rival radio network.

Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O after pulling off their radio defection. Picture: James Croucher

Jackie O has revealed how she and Kyle Sandilands pulled off one of the most shocking moves in Australian radio history.

After a decade of unprecedented success hosting the 2Day FM breakfast show (which is a Southern Cross Austereo station), the duo blindsided their employers at the end of 2013 and announced they were jumping ship to rival station Mix 106.5, which was being rebranded as KIIS FM.

Speaking to Osher Gunbserg on his Better Than Yesterday podcast, Jackie O explained in detail how Kyle orchestrated the bold move and described the “furious” reaction from her 2Day FM co-workers when their defection was announced.

“In radio you don’t leave negotiations until November when your contract is expiring in December,” Jackie O said. “The fact that no one (at 2Day) had come to us with a contract by October (2013) spoke volumes to us.”

Behind the scenes of the Kyle and Jackie O Show at 2Day FM

At the time, Kyle and Jackie O were the number one FM breakfast show in Sydney and had been for more than six years.

“They came with a contract but by then there was a lot of things we had heard that had been said behind the scenes about us, that we were on our way out,” Jackie said. “They were still wanting to sign us, but when you hear things from people that suggest we’re on our last legs, you then start to think, ‘What do we do from here?’

“Kyle called me one night and said, ‘I’ve got an idea. What about we go to Mix FM and we rebrand it as KIIS?’”

Jackie assumed Kyle was “in one of his moods” and went along with what he was saying, with the belief he’d have forgotten about it the next day.

But a month later she received another call from her radio offsider.

“Kyle said, ‘I’ve just gone in and I’ve told them I’m resigning (from 2Day)’,” she recalled on the podcast. “He goes, ‘We’re going to Mix, babe’.

“I was furious. I broke down in tears. I said, ‘Kyle, I’ve just signed a mortgage and I have not spoken to one person at Mix. I don’t know what’s going on. Do they even want us or is that a figment of your imagination? Do they want to rebrand to KIIS? That’s a big deal. A station rebrand is a very expensive thing!’

“I was petrified. It gave me no choice, I had to resign as well. I’m not going to stay and do a show without Kyle.”

RELATED: Bachelor winner’s X-rated sex confession on Kyle and Jackie O

Kyle and Jackie O with Guy Sebastian on their last day at 2Day FM in 2013.

A week later Kyle arranged a secret meeting with Ciaran Davis, the Australian Radio Network CEO (which owned Mix), and the national content director Duncan Campbell at a hotel boardroom in Sydney

“They gave us their word about how much the contract was going to be and we shook on it,” Jackie told Osher. “I was sh*tting myself, I really was. It was too much for me, I don’t like this kind of drama.”

Kyle and Jackie O’s contract to host the KIIS FM breakfast show from 2014 onwards was top secret, and they managed to convince their 2Day FM co-workers that they were both giving up radio rather than jumping ship as they finished out the year on the station that had been their home for so long.

“A couple of execs in there (2Day) were questioning, ‘Why would you just resign and quit and leave radio when you two love radio so much?’” Jackie recalled.

One 2Day exec had even heard a rumour that the radio stars were moving to Mix FM (which was rebranded as KIIS) and asked them about it point blank.

“She said, ‘Are you going to Mix? I want you to swear (on someone’s life)’,” Jackie said. Without missing a beat, Kyle replied, “I swear on so and so’s life that we will not ever be on air at Mix,” Jackie said on the podcast. “He’s not telling a lie. He knew it was going to be changed to KIIS.

“This content director went around and told everyone, ‘I know for sure they’re not going anywhere’. They were all very pleased.”

Late in November 2013, Kyle and Jackie O farewelled their listeners for the last time on 2Day FM.

RELATED: The one stunt Kyle and Jackie O were banned from doing on air

Kyle and Jackie O’s last day on air at 2Day FM.

The station threw a huge farewell party for them.

Their co-workers were under the assumption the duo were also saying goodbye to radio, but just 10 minutes after their final show aired, ARN went public with the news they had signed Kyle and Jackie O.

“Oh god, it was just horrible,” Jackie told Osher about her last day at 2Day.

“Everyone from every floor at SCA (Southern Cross Austereo) had come up to watch our last show … Everyone was there with a big farewell party for us.

“As Kyle came out of the studio to hundreds of people clapping, Kyle said, ‘I’m just going to the loo, I’ll be back in two seconds’. Well, he just exited and was out of there.”

But Jackie felt bad and decided to stick around and thank her co-workers. Then the news broke.

“Suddenly, I look around and people all have headphones on,” Jackie said.

At the farewell party, word spread like wildfire that ARN had just announced on air that Kyle and Jackie O were defecting.

“Simon Greally, our EP (executive producer) at the time, said, ‘Jackie, you need to get out of here!’ As I was walking out of the building they were ripping down our posters. They were furious,” Jackie recalled.

In 2014 Kyle and Jackie O started broadcasting their new breakfast show on KIIS FM and they were uncertain if their listeners would follow them to their new station.

But they did.

RELATED: Kyle apologises for ‘disgusting’ Virgin Mary comments

Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O celebrating being the number one FM brekkie show in Sydney in 2014. Picture: James Croucher

When the first round of radio ratings were released in 2014, Kyle and Jackie O were still the number one FM breakfast show in Sydney, a title they still hold today.

“Thank God for Kyle because he makes these big moves,” Jackie said on the Better Than Yesterday podcast. “He makes big moves and again this one paid off for us.”

As for 2Day FM, the breakfast slot has never recovered since Kyle and Jackie O’s departure. It’s been dubbed “the poisoned chalice” of radio with six breakfast shows in six years being axed from 2Day FM due to poor ratings, the most recent being Grant Denyer, Ed Kavalee and Ash London who were sacked last month.