Kyle, Jackie made ‘unforgivable’ mistake in 2024, says radio expert

This year was meant to be the year that Kyle and Jackie O conquered Melbourne radio, but it didn’t turn out that way. So what went wrong?

It’s safe to say that 2024 was not the year that Kyle and Jackie O were hoping for.

In April, their incredibly successful Sydney breakfast show started airing on KIIS FM in Melbourne as well.

Kyle predicted it would be the number one FM breakfast show in the Victorian capital by the year’s end. He was wrong.

In the year’s final round of FM radio ratings released on Thursday, The Kyle and Jackie O Show finished in sixth place in Melbourne with a 5.0 per cent market share.

MORE: Jackie O: My ‘soulless’ $11m deal during addiction

The show has on average 404,000 listeners in the city, a drop of 24,000 since the previous round of ratings.

That’s a long way behind FM market leaders Jase and Lauren from Nova, who have an audience share of 11.5 per cent with 717,000 listeners.

It’s a pretty remarkable result for Jase Hawkins, Lauren Phillips and Clint Stanaway, who were axed from KIIS FM in Melbourne last year to make way for Kyle and Jackie O’s push into the city.

They were then offered a lifeline by Nova, and have flourished ever since.

It wasn’t all bad news for Kyle and Jackie O though.

They’re still the number one FM breakfast show in Sydney with a 13.5 per cent audience share, miles ahead of their nearest FM competitor, WSFM’s Jonesy and Amanda, who have a 10.5 per cent share (Ben Fordham’s 2GB breakfast show is number one overall when taking the AM dial into account).

Kyle and Jackie O are two of the best broadcasters Australia has ever produced.

But you would have to assume that Kyle and Jackie would be disappointed with their lacklustre result in Melbourne.

So what went wrong?

“I would say there are two main points,” Craig Bruce, host of the Game Changers Radio: Melbourne Radio Wars podcast, told news.com.au.

“Firstly, the show’s content was unlistenable for six months. The language and the sexual themes were appalling. How it was allowed to continue for that long is a question that someone needs to answer for.

“Secondly, hubris,” Mr Bruce said. “Kyle hasn’t been to Melbourne (this year) and doesn’t intend to. Jackie has been there once this year.

“The idea that they could launch into a market of five million people and not make an effort to understand the city is unforgivable.”

ARN (the company that owns KIIS FM) remains positive about Kyle and Jackie O’s ratings in Melbourne, with chief content officer Duncan Campbell telling Mumbrella in August they had made tweaks to the program to make it more palatable.

“We believe, with the removal of the graphic sexual content, the show’s much, much easier to listen to now. But that takes time to change perceptions, obviously,” he said.

Clint Stanaway, Lauren Phillips and Jase Hawkins host the number one FM breakfast show in Melbourne.

But Game Changers host Mr Bruce is not convinced Kyle and Jackie O can bounce back in Melbourne in 2025.

“It’s unlikely,” he told news.com.au. “The narrative is now set for them in Melbourne. They launched as outsiders and that’s how the people of Melbourne now see them.

“Let’s not forget that the show they replaced is now the clear number one FM in Melbourne. Jase and Lauren are at the start of something really special, and I think their best is still ahead of them.”

In late 2023, Kyle and Jackie O signed a massive 10-year deal with ARN worth $200 million.

There’s speculation the game-changing contract will see The Kyle and Jackie O Show rolled out nationally on all KIIS FM stations in the coming years.

But it’s unclear if this year’s results in Melbourne will affect that plan.

As for Kyle, well, he seems fairly unbothered by all the attention on the show’s ratings.

“In real honesty I couldn’t give a s**t … You either like this show or not, I don’t care,” he said on KIIS FM a couple of months ago.

“As far as I’m concerned, we’ve got 10 years to make it work before the next deal.”