Melbourne radio duo Jase and Lauren return to air after brutal axing

Aussie radio stars Jason Hawkins and Lauren Phillips returned to air with a rival station Friday, and they let rip over their brutal axing in favour of Kyle and Jackie O.

Australian radio duo Jason Hawkins and Lauren Phillips defiantly returned to air at a new home on Friday, and they let rip on their past employer over their brutal axing last year.

The Melbourne breakfast hosts, previously with KIIS FM for the Australian Radio Network (ARN), found themselves on the chopping block in November amid Kyle Sandilands and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson expanding their Sydney show on a blockbuster 10-year deal.

At the time Sandilands and Henderson signed their $100 million individual contracts on-air, Hawkins and Phillips were telling Melbourne listeners on the same network they’d found out only hours earlier they were getting the boot.

In February, it was announced Nova had picked up the Jase and Lauren show for Nova 100’s new breakfast show, which will see them go head-to-head with Sandilands and Henderson once the Kyle and Jackie O Show hits Melbourne airwaves soon.

To kick off their show’s launch Friday, which includes Nine presenter Clint Stanaway as newsreader, Hawkins hit out at ARN for how the station handled their firing, suggesting he had “good friends” who didn’t loop him into what was happening.

“It was pretty personal for me, on a number of scales,” Hawkins said.

“I had good friends that were working behind the scenes in my management. I knew people at the old radio station who were quite high up. And yes, it was pretty personal.

“It was a really s**t feeling last year. It really was.”

Jase and Lauren returned to air Friday at their new Nova home.

The Melbourne radio duo hit out at their previous employer.

Phillips added she watched as her co-host’s “spirit changed”.

“I think because we weren’t spoken to about it. It was like we were being spoken about, but no one spoke to us,” she said.

“So we were all a bit like no … Really?”

Hawkins said the “real sting” from the saga was being “replaced by a show networking from Sydney.”

“Melbourne deserves better,” he said. “It was how it was handled. And not just for us, but everyone that worked on the show.”

It comes after Sandilands’ extraordinary rant ahead of Jase and Lauren’s Nova debut, in which he said the pair’s yet-to-air show was the “sh***est in Melbourne”.

“There is a lot of chat down in Melbourne (about) the breakfast show that we are replacing (on KIIS Melbourne), Jase and Lauren, quite a good show, but it only ever rated fifth or, I think, fourth, so it was not making any money,” Sandilands said on-air Thursday.

“So what did Nova do? Nova fired their breakfast show which was the worst rating show in Melbourne and bought the fourth worst show in Melbourne and Jase and Lauren are going there.

“We could really care less, this show will dominate regardless.”

Kyle and Jackie are soon to start broadcasting in Melbourne.

Jase and Lauren, in fact, were the city’s second most listened to breakfast show on the FM dial in the final ratings survey of 2023.

Hawkins and Sandilands have had beef in recent months, with Sandilands calling Hawkins “a dog” in October. The outburst came after Hawkins had days earlier claimed the shock jock used to be a stoner.

The two men shared a house in the early 2000s after Hawkins made the move from Triple M in Brisbane to 2DayFM in Sydney, where Sandilands brought him over to the network to answer calls and be the program’s stunt guy, “Labrat”.

On Thursday, Sandilands conceded Hawkins was still a friend despite tensions.

“Don’t forget Jase was my protégé,” he said.

“I taught him everything he knows. A lot of slave work was also part of that protégé scheme. He had to live with me and I did treat him like a personal slave.

“They put that other flop from the Weekend Today show, he is going to read their news over at Nova. So what is his name Cl*t, Cl*t, Cl*t Stowaway?

“Well good luck to them. It is the sh***est show in Melbourne and that is why it got replaced (on KIIS).”

Sandilands and Henderson are set to announce the airdate for their Melbourne launch on March 12.