Kyle and Jackie O take on Jase and Lauren as Melbourne radio wars hit the awards stage

The battle for bragging rights in Melbourne's radio wars will move from the studio to the stage as Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O take on Jase Hawkins and Lauren Phillips for a prestigious title.

The battle for bragging rights between three of Melbourne’s biggest radio shows as well as The Kyle & Jackie O Show moves from the studio to the awards stage with the teams thrashing it out for one of the radio industry’s most prestigious titles.

Carrie Bickmore and Tommy Little, hosts of the Fox FM drive show Carrie & Tommy, Jase Hawkins and Lauren Phillips from Nova’s Jason & Lauren show, Christian O’Connell from Gold’s Christian O’Connell Show, Kyle Sandilands and Jackie Henderson, hosts of KIIS FM’s Kyle & Jackie O Show, Ryan Fitzgerald and Michael Wipfli from Nova Sydney’s Fitzy & Wippa show and Brendan Jones and Amanda Keller from WSFM’s Jonesy & Amanda show will square off against each other in the fight for the Best On Air Team gong at the Australian Commercial Radio Awards in Sydney on Saturday night.

Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O have failed to make their mark with Melbourne audiences.

The award sees Hawkins and Phillips going head to head with Sandilands and Henderson for the title after their Jase & Lauren Show was dumped by KIIS FM to make way for the Kyle & Jackie O Show to occupy the KIIS Melbourne breakfast shift.

Quickly picked up by rival station Nova FM, the Jase & Lauren Show has easily out rated the Kyle & Jackie O Show in Melbourne this year.

It is very much a battle for bragging rights between the Jase & Lauren and Kyle & Jackie O shows rather than a critique of their head to head rivalry in the Melbourne radio market given the eligibility period for this year’s ACRAs spanned April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024.

Hawkins and Phillips started on air at Nova on March 8 and Sandilands and Henderson launched into Melbourne on April 29.

Melbourne listeners have backed Jase Hawkins and Lauren Phillips from Nova 100. Picture: Supplied

Sandilands influence on this year’s awards stems from the success of his show in the Sydney market where it is consistently the top rating FM breakfast show, compared to Melbourne where his show languishes in seventh place with a 5.2 audience share.

Melbourne’s Fifi Box, co-host of Fox FM’s Fifi, Fev and Nick breakfast show, is in the running to take home the Individual Talent of the Year award.

Also nominated in that category are 2GB’s Ben Fordham, Gold’s Christian O’Connell, Kate Ritchie from Nova Sydney, 2GB’s Ray Hadley, Nova’s Ricki-Lee Coulter, WSFM’s ‘Ugly’ Phil O’Neil and KIIS FM’s Jackie Henderson.

O’Neil is Henderson’s ex-husband.

Tommy Little and Carrie Bickmore are also nominated for best on-air team.

In her first year as host of 3AW drive, news breaker Jacqui Felgate has been nominated for Best New Talent On Air. Other nominees include Nova Adelaide’s Andrew ‘Hayesy’ Hayes, 2GB’s Chris O’Keefe and Gold’s Mary Argall.

Melbourne radio legend Neil Mitchell has landed three nominations – Best Current Affairs Presenter, Best Talk Presenter and Best Podcast By A Radio Show. In the Best Talk category Mitchell is up against 3AW’s Tom Elliott who took over as the station’s Morning host after Mitchell relinquished the seat at the end of 2023.

In the podcast space, Tony Armstrong could cap a huge year by winning the Best New Talent title.

Should he win the category it will give him a unique double, in that he won the Logie Award for best new TV talent in 2022.

Meanwhile entertainment greats Hamish Blake and Andy Lee are nominated for Podcast Hosts of the Year and Podcast Of The Year.

Originally published as Kyle and Jackie O take on Jase and Lauren as Melbourne radio wars hit the awards stage