Update 12/8: ARN has confirmed that “Mix 106.5” Sydney will relaunch as CHR “KIIS 106.5” on Monday, January 20.
In addition to Kyle & Jackie O hosting mornings, the duo will host an hour long program at 6pm that will be syndicated to sister stations in Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide.
The Press Release announcing the launch of KIIS 106.5 follows:
The wait is finally over.
After months of speculation and the game-changing news that Kyle & Jackie O will have a new home in 2014, Australian Radio Network are proud to confirm their new Sydney radio station, KIIS 1065.
Launching on January 20 in line with Kyle & Jackie O’s first day on air, this is the biggest radio launch in Australia of the past ten years.
Of the country’s newest radio station, ARN’s National Content Director Duncan Campbell says; “We’re building a station specifically for Sydney that will be energetic, cheeky, fun, and reflect the best that Sydney has to offer.”
ARN’s Chief Executive Ciaran Davis adds; “Just as Kyle & Jackie O have made the change to KIIS 1065, we’re confident that the listeners and advertisers of Sydney will make this bold move with them, while the fans of Mix will enjoy this fresh new change.”
“The addition of KIIS 1065 dramatically strengthens the network. It augments the overall scope of our listeners. We’ll still be reaching our same core demographic but also broadening the audience overall.”
And in a move set to delight Kyle & Jackie O fans from around Australia, 6pm each weeknight will also bring the breakfast stars back with The Kyle & Jackie O Hour which will broadcast to the ARN markets of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide.
“This means not only will Kyle & Jackie O be reaching a wide audience, ARN will now have the potential to truly dominate the 25–54 demographic across the KIIS, MixFM and Classic Hits brands”, continues Davis.
With Sydney’s #1 Breakfast team for 51 consecutive surveys confirmed to anchor the station, along with their 6pm hourly show, the full KIIS 1065 on-air line up will be announced shortly.
Original Report 11/17: Clear Channel’s Australian Radio Network could be on the verge of bringing the KIIS-FM brand to the Southern Hemisphere.
Following word that CHR “104.1 2Day-FM” morning hosts Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O are departing the station at years end, rumors have been floating throughout the Australian media that the duo will soon make ARN AC “Mix 106.5” their new Sydney home.
Last week Radio Today reported that ARN was considering “Kiss” and “Kiis” for a potential rebranding of Mix 106.5 as well as its sister station in Melbourne.
The Australian reported today that domain names for Kiis and Kiss were registered by ARN subsidiary Speedlink Services last week. We can add that domains were registered not only for 106.5 in Sydney and 101.1 in Melbourne, but also for ARN’s “Mix” network stations on 97.3 Brisbane, 102.3 Adelaide, and 106.3 Canberra as well as for Rhythmic CHR “Edge 96.1” Sydney, Classic Hits “101.7 WSFM” Sydney, and Classic Hits “Gold 104.3” Melbourne.
The full list of domains registered so far are: KIISAus.com.au, KISSAus.com.au, 1065KIIS.com.au, 1065KIISFM.com.au, 1065KISSFM.com.au, KIIS961.com.au, KIIS973.com.au, KIIS1011.com.au, KISS1017.com.au, KIIS1023.com.au, KISS1043.com.au, KIIS1063.com.au, KIIS1065.com.au, KIISFM1065.com.au, KISS1065.com.au, KISS1065FM.com.au, and .net variations of each.
Clear Channel owns 50% of Australian Radio Network, but has been working to expand its brands in the country. It has recently launched IHeartRadio in Australia and features On-Air With Ryan Seacrest on the Mix stations.
Meanwhile, playing into the rumors surrounding the station, Mix 106.5 hyped a major announcement all weekend for Monday at 8:00am. Instead of making any announcement regarding the potential changes, Mix morning co-host Yuni Stynes revealed she was pregnant.