Kyle & Jackie O are an almost daily presence in the Australian radio trades. When the often-controversial morning show switched radio stations from Sydney’s 2Day FM to the then-just-relaunched KIIS 106.5, it immediately propelled that station to the lead in the market’s three-way CHR/Adult CHR battle.
In Australia’s second book of the year, released on April 20, the duo set a record for most listeners in a single market (854,000) for a second consecutive month. The show’s share was actually down slightly, although that was from 15.9 to 15.1. Notably, the full morning show remains a local Sydney program, although there is a 6 p.m. “Hour of Power” broadcast across owner ARN’s other “KIIS”-branded stations.
Duncan Campbell, Chief Content Officer of ARN, helped bring Kyle & Jackie O to KIIS. He was also responsible for the hire of Christian O’Connell from the UK’s Absolute Radio for mornings at Classic Hits Gold 104.3 Melbourne, resulting in another double-digit morning show. Campbell will be one of the featured speakers at the first Radiodays North America, to be held in Toronto June 8-9.
I took a Fresh Listen to Kyle & Jackie O on the week leading up to Kyle Sandilands’ wedding, scheduled for Saturday, April 30. On the day before, KIIS will give away “Kyle & Jackie O’s $50K Bouquet” at a local venue. On Wednesday morning, listeners were calling to qualify for a chance to catch the bouquet. KIIS was also giving away a chance to “Fly to the King’s Coronation” in London.
In the 8 a.m. hour on Wednesday morning (26):
- Jackie did a tarot card reading for Kyle’s wedding. She determined that none of the guests were secretly in love with him (or his fiancée), and that Kyle would not cry. There was, however, she said that a guest would fall off a balcony. She also predicted that his fiancé Tegan Kynaston might fall asleep before sex on the wedding night.
- The team qualified a half dozen callers for the “bouquet” event, including one woman who was coming back to the same venue on Saturday for her own wedding (to take place at the same time at Sandilands).
- Jackie had a nearly 10-minute entertainment segment, completely different from the one in the previous hour, including speculating on the on-set chemistry between Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney. When Jackie dismissed those rumors by comparing them to the never-borne-out Bradley Cooper/Lady Gaga speculation after “A Star is Born.” That led Kyle to remark, “I hated that movie and all those songs . . . as soon as ‘The Hangover’ was done, he meant nothing to me.”
- There was a 10-minute-plus interview via Zoom with Vanderpump Rules reality TV star Lala Kent who, despite ample beef with other cast members, did not hesitate to attend a cast reunion. “We were all so desperate [for attention,] it’s like ‘there’s a camera? We’ll be there!’”
- Australian radio doesn’t have the language restrictions North Americans are used to. Kent asked if she could curse on the radio, but chose to say “mind-F,” instead of the actual word. Sundilands had no such compunction, and there are moments when the show brings to mind the raunchiness of U.S. morning radio in the days before Howard Stern left for SiriusXM.
O’Connell’s show had an 11.1 in the April ratings, making it the No. 1 music show in that daypart. (N/T 3AW has more than a 20-share). On his show at 7 a.m. on the same day:
- Listeners called in to talk about their hometowns on the “1,043 suburbs of Melbourne” including one that had the worst traffic circle (actually three that are interlocked) and another with the “fastest-rising creek.” (“That is some flex,” O’Connell deadpanned.)
- O’Connell’s daughter has tonsilitis. That led to a nurse calling in to discuss what exactly tonsils do, then trying to explain the uvula. “Have you never laughed enough that water comes out of your nose?” she asked. “Not on this show,” a team member responded.
- The tonsil discussion prompted a follow-up to a previous bit about listeners with extra body parts called “I’m freakin’ unique.” One listener explained that his two ears were different from each other—one more resembling his mom’s feature, one his dad’s. O’Connell feigned outrage when a producer played a snippet of “Super Freak.”
- The morning show was qualifying listeners for O’Connell’s “Movie Marathon,” similar to a “hands-on-the-car” promotion where listeners would try to be the last one awake at a movie theater. Callers were asked what movie they loved enough to watch for 48 hours straight.
ARN’s Campbell is just one of many international speakers slated for RDNA, an offshoot of the well-respected, well-attended Radiodays Europe convention. Other speakers include keynote interviewee Tom Poleman, Daniel Anstandig, Dennis Clark, Valerie Geller, James Howard, and Steve Jones. See a full schedule here.
