ABC News‘ Facebook page hacked, Kyle Sandilands unable to broadcast remotely due to internet outage, Christian O’Connell on loop on the iHeart Radio App, and it’s still only January.

While I have no doubt the shows and networks above will be doing their own investigating of how and where things went wrong and it has been so very hot that back end systems may simply not be coping, there are other behind the scenes changes at play too that are worth a mention.

Whoever was responsible for yesterday’s (Tuesday January 28) hack of ABC News’ Facebook page to a cover photo of adult content creator Bonnie Blue (main image is the blank before the ABC replaces with their regular banner) and images that included one of our Prime Minster Anthony Albanese mid democracy sausage certainly knew both Australian pop culture and how best to stick it to ‘Australia’s most trusted news organisation.’ The broadcaster has of course commenced an investigation and may find the perpetrator rather close to home, instead of overseas bots. Bots wouldn’t know what a democracy sausage is.

Then, this morning, Kyle Sandilands was off air after an internet outage didn’t allow him to join the show remotely, which got a lot of media coverage. ARN‘s other Sydney and Melbourne breakfast show hosted by Christian O’Connell, was also glitching on the iHeart Radio App, repeating segments of audio in a loop. When I tried to listen from my home, not in Sydney or Melbourne, I couldn’t get the app to play at all.

Last week Steve Ahern wrote for this publication that ABC Radio stations will not be heard on ARN‘s iHeart Radio App from February 4.

An ABC spokesperson said:

“The ABC is undertaking a planned review of how its live radio services are distributed on some third-party platforms, as part of ensuring a reliable and consistent listener experience.  

“ABC audiences will continue to be able to access all ABC stations via ABC listen and across key connected devices and third-party platforms.”

All have been affected by outcomes which don’t demonstrate reliability, consistency or trustworthiness, which is not how any of them will have wished to start a new year, and in Christian O’Connell’s instance, the early days of a launch into Sydney. Live to air broadcasting from analog and digital transmitters remained reliable.

ARN’s website is outdated too. Their podcast page still features Brittany Hockley and Laura Byrne (see above), who officially launched on SCA‘s LiSTNR today, and when I tried to seek out Christian on DAB last week and today the link still doesn’t take me anywhere. I all the more understand why Kyle and Jackie O delayed their Sydney launch from the start of the year to April.

Also of note is that LiSTNR, the platform that SCA built from the ground up rather than any sort of license agreement, and that marks its 5 year anniversary next month, launches it’s own brand campaign today too, “What Aussie ears want to hear”. It’s all about timing.

Radioinfo also went down last night, a result of our own bot attack, but fortunately without strange images added to our Facebook page or audio loops.

There was a huge spike in activity around 10pm (see above) and clearly we weren’t the only media outlet affected over the last 24 hours. Maybe Australian media in general is a target for mischievious attacks.

This has rather galvanised predictions for 2026, as a result of the above but also from what I’ve seen in the response and from other comments and interaction online. This is a year for a revaluation of the basics.

How important it is to have access to live and local radio immediately. Real people and voices not fauxcasts (fake podcasts) or perfectly edited prerecords.  People will examine what they hear, see and read for AI elements and seek out the opposite. Nine radio talk stations 2GB, 3AW, 4BC and 6PR start to look undervalued (financially and emotionally) indeed.

I welcome your thoughts on 2026, AI, tech outages and the value of live and local radio. You can email me via [email protected].