Saturday October 26 wrapped up the reporting period for GfK radio survey 7, which will be released on November 14. It was also the end of KIIS 1065 and KIIS 101.1‘s breakfast hosts Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O‘s biggest week of impact on air which, I believe, will start to turn the tide for their Melbourne ratings.

A recap from KIIS breakfast in Sydney and Melbourne:

On Monday October 21 Kyle made good on a promise he made to a listener called Rhiannon who had unsuccessfully taken part in a pop quiz to try and win her parents a car.

He had been affected by her motive and decided, out of his own pocket, to buy her folks a car anyway.

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The next day Pete Deppeler, better known to listeners as Intern Pete who has been with the show a decade as part of an intervention segment decided to take Jackie to task over the breakdown of their friendship.

But the segment did not go as expected. More than Jackie O’s revelations later in the week, which I’ll come to, this segment resonated because who hasn’t felt a friendship fade when a new intimate relationship takes precedence? Who hasn’t missed a close friend after a break up who we hadn’t realised we were neglecting? And who hasn’t wanted to make amends and start afresh after either or both of the above?

Then on Thursday, ahead of her the whole truth autobiographical book launch this week, Jackie revealed that when she took extended sick leave for long Covid symptoms at the end of 2022 she had actually checked into the Betty Ford Clinic for drug and alcohol addiction.

You can listen below:

All the above caused strong positive and negative reactions with a phenomenal response online, across social media and with most everyone I spoke to. It was for me powerful and personal radio and a sign that Kyle, Jackie and their team were back on track.

This industry has been well aware that K&J pushed the boat out from the shore when they launched in Melbourne on April 29. ARN have so much invested into them and the duo could afford to suck it and see.

A lot sucked though, and the backlash was fierce.

Kyle and Jackie O are accustomed to being polarising, but when cumulative listening started dropping away, meaning new people weren’t checking them out and existing were going elsewhere, post Survey 6 ARN’s Chief Content Officer Duncan Campbell said that there would be a toning down of content without sanitising what makes the show so appealing in the first place.

It has not been overt, but that is exactly what has happened.

I have a male friend who is my Kyle Sandilands. He finds it hard to tackle a serious conversation without some sort of silly outbreak. He’s good at breaking tension or a bad mood and never patronising. Blunt and unfailingly honest, I don’t always like his feedback but its fair and usually right. He’s also the first to offer assistance, to tell me what I’ve done well and to call out or acknowledge bad behaviour or a poor effort.

Kyle’s responses to Jackie and Pete’s intervention, and then Jackie’s revelation later are no different to how he would have acted a decade ago and similar to what my own friend would do in similar circumstances. They don’t, and won’t, make everybody happy because Kyle doesn’t fake nice to please an audience. He has changed since becoming a father, as evidenced in the car giveaway, and was close to tears himself at not being aware of Jackie’s addiction at the time, although he tried to alleviate that moment in typical Kyle fashion with humour.

All the above is a resumption of normal transmission, not everyone’s cup of tea, but great radio which gets people talking, and listening.

The boat has steadied and steered back into familiar waters.

We shall see if there is a pay off when Survey 7 comes out on Thursday November 14.

Jen Seyderhelm is a writer, editor and podcaster for Radioinfo.