There is a saying, the squeaky wheel gets the oil. It is positive in the sense that it takes someone standing up on an issue to make change. It can also be those who continue to fight for something toward an outcome that benefits only them.

Talkback radio has had many squeaky wheels over the decades. In recent years the tables have been turned on some of those personalities with online groups like the MFW coming together with a higher pitch to impact advertising revenue and hit broadcast organisations where it hurts the most.

Yesterday, and this is simply my own spin of the wheel, I paused to wonder whether Kyle Sandilands is in the process of negotiating a return to ARN and the KIIS Network.

Before I get to why this may be a possibility, I to spin that wheel back a while to how we got here in the first place.

Jacinta Parsons is a radio announcer with ABC Melbourne. She is also a writer, advocate for people with Crohn’s disease, speaker, educator and she has a PhD in talkback radio, examining the role of the broadcaster in the creation of community connection.

In the last week she has done a couple of acts that contribute significantly to not just my article, but the much broader squeaky wheel conversation.

She published a thought provoking piece in The Saturday Paper called Inside the Success of the MFW (it is behind a paywall) which included a conversation with founder Jennie Hill. Jacinta also invited Antoinette Lattouf back into the ABC to chat about Antoinette’s new book Women Who Win. Antoinette was able to give voice to how she felt after her dismissal from ABC Sydney in December 2023 resulted in the broadcaster having to pay $150,000 for the unlawful sacking alongside a previously awarded $70,000 in compensation for non-economic loss.

I want to commend Jacinta for both.

The conversation with Antoinette reminded me of the immense public support that swelled behind her and the case. My reflections were that Antoinette didn’t actively feed the beast, the ABC somehow managed to do that themselves, and it is a significant step that she was able to speak to that within the ABC walls again, after the fact.

It also made me think of Jackie Henderson, who has not had the same support since she her ARN ASX statement on March 3 saying she “cannot continue to work with Mr Kyle Sandilands.”

MFW founder Jennie Hill, in The Saturday Paper piece, made two particularly pertinent comments.

The first was that the MFW ‘only run campaigns on people who are serial repeat offenders who don’t apologise or make amends.’

The second was said to 2GB‘s Alan Jones when he rang her in an attempt to get the group to drop their 2019 campaign against him after comments he made about then PM of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern. When Jennie could get a word in edgewise she said:

‘No one here at MFW thinks you are a personally violent person, but you have to understand that the things you say on air validate other men who are violent to continue their violence.’

She also mentioned that Marty Sheargold, in a 10th anniversary special edition of the Game Changers Radio podcast, said that as soon as he heard that the MFW were on the case about the comments he made about the Matildas, he knew he was a goner.

Marty also appears still to be stuck on the ‘apologise and make amends’ part of the MFW’s message as something else he said, ironically on the Kyle and Jackie O show a couple of weeks before their fallout, indicates that he still hasn’t really taken responsibility for his words.

The ill fated Matildas comments were part of a prerecorded show. He told Kyle and Jackie:

“You know when you leave a pre-record … and sometimes you home and think ‘geez, I might give them a ring and get them to pull that out’? I wasn’t even thinking like that, because I was so sidelined by what was going on for me.

But when you try and put context around stuff, you sound defensive and it looks as though you’re making excuses.”

So the producer, or the other people who were present as that segment took place, were the ones who should have said ‘Marty – let’s take that bit out’ to save Marty from himself.

He then added:

“I said to them (Triple M)  ‘Let’s go our separate ways.’ I never spoke to the CEO. The board never addressed me. It never got that far.

I’ve realised I don’t want a boss anymore. I don’t want someone drifting in and going ‘Have you thought about this?’ … or that classic ‘How do you think today went?’”

The Kyle and Jackie O show had censors implemented by ARN after crackdowns by the ACMA. In documents to the Federal Court by ARN they said that Kyle had said that the organisation had “no control whatsoever over what we do on this show” and he had told the censor: “Don’t go bleeping this shit out or you censors will have no job.”

So the censors too were (somewhat) unable to save Kyle from himself.

The K&J program brief described in the court documents say ARN wanted Kyle to be deliberately outrageous and often offensive and Jackie was the warm and emotionally attuned moderator for Kyle.

So you can see where the sticking points were for Kyle with the MFW. Jackie was perceived to be an enabler. But it also must be said that she was financially tied to him and remains silent on her side of the story, except through court documents.

The MFW also ask, is Jackie the victim of a terrible woman-hating bully? That wheel is not currently squeaking.

Yesterday Pete Deppeler was announced to be leaving KIIS breakfast and joining the GOLD Network and Christian O’Connell Breakfast Show. He had worked with Kyle and Jackie for 13 years and had not told either of them the decision before it was publicly announced.

Pete was especially close with Jackie. He had taken her to task in October 2024 about the breakdown of their friendship. A few days later some of the reasons for that became obvious as Jackie acknowledged her stint in rehab for drug and alcohol addiction, which was a turning point for her too.

On the morning, February 20, when it all fell apart, there was a moment where Jackie asked the show team who else besides Kyle felt like she wasn’t doing her job? Pete went to speak and Kyle shut him down. You can listen below.

Then there was the meeting last week between Kyle and ARN Chairman Hamish McLennan, whose own role is hanging on a knife edge after the organisation’s AGM.

Could it be that the easier option for ARN would be to allow Kyle to return to the airwaves and somewhat mend the $85 million wheel which is squeaking the loudest?

Perhaps Kyle’s new move isn’t a podcast at all. Watch this space. Can’t help but feel Monday May 25, the day Pete shifts to GOLD, might just be portentous for KIIS as well.

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