DMG Network Program Director Paul Jackson has weighed in to the Kyle and Jackie O debate. Here’s what he had to say…
If it holds true that Kyle and Jackie O were going to MIX, that would surprise me massively. I just think its totally the wrong fit for them. It would confuse MIX listeners. It would confuse heritage 2Day FM listeners who have listened to Kyle and Jackie O forever and have loyalty to them and that station. It’s a bit like watching your friends breaking up after ten years having a terrible affair and big bust up – you don’t know which side to take. I think they’ll be awash with people going. “is it MIX – is it 2Day?” All the audience won’t necessarily follow. It’s a very different thing. Absolutely huge confusion across both stations.
My view is that with Kyle and Jackie O off of 2Day the brand isn’t particularly strong. They are the brand in fact – put it that way. Kyle and Jackie O is 2Day. Without them they have got a lot of uphill struggling ahead of them.
I think you can say around Survey 7 the centrepiece was: “are Kyle and Jackie O resigning or not?” That’s what was in the papers a lot. You can’t really escape that sort of corridor chatter. I think between that and the amount of marketing they did it drove the breakfast show up a little bit with the curiosity of: “is the breakfast show coming to an end or not.” I get that, that’s natural.
They haven’t got one other station (besides Sydney) in their network going particularly well when you look at what we’ve done to them in Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Any improvement they may have made, which is merely a blip here for me, hasn’t affected Nova and hasn’t affected smooth.
It’s a lot to take on if you weren’t expecting to change your Sydney breakfast show as well as Melbourne and then, depending on what permutation they go for, potentially your national drive show. Those are your three biggest shows on your network and you have to start again. And that does take time.
(Having said that) I would never write anybody off. They can come up with something brilliant. With your back against the wall and you’ve got to deliver, I would never write off anybody. And they’ve got a lot of experience over there. And historically they have got a lot of names going through their doors for generations – so, I don’t hink anyone would be smug enough to write them off.
When we were rebuilding Nova and starting to create a mood, we didn’t have to change three shows like that all at the same time. So, I’m sure they’re looking forward to 2014. I’m sure they can’t wait to see the back of 2013.
But from our perspective we’re in great shape. We’ve got Fitzy & Wippa in a great place with over a 7.0 share.
Smooth’s absolutely flying and we are the number two and three FM station, so my summation of that is really I feel good about whatever scenario plays out (with Kyle and Jackie O). We know what we’ve got to do and we’re intent on doing it.
Read what SCA’s Craig Bruce and ARN’s Duncan Campbell had to say here.