As they say, all’s fair in love, war and radio.

In this case “they” is a KIIS spokesperson who told radioinfo over the weekend, “This is a competitive business and marketing is a big part of what we do and that includes guerrilla marketing. All networks have done it over the years”.

What “they” were referring to was an incident that occurred last week in Melbourne. Jase and Lauren who were picked up by Nova100 after being dumped by KIIS101.1 last year to make way for Kyle and Jackie O. The now Nova pair were out and about together with news reader Clint Stanaway  doing a promotion, giving away cash to listeners when they were paid an unexpected visit from the new Kyle and Jackie O bus.

Jase and Lauren were less than amused about this particular bus crashing their party….

Lauren: So to everyone who listens to this show, thank you so much. It’s not lost on us that without all of you, we wouldn’t get to do this awesome job that we get to do every morning. So thank you to everyone for coming down and saying hello.

Jase: Some people that weren’t invited. I just want to mention the bus quickly. There’s a giant Kyle and Jackie O bus going around Melbourne at the moment. And you know, like you said it’s not lost on us everyone coming down to say hey, we’re supporting you guys, we’ve come over to Nova with you

Lauren: It’s pretty poor form though to turn up to our event. I must say because, I mean, they fired us. We haven’t done anything wrong to them. They got rid of us, told us we weren’t good enough. And now they’re turning up to where we’re standing there with the people that love our show and listen to our show. And trying to sabotage, it’s a bit tasteless.

Lauren went on to say that some of the attendees offered to take matters into their own hands with Jase saying he thought the bus might end up on blocks.

Of course, there have been many instances of station rivalry of this kind in the past. In 2011, 2UE placed  a billboard right in the face of its biggest rival. It was a cheeky tactic designed to stir up the opposition’s presenters and off-air staff. With that in mind, there’s little chance that 2GB staff could miss the 2UE sign coming to and from work each day. It dominated the corner of the road that leads to a media enclave that included 2GB and 2CH as well as Nova 969, Classic Rock 95.3 and Channel Ten.

Let us know in the comments section below whether you agree with the KIIS statement, “This is a competitive business and marketing is a big part of what we do and that includes guerrilla marketing. All networks have done it over the years”.

Or whether you agree with Lauren that, “It’s pretty poor form though to turn up to our event.”

Peter Saxon