C’mon, c’mon, c’mon, do the ‘speculation’ with me… 

Less than two weeks ago, right after Survey 6 was released, I asked ARN Chief Content Officer, Duncan Campbell, will the Kyle and Jackie O Breakfast Show be networked to Melbourne?

Here’s what he said: “We would have done that anyway, wouldn’t we, already, if we’re going to do that. I mean, it’s very much a Sydney show. We do network some of the show (to Melbourne 7-8PM) with Hour of Power which goes out everywhere.

“But I was around when we networked Richard Stubbs back in the day from Triple M Melbourne to Sydney. The risk is that you import a show that’s very well known in one market but not known in the other. Although you couldn’t tell the difference between where Richard was broadcasting from, but the Sydney audience wasn’t familiar with the quirkiness and the nuances of the show.”

I agreed that there was a big risk in networking a show from Sydney to Melbourne. Although it seems to work well enough in Drive, it’s never worked before in Breakfast. Then again, I pressed, “ARN has done things that have never worked before…”

“Yeah, we have, we have.” concedes Mr Campbell, referring to having imported Christian O’Connell from London to take GOLD104.3’s Breakfast Show to #1 FM in Melbourne.

“There’s lots of rumors around. We heard the other day that Nova was announcing that we had told our Brisbane Breakfast Show that we were going to network Kyle and Jackie O to 97.3. I mean, that was just so not the case.

“But you know, radio’s, well known for its rumours and they get legs and everyone gets into a frenzy over it. But no, we’re just focusing on the next couple of books and getting the contract negotiations done.”

That was almost two weeks ago. As of late yesterday when I texted Mr Campbell, nothing had changed, “It’s just speculation,” he replied.

Of course, in radio-speak, “speculation” doesn’t necessarily mean “it’s not true.” It just means, “it’s not true yet.” 

In truth, everything remains speculative until ARN is ready to reveal just how Kyle and Jackie O will be deployed to rake in the extra $10 mil p.a. needed to top up their pay-packets.

Finally, here’s my own little conspiracy theory. Earlier this year, when the rumour mill first began to speculate that SCA was looking to lure K&J back to 2DayFM, ARN quietly acquired a 14.8% interest in SCA, purchased for $38.3 million. It was described by ARN as, ‘a long-term ‘strategic’ investment in an undervalued sector with ~10% yield.’

I could be wrong, but I reckon the strategy was to offset any losses in the event that K&J were to jump ship back to their roots.

Peter Saxon – Managing Editor