Australia’s radio industry has woken up to a seismic change this morning.
The Kyle and Jackie O show is no more. There is no prospect of a reunion.
Analysis from Steve Ahern.
What’s next?
What happens next is subject to a lot of legal elements. It is no longer a matter between work colleagues, it is now a three way process between lawyers for ARN, Jackie and Kyle. ARN has separate valid ten year contracts with Jackie and Klye, for $10 million each per year.
Over the past few days, Jackie’s management have been in talks with ARN’s management and legal representatives to establish the legal basis for Jackie to leave the show. That was confirmed in the ARN stock exchange market announcement last night, which said: Ms Jacqueline Henderson has given notice that she “cannot continue to work with Mr Kyle Sandilands.” Accordingly, ARN has terminated the services agreement with Henderson Media Pty Ltd.
That leaves Kyle’s contract still in place.
Now that ARN knows Kyle and Jackie will not be able to reunite on the show, ARN has triggered action that could lead to the termination of Kyle’s contract.
Both contracts were pretty well locked down in favour of Kyle and Jackie if they were to be cancelled, but there are some employment contract clauses that are generic and are usually in all Australian employment contracts. One of those clauses is Misconduct. ARN has used that clause to trigger possible contract termination, presumably to avoid any cancellation penalties that would mean the company has to pay out each party.
Serious Misconduct actions, usually listed in employment contracts, can include things like:
- theft, dishonesty, destruction of property
- serious or repeated failure to follow a reasonable instruction,
- actions which seriously damage the Employer’s reputation,
- abuse of a child,
- being under the influence of alcohol or illegal drugs while at work
- being convicted of any offence that may affect your ongoing suitability for employment
- harassment or bullying of a work colleague
- serious or repeated failure to follow a reasonable instruction
We do not know whether any of these generic misconduct elements are part of the legal communications between ARN and Kyle’s management team. These are examples, there is no suggestion that any of them specifically relate to this case. But what we do know is that ARN has given Kyle 14 days to remedy what it calls “serious misconduct,” otherwise his contract will be terminated. ARN said in its market announcement:
“[ARN] considers that Mr Sandilands’ behaviour during the show on 20 February 2026 is an act of serious misconduct which is in breach of ARN’s services agreement with Quasar Media, under which Mr Sandilands presents the Kyle and Jackie O show.”
The official notification did not specify what kind of serious misconduct clause was invoked.
Kyle has been given 14 days to “remedy the breach” otherwise ARN has given notice that the company will “terminate the services agreement with Quasar Media, and in that event Mr Sandilands will cease to present the Kyle and Jackie O show.”
Kyle is off air during the 14 days response period and Smallzy is filling in as KIIS breakfast presenter for the networked Sydney and Melbourne show.
Further considerations.
The board of ARN has a corporate duty to look after the reputation and financial success of the listed company, so in dealing with this situation the Board will also have in mind regulatory and financial issues. The stock exchange announcement was authorised by the board.
There are also other legal and regulatory elements in play, given that the ACMA recently flagged its intention to imposed a licence condition on ARN for breaches of the commercial radio Decency code of practice. The ACMA had already imposed fines for similar offences. A licence condition is the strongest punishment that the regulator can impose on a radio company, the next step for future breaches is cancellation of the company’s licence to broadcast. Licence conditions are imposed on the licencee (ARN), not individuals, so the ACMA process will still progress even if the K&J breakfast show is no longer broadcast.
Another consideration in play for ARN is the financial situation of the company. Just a couple of weeks ago, in its 2025 results presentation, ARN reported total revenue of $285 million, a fall of 10% on the previous year.
The company reduced operating costs by $24 million and paid off some debt but still had a tough year. It reported a profit (EBITDA) from continuing operations of $47.5m, down 23%.
Digital revenue grew by 7% to $27.4m, with significantly improved profitability in that part of the business, but radio revenue was flat. Profitability can come from increased revenue or reduced costs. The Kyle and Jackie Show was costing the company at least $20 million per year in payments to the two stars.
After the company considerations, there are also personal considerations. Both Kyle and Jackie have their own personal views about what just happened and a previous relationship going back many years together. I can’t speculate on what they are feeling, or whether there is a strategy, I just hope they are both ok. I’m also thinking of their team, as the news swirls around them they must be feeling uncertain. Kyle was sorry and hopeful of a reconciliation when I spoke to him earlier this week, but the process has gone beyond that point now.
So many questions!
As the next two weeks play out, there will be much speculation and many questions asked, answered and discussed. Some of them will be:
Will Jackie take up the ARN offer of “an alternative show” with the ARN network? Will it be a podcast? Jackie is in the process of making some changes to her other business activities. She told listeners to the Her Best Life podcast on the February 4 episode that she would no longer be co-hosting the show with her best friend and manager Gemma O’Neill. Gemma is continuing the podcast solo.
Will this affect the Survey 1 ratings results due for release in 2 weeks’ time? Yes. The fieldwork period for survey 1 finished last week, on 28th February, so the on air incident and Jackie’s absence from the show falls into the last week of fieldwork, it may create an upwards blip from the publicity. What is happening this week will fall into the first week of survey 2 fieldwork and will undoubtedly affect the Survey 2 ratings results now that the show has finished. Ironically, if the K&J show gets an uptick from all the publicity in Survey 1 the pressure will be on ARN to act very quickly to put something significant in place for survey 2.
Will KIIS breakfast still be networked to Sydney and Melbourne? Probably not. With Dave Cameron now on board as ARN’s new head of content he will probably use the chance to give the two major cities local breakfast shows again. Who will he choose? Maybe another personality from each KIIS station, or an established ARN breakfast team from another market. Or maybe an established podcast team. Maybe he will team Jackie with another Sydney personality, or maybe he will offer her the Sydney show solo? Whatever the decision, it will need to be a big personality or personalities with an established profile. They will need to be experienced radio breakfast show hosts because of the level of the scrutiny from the audience, there is no time to put in a development shift, each city has massive numbers of listeners who will already be looking around in the absence of K&J, so the replacement has to be experienced.
How will this affect the overall Sydney and Melbourne ratings? When there are changes to high profile radio presenters there is always volatility in the market. People who loved the previous presenter/s are shocked, angered and often take their anger out on the station by searching for a something different. That volatility eventually subsides and many rusted on listeners do return because there are other elements at the station that they still love, but not before at least 2 and often 4 surveys have passed. Some listeners never return because they find someone else they like, or they change their listening habits.
Will it help other breakfast shows? Yes, for three reasons.
First reason – Churn will take place, as described above, resulting in more people sampling other shows. That will mean shorter time spent listening to KIIS and will bring a range of new listeners (cume) to other stations. This K&J effect will not play a significant part in the Survey 1 results, but will be captured from Survey 2 onwards.
Second reason – New Shows in Sydney. The Sydney market is already in flux. Nova introduced a new breakfast show on February 9, with Ricki-Lee and Tim replacing Fitzy, Wippa and Kate, who moved to Drive. The other significant breakfast show change in Sydney is at Gold, where Christian O’Connell has replaced Jonesy and Amanda, who moved to Drive. Both these changes are cause for some churn in the Sydney market.
Third reason – Vacuum. Kyle and Jackie’s disappearance will cause a vacuum effect in the ratings figures. Regardless of what is happening at other stations, the KIIS Sydney figures will go down after survey 1, probably until mid year just because K&J are no longer on air. The lost numbers from KIIS will not be evenly distributed across all other stations, they will go to stations with cross-over demographics similar to KIIS. KIIS Sydney has a 9.5% overall share and a 12.7% share of the breakfast audience, it is strong across the 10-54 demographics. Incredibly K&J appeal to younger listeners and have also retained listeners who are older, who grew up with Kyle and Jackie over the past 25 years, first at 2DayFM, then at KIIS. Younger KIIS listeners may sample Nova, older listeners may sample smooth, both have a significant cross-over audience with KIIS. KIIS Sydney has a cumulative average weekly listenership of over 1.3 million people, once they go searching they will destabilise a significant amount of listeners that will mean listenership numbers will go wild over the next few surveys. When the figures come out take a good look at the cume chart – if total listenership is still about the same as last year then listeners are moving around across the dial, if it is lower, then listeners are going to non surveyed stations or to podcasts. In Melbourne the vacuum effect will not be felt as much, because KIIS has only a 5.4% share overall and a 5 share at breakfast, with 600,000 listeners (cume) at breakfast. But still that is 600,000 listeners who will also be churning, so there will certainly be some noticable effect in Melbourne too over the next 4 surveys.
Will Kyle go back to radio? Unlikely Kyle will be back on air at ARN, but with legalities in play, you never know. But if not, what then? Kyle loves radio, but will he now feel that he has given enough to radio and be happy to spend time with his son Otto and wife Tegan. He doesn’t need the money. Or will he be offered a shift from an opposing station. If another station offered him a shift he may choose to find out if he can repeat his Sydney success and bring an audience over with him to a rival station, just as he and Jackie did when they left 2Day FM, or he may just do it for fun and to destabilise ARN.
Or maybe Kyle will decide to do a talk podcast like Joe Rogan, that could also be broadcast weekly on a talk radio station. Some years ago Kyle told us that he admired Howard Stern, who jumped from America’s highly regulated radio broadcast environment to the less regulated satellite radio business SirousXM, the equivalent these days is podcasting, which might suit Kyle.
All these questions and more will be discussed in board rooms, prep rooms, sales rooms and conference rooms for many months as we all watch the twists and turns resulting from the most significant Australian presenter upheaval in many years.
We all thought that Christian O’Connell, Jonesy and Amanda, Tim & Ricki-Lee, Fitzy, Wippa & Kate, Nath & Emma and Beau, Cat & Woodsy would be the ones to watch in the next few Sydney surveys, all that has now changed.
ARN’s share price had a slight uptick on today’s news.
Steve Ahern is publisher of this audio industry trade journal.
Related reports:
I didn’t quit: Jackie O contradicts ARN’s stock exchange statement
‘I want to be on air.’ Kyle Sandilands releases statement after on-air bust up with Jackie O