\u201cThey sacked Jackie. They suspended me. They wouldn\u2019t even let me pick up the phone to call her or anyone else on the show.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen \u2013 and this is the bit that gets me \u2013 once they\u2019d made it impossible for the show to go on, they turn around and say, \u2018You didn\u2019t fix it. You\u2019re fired!\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI said sorry to Jackie the night of our blow-up. And when I said I was sorry to Jackie, I meant it. I still mean it. But it doesn\u2019t mean I will stand by while I am separated from the people who\u2019ve listened to me every morning for 25 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore they suspended me, ARN said, \u2018Let us handle it\u2019 and I listened.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the two weeks since, I\u2019ve done everything ARN asked. I said, put me back on air. I\u2019ll work with Jackie. I\u2019ll work with someone else. Whatever you need. Every single time \u2013 \u2018no\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey weren\u2019t interested. They didn\u2019t want to fix this. They thought they saw a chance to get out of the contract they signed with me a year ago, and they ran with it.<\/p>\n
\u201cARN knew exactly what they were getting when they signed my deal. They\u2019ve worked with me for over a decade.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey knew how I work, they knew the show and they were happy to pay for it \u2013 because I delivered number-one ratings. Year after year. Hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for their business.<\/p>\n
\u201cI held up my end. I always have.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, you tell me \u2013 why would ARN prefer to breach a contract and pay the legal consequences rather than honour the contract and pay me to do what I do best? That\u2019s the bit that doesn\u2019t make sense.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got a contract until 2034. I\u2019ve got rights under that contract. And ARN hasn\u2019t honoured the contract. So it\u2019s over to my lawyers.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo the people who tune in every morning \u2013 you lot are the reason I\u2019ve done this for 25 years. You didn\u2019t get a say in this. Neither did I. But my lawyers will.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not done. Not by a long way.\u201d<\/p>\n
The news we\u2019d all been waiting for<\/p>\n
This saga began back on February 20 when Sandilands and Jackie O. had a huge disagreement on air.<\/p>\n
Jackie O. was reduced to tears after Sandilands criticised her recent performance at work, saying she had been \u201cunfocused\u201d and \u201coff with the fairies\u201d because of her obsession with astrology.<\/p>\n
Jackie O. took more than a week off the breakfast show after the disagreement, leaving Sandilands to host solo.<\/p>\n
Then, on March 3, ARN dropped a bombshell, saying it had terminated Jackie O.\u2019s contract because she had allegedly told them she \u201ccould not continue to work with Mr Kyle Sandilands\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cARN has also offered to Ms Henderson the possibility of an alternative show on the ARN network,\u201d the network said.<\/p>\n
In the same announcement, ARN said it considered Sandilands\u2019 behaviour during that show on February 20 to be an \u201cact of serious misconduct\u201d which it claimed was in breach of his contract.<\/p>\n
They took him off air and gave him 14 days to remedy the breach, with ARN never revealing publicly what they wanted Sandilands to do to \u201cremedy\u201d the situation.<\/p>\n
As Sandilands said in his statement, he feels as if he was set an impossible task by ARN.<\/p>\n
The shock jock, and most industry experts, were fairly certain that ARN would terminate his contract at the end of that 14-day deadline, which has now happened.<\/p>\n
Why ARN wanted to get rid of Sandilands<\/p>\n
Sandilands is the most famous broadcaster on Australian radio, and the breakfast show he co-hosted was No 1 on the FM dial in Sydney, so why would ARN want to get rid of him?<\/p>\n
Insiders believe it could be linked to that staggering A$100m contract he signed with ARN in 2023, which was meant to keep him on air until the end of 2034.<\/p>\n
According to insiders, ARN simply couldn\u2019t afford to honour the deal.<\/p>\n
The radio network inked the contract with the intention of rolling out The Kyle and Jackie O Show nationally, meaning they wouldn\u2019t have to pay for local breakfast shows in each city.<\/p>\n
That plan was left in tatters though when the show bombed in Melbourne, with ARN then putting national rollout plans on hold.<\/p>\n
It meant ARN had to pay Sandilands and Jackie O.\u2019s massive salaries, plus fund local breakfast shows in all cities apart from Sydney and Melbourne.<\/p>\n
To make matters worse, advertisers started pulling out of The Kyle and Jackie O Show, thanks in part to a campaign run by a group called \u201cMad F***ing Witches (MFW)\u201d.<\/p>\n
The group, determined to remove Sandilands from radio, encouraged its members to call the show\u2019s advertisers and to \u201csimply ask them to stop funding the hate\u201d.<\/p>\n
The group claimed to have \u201chad more than 540 advertisers withdraw\u201d from sponsoring The Kyle and Jackie O Show.<\/p>\n
All of these factors combined severely damaged ARN\u2019s bottom line and resulted in hundreds of staff being let go in a bid to cut costs.<\/p>\n
In 2025, ARN reported that its metro radio revenue dropped by 16.1%, or A$28.3m, with the company making a net profit after tax of just $6.1m.<\/p>\n
Sandilands\u2019 chances of returning to work on KIIS FM were dealt another blow earlier this week when the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) imposed additional licence conditions on ARN.<\/p>\n
Under the conditions, ARN was told it would have to ensure that any programme hosted by Sandilands or Jackie O. for the next five years \u201cdoes not broadcast content which is highly offensive or which contains strong and explicit sexual references by the standards of an ordinary reasonable listener\u201d.<\/p>\n
If those standards were breached, the ACMA said ARN could be slapped with penalties including \u201ccourt\u2011enforceable undertakings, remedial directions, civil penalties, or suspension or cancellation of the broadcasting licence\u201d.<\/p>\n
What happens now<\/p>\n
ARN has now terminated both Sandilands and Jackie O.\u2019s radio contracts, and both could end up filing lawsuits against their former employer.<\/p>\n
Last week 2GB radio host Ben Fordham predicted \u201cthis will be the biggest court case of 2026!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWho the players are in court, I don\u2019t know yet,\u201d he added. \u201cWill it be Kyle? Will it be Jackie? Will it be both? It\u2019s gonna be fascinating to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for ARN, the radio network is now without a KIIS FM breakfast show in both Melbourne and Sydney.<\/p>\n
Former Edge announcer Mike E. is currently filling in on air, but it\u2019s unclear how long he\u2019ll stick around for.<\/p>\n
Will ARN hire a new breakfast team for Melbourne and Sydney, or will it let Mike E. fill in until the legal showdown with Sandilands is over?<\/p>\n
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor\u2019s Picks<\/a>, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week\u2019s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThey sacked Jackie. They suspended me. They wouldn\u2019t even let me pick up the phone to call her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[33323,74,696,75733,3053,1566,156,293,117843,44012,1073,1304,111,139,69,4965,13181,16121,14033,162431,179550,13744,179549,9343,1734,179551,1361,1680],"class_list":["post-334933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-10year","tag-after","tag-announced","tag-arn","tag-blistering","tag-contract","tag-entertainment","tag-his","tag-jock","tag-kyle","tag-media","tag-morning","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-radio","tag-released","tag-responds","tag-ripped","tag-sacking","tag-sandilands","tag-shock","tag-shockjock","tag-statement","tag-sydney","tag-terminates","tag-that","tag-wednesday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}