Kyle and Jackie O show cancelled

Ben Willee, Executive Director of Media and Data at Spinach Advertising, talks to Deborah Knight on 9News Afternoon.

Read the transcript here:

A spat that’s now ended Sydney’s top rating FM radio show. After almost thirty years in the business, Kyle and Jackie O will no longer be working together over a serious act of misconduct. Ben Willee joins me now from Spinach Advertising. Ben, this is an ugly end to what’s been a hugely successful and lucrative pairing. Kyle and Jackie O, they’ve always been edgy, they’ve pushed the boundaries. Did you ever think that would blow up as explosively as this?

G’day, Deb. Thank you very much for having me, and I think we did. It’s a bit like, backyard fireworks, isn’t it? Loud, explosive and probably dangerous. So yes, when you’re on the edge of radio, and you do a lot of crazy stuff, there’s every chance it’s gonna blow up, and what we’ve seen is that it has definitely gone nuclear.

And there’s a lot of money on the line for ARN, which owns the radio show, and Kyle and Jackie O personally. They famously signed that two hundred million dollar contract, the biggest in broadcast history.

It is an extraordinary deal, isn’t it, Deb? And I think this is, in many ways, good news for the parent company, ARN, that owns KIIS radio because that deal was becoming a bit of a noose around their neck. It was taking away their flexibility. They had problems with advertisers who were being pushed out of the show by the Mad Effing Witches who were, really attacking Kyle and Jackie O’s advertisers. So this may be a blessing in disguise for the Australian Radio Network cause they can finally extricate themselves from having to pay Kyle and Jackie O huge amounts of money every year.

And they didn’t have any success ratings-wise launching in that Melbourne market either. But what happens next?

Well, look, Melbourne’s really interesting, it will be a business and media case study in what not to do for many years to come. I mean, we’re talking about a number one FM show in Sydney that’s, really languishing in the ratings in Melbourne. So, that has been another problem for ARN, is they haven’t been able to monetize that content in Melbourne. So they’re now able to perhaps go out, find other talent, find talent that’s a bit more advertiser-friendly, and then monetize that. So I think from a business and advertising point of view, Kyle and Jackie O being off the air is probably a benefit for ARN, provided they don’t end up at one of their competitors stealing those ratings and making the situation even worse.

Yeah. What an explosive end to it all. Ben, great to get your insights. Thanks so much.

Thanks for having me, Deb.