Radio stars Kyle Sandilands and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson are heading to Perth in 2026, after achieving significant success upon expanding to Melbourne last year.
At the Australian Radio Network Upfronts (ARN) in Sydney on Wednesday, plans were revealed to expand Kyle and Jackie O into Perth as part of a major push to build a fully national entertainment brand.
In 2026, ARN KIIS and GOLD stations are set to go fully national, giving Kyle and Jackie O a new platform called KIIS DAB+.
ARN already has a commercial radio station in Perth, 96FM, and the rollout marks the broadcaster’s most ambitious expansion yet, with KIIS Perth joining Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide.
The move is set to consolidate KIIS as a fully national network and, for Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O, Perth represents uncharted territory that they are optimistic about.
It is currently unclear if the expansion will result in any job cuts to make room for Kyle and Jackie O.
Radio stars Kyle Sandilands and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson are heading to Perth in 2026, after achieving significant success upon expanding to Melbourne last year. Pictured together at the ARN Upfronts on Wednesday
At the Australian Radio Network Upfronts (ARN) in Sydney on Wednesday, plans were revealed to expand Kyle and Jackie O into Perth as part of a major push to build a fully national entertainment brand
Since debuting in Melbourne in 2024, the radio stars have been steadily building an audience in the capital city of Victoria.
In May, it was revealed that Kyle and Jackie had won over a significant Melbourne audience share, in the GfK survey two.
However, Lauren Joyce, ARN’s Chief Audience & Content Officer, said that ratings were only part of the picture that they were focusing on amid this expansion.
‘In 2026, ARN will deliver true national scale across two of the most recognisable media brands in the country,’ she said in a statement.
‘We are definitely paying attention to the numbers, but for us, we look at total footprint,’ Joyce told B&T.
‘We’ll look at a combination of those numbers, our streaming numbers, the podcast numbers, and then our socials.
‘The future of entertainment really isn’t sitting in one medium. It’s about being where our audiences are and delivering the content in the format that they’re choosing to consume. So we’re focused on building out the entire footprint, not just the audio.’
The Perth launch is part of ARN’s vision for ‘borderless entertainment,’ where content flows seamlessly across radio, podcasts, streaming and social platforms and is accessible to all.
The rollout marks the broadcaster’s most ambitious expansion yet, with KIIS Perth joining Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide
Kyle and Jackie O took their radio show to Melbourne in a huge multimillion dollar expansion deal last year. The move triggered the axing of Jase and Lauren’s (pictured) own KIIS FM breakfast show
Joyce said ARN was confident that the Kyle and Jackie O brand was strong enough to thrive in a new market.
‘Just because people live in different locations doesn’t mean that they don’t necessarily find content entertaining in a similar way to their counterparts living over East,’ she said.
Kyle and Jackie O took their radio show to Melbourne in a huge multimillion dollar expansion deal last year.
The move triggered the axing of Jason Hawkins and Lauren Phillips’ own KIIS FM breakfast show, which Kyle said he was indifferent about.
‘No, I don’t care. That’s why we went for Melbourne, we were like, “We’ve given this Jase and Lauren on KIIS FM a good run, it can’t get over fourth in the radio ratings, so we’ll take it”,’ he told news.com.au at the time.
He added The Kyle & Jackie O Show was moved to Melbourne because it was a ‘market in trouble’ and their program could help regain listeners.
