Kyle Sandilands has admitted it was his ‘fault’ The Kyle & Jackie O Show failed to take off in Melbourne when it debuted in the city last year.
The radio shock jock, 53, who addressed locals at St Kilda Beach on Friday during the KIIS FM $5million giveaway, confessed he may have come on too strong when he entered the Victorian market, reported Herald Sun.
Almost one year later, and the popular Sydney show only has a 5.1 per cent share of the breakfast radio market in Melbourne, with Kyle forced to tone down on the graphic content to nab more listeners this year.
‘We probably did [go too far] and it is probably my fault because when we went into Melbourne, management were like, “Let’s just take baby steps,” and I was like, “No,”‘ he said.
‘Jackie had come back from rehab, smoking ciggies and wearing leather trousers, and the handbrake was not there and I pushed the envelope a bit.’
He went on to say: ‘We work pretty well with the management and when they did ask to speak about the content I said, “Okay, you know what, you are probably right, we will just pull back a bit.”‘
Kyle Sandilands, 53, has admitted it was his ‘fault’ The Kyle & Jackie O Show failed to take off in Melbourne when it debuted in the city last year
It would seem the decision to scale back on the X-rated content to appeal to the Melbourne has worked somewhat as Kyle and co-host Jackie ‘O’ Henderson achieved a small win in the first survey of 2025 last month.
Their KIIS FM program managed to earn a 0.1 per cent increase in the Melbourne market share as they continue their ratings war against ex-KIIS FM stars Jason ‘Jase’ Hawkins and Lauren Phillips.
Jase, 42, and Lauren originally held down the Melbourne breakfast fort for KIIS FM, but were axed by the network to make way for The Kyle & Jackie O Show’s million dollar expansion into the city.
Kyle was previously unapologetic about the April 2024 move, saying the station gave Jase and Lauren a ‘good run’, but ‘they can’t get over fourth in the radio ratings, so we’ll take it’.
However, Kyle and Jackie, 50, have struggled to make good on that promise over the past year—though it appears 2025 may be a new opportunity for the pair to creep up in the ratings.
Their rivals, who now host breakfast show Jase & Lauren on Nova, took a 1.4 per cent dip in survey one and now have a 10.1 per cent market share, knocking their show off the top spot.
Meanwhile, between January 19 and March 1, Kyle and Jackie hopped up to a 5.1 per cent share, slowly closing the gap between the radio rivals.
Last year, Kyle and Jackie took their radio show to Melbourne in a huge multimillion-dollar expansion deal.
The radio shock jock, who addressed locals at St Kilda Beach on Friday during the KIIS FM $5million giveaway, confessed he may have come on too strong when he entered the Victorian market, reported Herald Sun. Pictured with Jackie ‘O’ Henderson
The move triggered the axing of Jase and Lauren’s 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.
However, Jackie took a different approach, adding that while she didn’t like competitors being axed it was the unfortunate reality of the business.
‘No one ever wants to move someone out of a job. I wouldn’t want that to happen to me. It’s a double edged sword, it really is,’ she said.
But Kyle and Jackie struggled to capture the Melbourne market, despite continuing to dominate FM Breakfast in Sydney.
In November, Kyle vowed to reduce the graphic sexual content on his KIIS FM radio show this year to appeal to the Melbourne audience more broadly.
