Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
Speaker 1: It's Thursday, March five, twenty twenty six. Organizers of the
Speaker 1: women's soccer Asian Cup have refused to explain why an
Speaker 1: Iranian Australian journalist was removed from a Gold Coast stadium
Speaker 1: on Monday night, where Iran were defeated three nil by
Speaker 1: South Korea. The Melbourne Underworld crime figure Mitghatto is under
Speaker 1: investigation by a Commission of Inquiry into the CFMU. That's
Speaker 1: after he was linked to a traffic company operating on
Speaker 1: the Gold Coast. The Australian's got unrivaled coverage of domestic
Speaker 1: and world news and right now we're all over Iran's war,
Speaker 1: with everyone from our correspondence on the ground to our
Speaker 1: expert analysts here at home. Check us out at the
Speaker 1: Australian dot com dot au. It's the massive media bust
Speaker 1: up almost three decades in the making, the acrimonious end
Speaker 1: of radio behemoth The Kyl and Jackie Oh Show. But
Speaker 1: who's in the wrong and is there still space for
Speaker 1: stars like Carl sanderlans and Jackie Henderson in cash strapped
Speaker 1: Australian media landscape. The Australians Media Diary editor Steve Jackson
Speaker 1: joins me in just a moment. Steve Jackson is The
Speaker 1: Australian's Media Diary editor. Jacko, I've taken the liberty of
Speaker 1: doing your stars for today.
Speaker 2: Well, I hope you haven't been focusing on it too
Speaker 2: much because they can lead to an almighty blow up.
Speaker 1: It's actually very interesting as a Sagittarius, you are seeing
Speaker 1: long term projects finally come together.
Speaker 2: Look, as I said, fascinating, fascinating, But I don't know
Speaker 2: if this comes to the detriment of everything else on
Speaker 2: the show.
Speaker 1: Claik It's time for diligence in career and finances requiring patients, Jacko,
Speaker 1: as efforts begin to bear for it, focus on maintaining
Speaker 1: emotional maturity in relations and ships. You can't argue with
Speaker 1: this is a science.
Speaker 2: Look, everyone in here has been talking about your star science,
Speaker 2: your obsession.
Speaker 1: Now. The blow up between Coyle and Jackie Oh was
Speaker 1: partly about horoscopes. The two titans of the Australian FM
Speaker 1: radio scene, probably the highest earning FM radio stars Australia
Speaker 1: has ever seen. In the middle of a two hundred
Speaker 1: million dollar deal have broken up and it was all
Speaker 1: about this fight. I'm going to play a little bit
Speaker 1: of the fight that they had about horoscopes. So JACKIEO
Speaker 1: would have been able to see this coming.
Speaker 2: JACKO, well, she would have read it in the stars.
Speaker 1: You're off with the fairies where no, no, no, tell
Speaker 1: me where I've been off with the fairies during the show.
Speaker 1: I don't have to have to prove excuse of something.
Speaker 3: Listeners to the program, you'll hear yourself. Just give me
Speaker 3: to be aware of what's really going on.
Speaker 1: M Kyle that I totally am offended by you saying something.
Speaker 2: Bad if you are, because that's the reality of what
Speaker 2: we're dealing with here.
Speaker 1: That is so unfair. I have been in here, so
Speaker 1: as that conversation goes on here can't do what he's
Speaker 1: done a million times on that show, which is do
Speaker 1: a bit of real time feedback to Jackie. She does
Speaker 1: it to him all the time as well. She's called
Speaker 1: him fat on air before, she's called him crazy. She
Speaker 1: generally reacts to him raising some sort of topic of
Speaker 1: sex with her like, oh, Kyle. But here she's really upset,
Speaker 1: and it turns out that this wasn't just an act.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, that's the thing is And I think even
Speaker 2: after this initially went to where people were questioning, is
Speaker 2: this a stunt? Is this something to get people talking?
Speaker 2: We know they've been trailing in Melbourne? Is this something
Speaker 2: to get people interested? Everyone's talking about it. Even this morning.
Speaker 2: I'm still getting messages from people, go, this is all
Speaker 2: an elaborate stunt. It's not. And I think we could
Speaker 2: tell that the moment that that show was turned into
Speaker 2: a full episode podcast by aarn for the KISSFM podcast channel,
Speaker 2: that that ten minutes was cut entirely. That wasn't cut
Speaker 2: out as a you know, the bust up between our
Speaker 2: top rating stars. It was quite obviously from the moment
Speaker 2: they came off air, this is going to be a problem.
Speaker 1: These two have been pinned by the regulator. They have
Speaker 1: been fined, they have been ordered off air for the
Speaker 1: things that they have said on air. Why do you think,
Speaker 1: after twenty seven years of this partnership, Jackie Henderson, Jackie
Speaker 1: O has chosen now to be sick of Kyle, to
Speaker 1: be sick of what he's doing to her.
Speaker 2: Well, I think it's an evolution. They've been working together
Speaker 2: since nineteen ninety nine, twenty seven years But you think
Speaker 2: about the people we were two decades twenty seven years ago.
Speaker 2: You evolve, right, and she's quite clearly evolved. She's had
Speaker 2: some momentous life changing moments. He's moved to America, lived
Speaker 2: in La moved back, married, divorced, remarried, become a father.
Speaker 2: So they are different people now. Kyle is still doing
Speaker 2: the very successful stick from twenty years ago, you know,
Speaker 2: crude in your face, this is what attracts headlines. Can
Speaker 2: you believe he said it? Whereas Jackie has evolved as
Speaker 2: a person and she knows no longer wants to be
Speaker 2: the hapless sidekick going, oh, Kyle rein it in, which
Speaker 2: has been a role for a large part of it.
Speaker 2: She's been the good girl and he's been the bad guy,
Speaker 2: and it's the straight man routine. But she's become the
Speaker 2: highest paid woman in the Australian media industry as part
Speaker 2: of this deal until they tore it up this week,
Speaker 2: and she no longer wanted to just be the foil,
Speaker 2: play second fiddle and just be the person being abused
Speaker 2: by Kyle because that's the show, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they had some amazing chemistry as part of all
Speaker 1: of that and one of the things about the business
Speaker 1: model was that you were prepared to listen to. I
Speaker 1: had to listen this morning and there were fifteen ads
Speaker 1: played at eight twenty fifteen, fifteen second ads for things
Speaker 1: like dog food and sofas. I'm happy to listen to
Speaker 1: fifteen ads if what I'm going to get at the
Speaker 1: end of the ad break is not for old Smallsey
Speaker 1: who's hosting the show in their absence, but Kyle potentially
Speaker 1: saying the sea World, potentially starting a fight with a
Speaker 1: Hollywood star, potentially berating Jackie. The danger and drama of
Speaker 1: that radio format is what has made it successful. As
Speaker 1: a businesswoman, though, and Jackie is the part owner of
Speaker 1: this business, it's intriguing that she had a red line
Speaker 1: and that he's now crossed it.
Speaker 2: It's a really interesting thing because if we have our
Speaker 2: differences here, and we've probably had some over the years. Claire,
Speaker 2: I know I've pitched one of your stories before it
Speaker 2: was ready on the news list, and I'm over that.
Speaker 2: You can let it and there are words exchanged, right,
Speaker 2: it doesn't play out in front of the public, and
Speaker 2: quite often what their exchanges are, they are usually funny,
Speaker 2: whimsical and everyone's in on the joke. This time he
Speaker 2: has attacked her professionalism in a way that even if
Speaker 2: you kind of go yes, she is off with the
Speaker 2: fairies with the star signs, which some people will think,
Speaker 2: other people go no, no, this is a very serious science.
Speaker 2: But wasn't an appropriate time to do that? Probably not.
Speaker 2: And it's a thing about jokey banter with colleagues. Is
Speaker 2: it stops becoming a joke when only one side of
Speaker 2: it's finding it funny.
Speaker 1: She's a listally in a pretty vulnerable place. She has
Speaker 1: spoken in the past few years about overcoming a prescription
Speaker 1: medication addiction an alcohol problem. She went to the Betty
Speaker 1: Ford Clinic. She came back and had this very sort
Speaker 1: of spectacular glow up and is now positioning herself I
Speaker 1: think in the Gwyneth Paltrow mold as a bit of
Speaker 1: a wellness influencer. She started a podcast with her best
Speaker 1: friend Jemma O'Neill, who is also her manager and a
Speaker 1: very formidable broadcast identity in her own right. She's a
Speaker 1: behind the scenes player who's very savvy. They had a
Speaker 1: podcast called Her Best Life in which they talked about relationships, sex,
Speaker 1: but they talked a lot about horoscopes as well, and
Speaker 1: that's part of the evolution of the Australian woman. Horoscopes
Speaker 1: are huge with not only really young women in their twenties,
Speaker 1: but the midlife woman who's maybe she's got divorced, she's
Speaker 1: sick of the toxic guy who sits next her at work,
Speaker 1: and she's all about you know, as they pronounce it,
Speaker 1: uranus rising in sagittarius.
Speaker 2: Now, well, I think it's quite interesting because she's talked
Speaker 2: openly about what her aspirations were with this show. She
Speaker 2: got the two hundred million dollar deal. Obviously that's not
Speaker 2: all her money, it's about one hundred million each for
Speaker 2: Kyle and Jackie. What she wanted to do at the
Speaker 2: end of it, she wanted to use that money to
Speaker 2: live in Australia six months, live six months in Italy.
Speaker 3: So if you want to join me, So what you're saying,
Speaker 3: after this ten year deals up, that's it for you?
Speaker 1: Probably how long have you had this particular dream?
Speaker 3: Jackie forget her dream. The shock here is I got
Speaker 3: nine years left with her. That's it.
Speaker 2: That's a long time.
Speaker 3: We should save the audition for the replacement because I
Speaker 3: plan on dying on it.
Speaker 2: Oh so, it's very much. She's ad a eat prey
Speaker 2: love time of their life, as you say, the star
Speaker 2: signs or the horoscopes, a lot of new age beliefs.
Speaker 2: She's admitted that she has moved into a more woke
Speaker 2: space given her belief while Kyle is very much you
Speaker 2: know Donald Trump. And that's all good for a show
Speaker 2: like you Want. No one is more bored by people
Speaker 2: arguing in furious agreement about how much they concur on stuff.
Speaker 2: The problem is is that it does get personal at times.
Speaker 2: Where as you say, she's gone through all these emotional
Speaker 2: milestones and she comes back and Kyle quite uptenly says
Speaker 2: on the radio show, oh yeah, I didn't read your book.
Speaker 2: I don't care about that, like I don't. And we
Speaker 2: know people who've written books. You don't always want to
Speaker 2: read them. You've got a glance at them at the
Speaker 2: very least look at yeah, but you like it's someone
Speaker 2: like that is a labor of love writing a book
Speaker 2: and from a friend to go, ah, didn't read it,
Speaker 2: have no intention of reading it. I don't care. You
Speaker 2: can think given their persona, she's too resilient to worry
Speaker 2: about it. No, that's a hurtful thing. If I write
Speaker 2: a book, you better be reading.
Speaker 1: It as a business person. Tho style is right, isn't he?
Speaker 1: I mean it is not good radio to hear someone
Speaker 1: talking about as she was in that moment Andrew mount
Speaker 1: Batten Windsor's Stars and whether that was he was facing
Speaker 1: so much difficulty right now. I mean he delivered it
Speaker 1: very poorly, and in twenty twenty six, you know that's
Speaker 1: not the way you give feedback. But he's right.
Speaker 2: Whether or not he's right, do you reckon he should
Speaker 2: have said it then and there, like you said.
Speaker 1: It made good radio. I mean that has been their
Speaker 1: business model in the past. I think it was quite
Speaker 1: reasonable for him to expect that she would fire back,
Speaker 1: or at least that it would be maybe at awkward moment,
Speaker 1: a little bit of outrage from her. They're both also
Speaker 1: vulnerable in a business sense. Their foray into Melbourne was
Speaker 1: an absolute catastrophe. The penis and vagina repartee didn't work
Speaker 1: with Melbourne's audience, who were much more into you know
Speaker 1: what's happened to the piccolo lately. So that's a businessman
Speaker 1: under pressure arguing with his business partner, or a woman
Speaker 1: who's also under her own kind of pressure, isn't it.
Speaker 1: I think he would have a defense if this went
Speaker 1: to court that he could have quite reasonably expected that
Speaker 1: she would ride that out.
Speaker 2: Well, look, you are right. Kind of stop agreeing with me,
Speaker 2: jack You've kind of changed my mind on that because
Speaker 2: I think you're right. Because, let's face it, if they
Speaker 2: try to terminate Kyle's contract, there is every chance this
Speaker 2: is going to go to court. Like we're talking about
Speaker 2: ninety million dollars worth of employment for the next nine years.
Speaker 2: He's going to fight to keep that and say, as
Speaker 2: you point out, here are fifty thousand examples of where
Speaker 2: I've made comments like this in the past, and it's
Speaker 2: part of the joke and it's part of the chemistry.
Speaker 2: So yeah, you're probably right that he would have expected. Hey,
Speaker 2: this is our banter, this is what we do.
Speaker 1: Coming up why the Kyl and Jackie oshow doesn't work
Speaker 1: like it used to. So they've given Kyle fourteen days
Speaker 1: to remedy what they say a serious misconduct. Jackie OO
Speaker 1: is saying in a statement released by the company that
Speaker 1: she can't work with him anymore. That seems pretty definitive.
Speaker 1: They've said they've offered her another show. There's a lot
Speaker 1: to unpack there. Firstly, would anyone listen to the JACKIEO Show?
Speaker 2: I think that aarn is in a real spot of
Speaker 2: bother I don't think that there is a commercial market
Speaker 2: for a Jackieo's show by herself. I don't think there
Speaker 2: is a particularly strong commercial market for a JACKIEO show
Speaker 2: with a different co host unfortunately. And I get that
Speaker 2: she has been the highest paid woman in media, I
Speaker 2: don't think there is an appetite for that outside of
Speaker 2: the Kyle and JACKIEO Show for a major commercial, mainstream audience. Yes,
Speaker 2: the podcast has done quite well, but as you say,
Speaker 2: that is a very niche specific audience that she's talking to.
Speaker 2: Whether or not Kyle would work without jack I mean,
Speaker 2: I can see it being a passing parade of different hosts,
Speaker 2: but I'd actually got to say, I can't even see
Speaker 2: him staying there without her. So it's really difficult. And
Speaker 2: we're also seeing it's in this era where they're trying
Speaker 2: to nationalize shows to make them more broadly economical. They
Speaker 2: don't work outside the Sydney market in commercial television sixty
Speaker 2: minutes Spotlight at seven. They're loath to do stories around
Speaker 2: Kyle and Jackio because they don't work. It's been this
Speaker 2: long known thing. Kyle doesn't work in other markets.
Speaker 1: Jackie has been papped coming out of a sound healing
Speaker 1: session with a full face of makeup and a blow drawer.
Speaker 1: I noticed, So she's obviously getting on with life. Kyle's
Speaker 1: got these fourteen days to patch up the relationship. If
Speaker 1: that's what Ira and thinks can actually happen. Why have
Speaker 1: they said this fourteen day period? Is that? Is that
Speaker 1: to avoid him seeing them?
Speaker 2: Well, I think that this is a legal hurdle. They
Speaker 2: have to give him the opportunity to show cause as
Speaker 2: to why it wasn't serious misconduct. And I think you've
Speaker 2: hit the nail on the head as to what his
Speaker 2: argument's going to be. But they've got to give him
Speaker 2: this opportunity legally. But I think the second Jackie Henderson
Speaker 2: said that she did not feel safe in the workplace
Speaker 2: with Kyle is this is a whole different level. When
Speaker 2: you say you don't feel safe in the workplace with someone,
Speaker 2: This isn't a personal blop. This is irreparable. That's a
Speaker 2: very serious accusation to level against someone. Everything that implies
Speaker 2: is quite serious, and I don't think Kyle saw it
Speaker 2: coming to this, obviously with his updates on air in
Speaker 2: the days after the blop, and I think most people
Speaker 2: outside of it and we heard it, like you know,
Speaker 2: there were people saying, you know, this is where it's
Speaker 2: going to go, and now that's all very serious. I
Speaker 2: predicted on Monday for ninety million dollars each, these guys
Speaker 2: are going to be back, Like, you know, that amount
Speaker 2: of money can mend a lot of wounds. Obviously, you
Speaker 2: know she's prepared to forfeit those riches because she's at
Speaker 2: a stage of the life where she isn't prepared to be.
Speaker 1: She's not going to take it anymore. I mean she's
Speaker 1: had enough, yeah, and fair enough. I don't blame her
Speaker 1: either that it was a distressing Listen that tirade that
Speaker 1: he went on.
Speaker 2: If someone spoke to you like that in the workplace,
Speaker 2: how would you react.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think what you heard there was two quite
Speaker 1: empowered people. He went on a rant. We've all been
Speaker 1: a victim of Rance. If you're the less powerful person,
Speaker 1: you just submit to the rant and you go, yeah, okay, sorry,
Speaker 1: and you go away and cry in the toilets. She
Speaker 1: remained in the moment. She didn't change the subject. She
Speaker 1: kept arguing it out with him, which is very interesting.
Speaker 1: Speaking of stars, and I'm sorry to keep bringing it
Speaker 1: back to this, Jacko. In the past five years and
Speaker 1: this is still happening, we're seeing some stars go out
Speaker 1: in the firmament of Australian broadcast. So we've seen the
Speaker 1: disappearance of John Law's, Alan Jones, Ray Hadley from the
Speaker 1: air waves. You've reported on Karl Steffanovic's time being pretty
Speaker 1: much up at nine. He's got one year left on
Speaker 1: his contract and he says he doesn't know what's left
Speaker 1: now now potentially Carl Sandalans and Jackie O disappearing. What
Speaker 1: is happening here? Is this the end of big money
Speaker 1: and big stars in broadcast?
Speaker 2: Well, I think yes, I think it definitely is. But
Speaker 2: to your point about whether or not you'd accept it,
Speaker 2: I mean it's quite interesting, right, Like if I get
Speaker 2: berated like that in the newsroom by say the host
Speaker 2: of the front saying I haven't done my research before
Speaker 2: coming on. We've all felt like this. We've all gone
Speaker 2: back to a desk and gone I want to quit.
Speaker 2: I'm so close. I'm going to tell them more and
Speaker 2: they'll go home and you have a beer with a maid,
Speaker 2: or talk to your partner and go, I'm so close,
Speaker 2: unfortunately for most of us mortgage rant kids, and you go,
Speaker 2: all right, I've got it. But when you're independently wealthy
Speaker 2: or financially stable, as both of these people are, like Jackie,
Speaker 2: why have I got to take this? You know, like, yeah,
Speaker 2: it'd be great to have all this extra money. But
Speaker 2: she's already well off. She's already bought a home, she's
Speaker 2: building another mansion. She doesn't need to copy it. So
Speaker 2: it's that f you moment that everyone else feels and
Speaker 2: for her goes, oh, I can say.
Speaker 1: It is it also then about employers and the broadcast
Speaker 1: companies just going actually, we've had enough of your drama.
Speaker 1: To the stars. Yeah, we're not prepared to put up
Speaker 1: with it anymore.
Speaker 2: Grow over it. Well, I think it comes back to
Speaker 2: a market value, and we're going to see that at
Speaker 2: nine Radio now that it's been brought by the Laundies,
Speaker 2: and it's greats being brought by a billionaire, and it's
Speaker 2: going to be a private company. But they're businessmen, and
Speaker 2: we're seeing more and more the media taken over by
Speaker 2: people who aren't in it just because they love media.
Speaker 2: It's also being treated very financially as a business and
Speaker 2: the money isn't there that used to be. So we'll
Speaker 2: see it at nine Radio, all their hosts, this is
Speaker 2: how much they're on. But where you're going to get
Speaker 2: that somewhere else? Carl Stefanovig at nine, Oh you're on
Speaker 2: almost three million dollars. Where are you going to get
Speaker 2: that somewhere else? And it used to be, oh, we've
Speaker 2: got to pay this much because seven will swoop in
Speaker 2: or ten will swoop in. No, they're not. They can't
Speaker 2: afford to keep their own stars on their salary. So
Speaker 2: it's going to be this market forces are going to
Speaker 2: drive down all those prices and the era of you know,
Speaker 2: their stars and we've got to let them get away
Speaker 2: with murder that is gone because at the end of
Speaker 2: the day, it's like, well, they need to be proving
Speaker 2: their value and it's not about let's keep them happy
Speaker 2: at all costs, because let's be honest, there's been a
Speaker 2: lot of people that have gone through that. Kyle and
Speaker 2: Jackie Osho as producers who've treated as a right of passage,
Speaker 2: you know, like yeah, you get yelled at an abuse,
Speaker 2: and we've worked in newsrooms where you get yelled at
Speaker 2: and abused. And unfortunately, that era of just keeping the
Speaker 2: stars happy. I say unfortunately, it's not unfortunate at all
Speaker 2: that area is gone because there isn't anyone waiting in
Speaker 2: the wings to steal these stars away with equally lucrative contracts.
Speaker 2: We've seen it time and again. These people leave the
Speaker 2: network that they're on and they find out very quickly
Speaker 2: that they were stars at that network, and that network
Speaker 2: and its resources poured into it made them famous. And
Speaker 2: then when they go off and try to do their
Speaker 2: own thing, they soon find out that without the star
Speaker 2: machine behind them, they're not quite the stars they thought
Speaker 2: they were.
Speaker 1: Well, Jacko, that was absolutely hopeless, and please do better
Speaker 1: next time.
Speaker 2: This is an outrage. I do not feel safe. I
Speaker 2: do not feel safe. I shouldn't joke. But yeah, obviously
Speaker 2: it's very serious.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is serious.
Speaker 2: Thanks Jacko, all right, thank you for having me on.
Speaker 1: Ste Jackson is The Australian's Media Diary editor. You can
Speaker 1: read the latest on this story, as well as everything
Speaker 1: happening in the media right now, at the Australian dot
Speaker 1: com dot au