Source : THE AGE NEWS
The CEO of KIIS FM’s parent company ARN, which broadcasts the controversial radio duo Kyle Sandilands and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson, says while their content “won’t be for everyone”, the duo can make up for its slow start to life in Melbourne.
The Kyle and Jackie O Show made an underwhelming entry into the Melbourne breakfast radio market last year, and is still trailing its commercial competitors in the city.
ARN’s chiefs addressed Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O at the company’s AGM on Thursday.
ARN chief executive Ciaran Davis said on Thursday the poor performance of the show was “rightly a topic of investor interest”, given how much money the company had spent on it.
But he said that ARN always knew the duo would need time to break into the Melbourne market.
“This was never meant to be an overnight success, but they are great talent and we believe in the strategic, long-term investment,” Davis said.
ARN made one of the biggest bets in Australian media history, re-signing the hosts of The Kyle and Jackie O Show to a 10-year radio deal worth $200 million in 2023.
With Sandilands and Henderson paid $10 million a year each, the company has reaped little from its blockbuster investment, and ARN chairman Hamish McLennan told investors at the company’s annual meeting on Thursday that the company was ready to make the tough calls until its bet on The Kyle and Jackie O Show pays off.
“We’ve let over 200 people go in the last six months. That is massive for a business in our size,” he said.
ARN’s decision to offshore some functions and reduce its head count even more aimed to deliver a cost cut of $40 million, or about 20 per cent of its entire cost base, McLennan said.
Davis also took aim at activist group Mad F—ing Witches, which has led a concerted campaign to get advertisers to boycott the show because of its controversial content, saying that ARN wouldn’t be bullied into censoring the show.
“They are entertaining and provocative by design – and that can spark debate. We’ve seen this recently from social activist groups who campaign actively against the show.
“But we stand firmly for freedom of speech, we stand firmly against censorship, bullying and for the role that broadcast media plays in reflecting a wide range of voices and entertainment formats within accepted standards,” Davis said.
The Kyle and Jackie O Show was found to have breached the media regulator’s accepted standards for decency in March. While ARN has been open about toning down the extreme elements of the show, several industry commentators have noted some of the smutty content has crept back into the show recently.
Hamish McLennan, chairman of ARN Media, which owns KIIS FM. He is also chair of News Corp’s REA Group.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
One of the company’s board directors up for re-election at the annual meeting, Alison Cameron, was forced to respond to questions about Sandilands’ on-air conduct, insisting that he is not sexist, but that the board is keen on upholding standards.
“I personally believe that Kyle is not a misogynist or sexist,” Cameron said. “Some of the content is not necessarily to my taste. I unfortunately fit outside the target demographic of 25 to 54, I’m a bit older than that, but there are clearly millions of listeners who do like what Kyle and Jackie O and the team put to air.”
The board also came under fire from some investors during the meeting, with merchant banker and investor David Kingston from K Capital highlighting the “concerning” long-term decline in share price and “chequered” recent deal-making history.
This included the failed takeover of SCA, which cost $5 million, and regional radio company Grant Broadcasters winning the “lottery” when ARN bought it in a $300 million cash deal in 2021.
McLennan noted that the social media and digital giants are having a “diabolical impact” on domestic media firms like ARN, which also faces headwinds from the likes of Spotify.
ARN’s shares started the session on Thursday at 34¢. They were trading at $2.10 at the start of 2022.
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