Kyle Sandilands bracing to be sacked as D-day passes
Kyle Sandilands was given until Tuesday to rectify an alleged breach of his contract. Photo: Facebook
Radio shock jock Kyle Sandilands is reportedly bracing to be sacked as the deadline for him to remedy his breach of employment with ARN passed on Tuesday.
News Corp reports that one half of the Kyle and Jackie O Show “expected to be terminated” from his job at KIIS FM.
“It’s what this has been all about with the management since it started,” a source said.
However, Sandilands was reportedly working on a possible plan B, with suggestions he was contemplating buying the network.
“It’s early days, but yes, there have been talks with people about this,” an insider told News Corp.
“The bottom line is the value of ARN is getting cheaper by the day the longer this goes on and he’s not on air. Market cap is about $100m.”
The show’s parent company had lost control of the content the controversial show produced, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) said on Monday.
It cited examples where the duo referenced masturbation, pornography, menstruation and oral sex.
Another decency breach occurred when the show played audio of staff members urinating with hosts then guessing if the sound was a male or a female, ACMA said.
The show has not aired since March 3 and has effectively been cancelled, after host Sandilands berated co-host Jackie “Jackie O” Henderson, criticising her for looking into Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s horoscope.
ARN Media — which operates the KIIS, GOLD and iHeart brands in Australia — has since accused Sandilands of breaching his $100 million contract due to an act of serious misconduct.
He had until Tuesday to remedy.
Should the show air again, ACMA chair Nerida O’Loughlin said the ball would be in ARN’s court to ensure they controlled what content got to air.
“To date, ARN management have been unwilling or unable to control the content that has gone to air,” she said.
“These additional licence conditions mean further breaches will attract strong enforcement action that was not otherwise available to the ACMA.”
The extra conditions warn that the show must not broadcast content which is “highly offensive or which contains strong and explicit sexual references by the standards of an ordinary reasonable listener”.
In a statement to the ASX, the broadcaster said it respects the regulator’s decision and would consider its options.
“ARN has already taken steps to ensure compliance and brand safety in line with these licence conditions,” it said.
If ARN breached the conditions, penalties include civil penalties or suspension and cancellation of the licence.
After previous breaches, ARN employed two censors for the program.
ARN said on March 3 that Henderson gave notice she could no longer work with her co-host and it considered Sandilands’ comments a breach of his agreement with the company.
“You’re off with the fairies … every segment, every time you’ve spoken, you don’t even know what’s going on,” Sandilands said in his rant.
“You’re not doing the rest of the job and everyone in this building has mentioned it to me.”
Sandilands has denied the breach and insisted he will be back on air.
-with AAP
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