JENI O’DOWD: Real reason those who profited from Kyle Sandilands’ antics on show with Jackie O turned on him

I have never been a fan of the Kyle and Jackie O Show. Crude humour is not my thing, and Kyle Sandilands’ shock-jock style certainly isn’t either.

But even I know one thing: the show was built around Kyle.

When I did occasionally listen, it was obvious who the star was. Kyle, not Jackie, was the one who created Sydney’s top-rating breakfast program and built a huge audience on a mix of celebrity interviews, stunts and his brand of humour.

I am not saying Jackie O is not talented. She definitely is. But in this particular case, it was the King Kyle show, no matter what the program was called.

It was Kyle, 51, who kept people listening by pushing the boundaries with his ridiculous antics and crude suggestions. It was Kyle people tuned in for, not the giggling Jackie sitting next to him.

Which is why the current situation looks so strange.

Kyle has been very publicly thrown under the bus by ARN and told to “explain himself”, while Jackie is reportedly being offered another show on the ARN network.

Why?

Jackie sat next to him for years. She smiled, laughed and played along while he said outrageous things or bullied guests. There was no storming out of the studio then. No refusal to work with him.

She enabled the act that made the show a hit. And she was very happy to collect the enormous salary that came with it.

ABC radio host Virginia Trioli made a similar point last week. If you choose to collaborate in that kind of radio, she said, you cannot pretend later that you had nothing to do with it.

She argued that if you are prepared to sit beside someone making offensive jokes and controversial remarks, and take the money that comes with it, you also carry some responsibility for the product that goes on air.

Suddenly the same behaviour that made the network millions has become ‘serious misconduct’.

The reason the show ended was not that Jackie suddenly felt unsafe in her workplace. It was not because she refused to work with Kyle.

It was because the economics of commercial radio have changed.

Their reported $200 million radio deal, believed to be worth about $20 million a year between them, is an extraordinary sum to pay in today’s media market.

That kind of contract might make sense if the show were dominating multiple markets, but it wasn’t.

For all its success in Sydney, the program struggled to translate to Melbourne audiences.

Which is why you have to wonder whether the executives at ARN Media were secretly delighted when the on-air fight exploded.

But why throw Kyle under the bus?

For years, the company happily profited from his outrageous behaviour. His shock jock persona was not a secret; it was the entire business model.

Controversy drove attention. Attention drove ratings. Ratings drove advertising revenue.

Suddenly, however, the same behaviour that made the network millions has become “serious misconduct”. Yeah right.

According to ARN, Kyle’s comments during an on-air spat on February 20, when he mocked Jackie’s interest in astrology and suggested it affected her ability to do her job, breached workplace standards.

Now the company has suddenly, and very conveniently, discovered workplace etiquette.

Both Kyle and Jackie are, of course, wealthy enough that they could retire tomorrow and never work again.

Jackie certainly doesn’t need another radio show, although you suspect plenty of listeners would tune in for a program about astrology and the lifestyle topics she enjoys.

Kyle certainly does not need ARN.

He has enough money to fight the network in court if he wants to. He also has the ego and the audience to launch his own podcast tomorrow and make it a success.

He doesn’t need the network nearly as much as the network seems to think it doesn’t need him.

The real irony is that experienced radio talent like Kyle is incredibly difficult to create.

You cannot manufacture personalities with that kind of audience connection overnight.

Yet media companies increasingly behave as though they can.

More and more often, they dump expensive, experienced broadcasters or journalists in favour of cheaper and younger replacements, assuming the audience will simply follow along.

Most of the time it doesn’t work.

It isn’t that younger broadcasters or journalists lack talent. What they don’t have are the years it takes to build a real connection with listeners or readers.

Kyle Sandilands did, and he turned that connection into one of the most successful radio shows in the country.

And if ARN really believes it can replace that overnight, it may be in for a very rude surprise.

Sandilands himself insists the relationship with Henderson was never beyond repair.

“Jackie and I have worked together for over 25 years,” he said in a statement. “She is one of the most important people in my life.”

“I have a contract with ARN that runs until 2034. I am committed to that contract. Despite what ARN says, I am not in breach of that contract.”

ARN’s stance looks less like a moral stand over workplace behaviour, and much more like what it may have been all along: a way to wiggle out a very expensive commercial contract.