VIDEO: Jackie O quits working with Kyle Sandilands after on-air clash

JASON OM, REPORTER: For 2o years they were radio royalty with the Kyle and Jackie O show.

CALLER:  What’s it like to be...

KYLE SANDILANDS: Polyamorous. 

JACKIE O:  Is polyamory different to an open relationship?

KYLE SANDILANDS:  Katy Perry, we promised we’d get Katy Perry and here she is, she is zooming in.

KYLE SANDILANDS:  Oooh he’s doing it!

JASON OM:  But now they’ve split. Jackie quitting amid allegations of serious misconduct against Kyle.

KENT ‘SMALLZY’ SMALL: Jackie has given notice that she can no longer continue to work on the show with Kyle on breakfast. Kyle has been given 14 days to remedy a serious breach of contract in respect of the show. 

(February 20 broadcast)

JACKIE O:  Tell me where I’ve been off with the fairies during the show, because…

KYLE SANDILANDS:  I don’t have – I don’t have to to prove anything. Go and -

JACKIE O:  No, you do! You can’t accuse me of doing something and then say I don’t have to say it. 

KYLE SANDILANDS: Listen to… listen the program, you’ll hear yourself. 

JACKIE O:  Oh, no, just give me one example …

KYLE SANDILANDS:  Be aware of what’s really going on. 

JACKIE O:  I am, Kyle! That- I totally am offended by you saying something like that!

KYLE SANDILANDS:  Well, too bad if you are, because that’s the reality of what we’re dealing with here.

JASON OM:  This live broadcast last month was too much for Jackie O who walks away from a multimillion-dollar contract.

JACKIE O:  I would never say things like that about you. That’s an attack and I would never do that.

KYLE SANDILANDS:  It’s not an attack, it’s an actual fact

CRAIG BRUCE, FMR KYLE AND JACKIE O MANAGER:  Clearly she was unhappy. That's a lot of money to walk away from, obviously. And the prospect of having to share a room with someone that you're just not connecting with anymore was too much for her it seems. 

JASON OM:  Former radio manager Craig Bruce became involved with the pair in 2005 and worked with them until 2013.

CRAIG BRUCE:  I describe them as killers. They just wanted to win. We did a lot of planning for the show at Kyle's house. It was fun. They supported each other.  

This has been a long time coming, that it's not a single moment. It's not about the argument that some of us have heard from the show Friday a week ago. It's more a combination of a bunch of things that have happened over time and two people growing older and growing apart, I think.

JASON OM:  The show traded on controversy - infamous for crude and offensive conduct.

KYLE SANDILANDS: What’s your biggest number for gang banging, like letting all the blokes run a train, like how many guys have you let had a go at once?

KYLE SANDILANDS:  What a fat bitter thing you are, you deputy editor of an online news thing. 

JASON OM:  The show was slammed by the media regulator ACMA (Australian Communications and Media Authority) again and again. 

Most recently last year for vulgar, sexually explicit and deeply offensive content.

KYLE SANDILANDS:  All the girls here, well not all of them, but a lot of them, have recorded themself urinating.

CRAIG BRUCE:  It was explicit on far too many occasions. It was impossible to listen to with kids in the car.

STEVE PRICE:  I can't even talk about it. I mean, it is such a disgusting thing. It involved urination and toilets, and it was just something that should never have gone to air.

JASON OM:  In 2023, the broadcaster, ARN Media reportedly signed the pair to a $200-million deal. 

Some observers argue the break-up may free ARN from the contract.

STEVE PRICE:  I think whoever did this deal at ARN would be having a hard look at themselves today. I mean $200 million over 10 years, which meant both of them were paid $10 million a year each.

They didn't need to pay them that much, and it was done because they thought that they could network this show around the country, they're going to put it into Brisbane. That never happened. 

They put it into Melbourne and what's happened in Melbourne is it's got itself a 5 per cent share. 

So they've decided to give themselves an out and I reckon Kyle has given them that out.

JASON OM:  The financial outlook for ARN is troubled with a $30-million drop in revenue reported last month.

STEVE ALLEN, PEARMAN MEDIA: Well, it could get very messy because this is a big liability that ARN have. It's in a contract, so it's a liability. 

So the complication for them is they've got to get a program on air, and they've got to get a program on air in two markets, They've got to get a show basically up from next week. 

So if you've got this liability, but then you have to get some new stars and you have to do a contract with them, and they want to know how long, they're not just going to be a fill-in. So it could get enormously messy, both financially and personnel wise

JASON OM:  It’ll be a challenge to find bigger names than Kyle and Jackie O to fill the void.

CRAIG BRUCE:  That's why Australian radio is famous overseas. And yeah, it really is for radio the end of an era.