Frenzal RhombThe talk of the broadcasting world this week is undoubtedly the reported dissolution in the longtime partnership between radio presenters Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O (aka Jacqueline Henderson).
The titular hosts of KIIS FM’ The Kyle And Jackie O Show, the pair have been presenting the show since January 2004, which has been the subject of numerous awards, headlines, and controversies over its 22-year run.
Though the Sydney-born show garnered plenty of attention in recent years following what has often been dubbed an ill-fated move to the Melbourne market, this week has brought with it the news that the pair’s working relationship has now come to an unceremonious end.
Reportedly, cracks began to show on the Friday, February 20th show when Sandilands referred to his co-host as "off with the fairies," "unfocused," and "unworkable".
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His comments were in reference to what he labelled an apparent "fixation" Jackie O had in relation to astrology, which he claimed disrupted attempts to discuss the then-recent arrest of former prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
While the discussion may have at first seemed like a pre-planned skit, the reality of the heated exchange soon became clear, with Jackie O ultimately giving Sandilands an ultimatum: “If you don't think I'm doing my job well, and don't think I'm very good, get someone else.”
By the following Monday, Sandilands had told listeners that Jackie O’s absence from the show was due to her wanting “a couple of days off to gather her thoughts.”
However, on Tuesday, March 3rd, it was reported that KISS FM had terminated Jackie O's $100 million contract, with the station stating the presenter “has given notice she cannot continue to work with Mr Sandilands”, while Sandilands himself was suspended for two weeks due to "serious misconduct".
While the pair’s broadcasting history can be traced back to 2000, when they both served as co-hosts of the Hot30 Countdown, their shared career has not been without controversy.
Over the years, complaints were made in regard to content that was criticised as racist and fatphobic, while a high-profile 2009 incident saw the pair suspended following misguided questioning regarding a teenage rape victim's sexual history.
In 2004 though, the show also gave rise to one of the greatest feuds in Australian radio history, with the pair setting their sights on Frenzal Rhomb’s Jay Whalley and Lindsay ‘The Doctor’ McDougall.
The incident in question surrounded the band’s planned appearance at Darwin festival Bassinthegrass on July 10, 2004. At the time, Jackie O had just wrapped the latest season of Channel Seven’s Popstars reality series, and her hiring as an MC for the event wasn’t received well by the group.
“I would just like to send out an explicit language warning for anyone with young children here,” Whalley was quoted as saying after McDougall attempted to drown out Jackie O with a rendition of AC/DC’s Thunderstruck.
“I would then like to follow that, like to follow that by saying World Idol, Australian Idol, Popstars fuck ‘em, fuck the fucking lot of them.”
According to an episode of Media Watch broadcast the following month, Jackie O – who was side stage with Australian Idol runner-up Shannon Noll – then burst into tears.
Two days later, on July 12, Sandilands and Jackie O called Whalley and McDougall on air to discuss the situation and demanded an explanation.
As Whalley later told Channel [V], his appearance occurred because Jackie O's people "rang up our record label, threatening to ban us from the Austereo network if we didn't go on their show and explain ourselves."
According to Whalley, a delay in the day’s programming had already necessitated a large portion of the group’s set being cut, and after a poorly-received appearance by the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, Jackie O’s additional appearance pushed everyone over the edge, resulting in his foul-mouthed tirade.
“I amended [my comments] a little later on by talking about the current climate in Australia where original Australian bands are being pushed to one side for the sake of these cover writers, basically,” Whalley explained to the radio presenters.
Whalley explained that it wasn’t Jackie O that he and the crowd had an issue with, explaining that anyone would have drawn similar ire, but criticised the nine-hour delay in her appearance. “We're just very passionate about the things that we believe in.”
The response didn’t sit well with Sandilands, who stated, “your songs ever [being] played on this network or the Triple M network so far is just not gonna happen now.”
“The thing is Kyle, have you ever played us on Austero ever before?” Whalley asked, as both hosts suggested they’d received Triple M airplay before. “Are you gonna actually have to change your playlist not to play us?
“If you people ring up our record company threatening to bury the band saying that we're never going to get played on Austero again, what the hell are we supposed to think? I mean, you've never played us, you’ve never supported us, you don’t support good original Australian music. You're just a mouthpiece for the corporate music industry.”
As Sandilands began utilising foul language in his response, Whalley remained calm as he admitted that his comments were “just a joke” that he “didn’t think was very funny”, and attempted to defend his position.
“The fact is that we believe passionately about what's happening to the Australian music industry at the moment,” he continued. “We believe that people like you guys, you're in this position where you can promote good new Australian talent and you don't.”
“I care about the fact that there are bands like You Am I, good Australian bands that are being dropped from their labels right now to make room for not only the Australian Idol winner [...] but six of the losers that are now being signed to these major record companies to make for, for what?” Whalley asked. “For these completely short term careers so the record company can make a quick buck.
“These bands aren't being nurtured, and for us to cut up on stage and ‘Popstars, fuck ‘em, fuck the lot of ‘em,’ I'll stand by that, and I don't think that that should be offensive.”
While Sandilands admitted his beef wasn’t with the Australian music industry but Frenzal Rhomb’s treatment of his co-host, Jackie O also admitted she wasn’t – as Whalley put it – “tough enough to handle a little bit of heckling from time to time.”
After Whalley offered a sincere-sounding apology for offending Jackie O, Sandilands remarked that Frenzal Rhomb’s representatives clearly weren’t doing a good job if he’d never once been handed their music to play on the air.
“I think that you are the wrong people because you're not gonna be playing our music anyway,” Whalley mused. “If you have ever listened to any of our records, most of it's completely radio-proof.”
Any apparent positive steps toward mediation soon became lost when Sandilands remarked that if it had been him who Frenzal Rhomb had wronged, “it would've been on for young and old from the start.”
As Whalley recounted how one of Jackie O’s security guards came up to the band’s guitar tech with threats of violence after the show, Sandilands confirmed that he did indeed condone such behaviour toward the group.
“You would've come and punched on because we said something about Popstars and Australian Idol?” he asked.
“Can you please just explain why your people are ringing up our record company, telling us that you are going to bury our band and that we're never going to get played on Austereo again?”
In a statement made to Media Watch later that month, Austereo Sydney’s General Manager, Patrick Joyce, noted that “Austereo does not approve of threats being made to anyone about anything.
“We have fully canvassed these issues with both Kyle and [producer] Ryan [Wellington]. Music content is decided by the programming directors based on research of the market and our listeners' preferences.
“As a matter of interest, Jackie O was verbally abused on stage at the event mentioned and at the time had been introducing the band as part of her role during the event,” he added.
Though no official statement from Austereo was shared publicly regarding the band’s apparent removal from the network’s playlist, it appears that relationships have been mended somewhat given that, just last year, Triple M The Border in Albury, NSW gave away tickets to catch the band on tour.
At the time of the incident, both Whalley and McDougall were themselves entering the world of radio hosting, having appeared as sporadic hosts on triple j that year, before taking over the Breakfast slot the following year.
Whalley would leave the station in 2007, and McDougall would follow in 2014, though continues to broadcast ABC Illawarra's Drive program throughout the week.
Somewhat ironically, McDougall’s tenure at triple j also coincided with the station broadcasting acts such former Australian Idol contestant Matt Corby – though Corby himself had undergone a determined musical reinvention.
While it remains to be seen whether Sandilands will remain on air following his current suspension, or whether Jackie O may return to their professional partnership in the future, one can only assume that members of Frenzal Rhomb have cracked a cheeky smile once or twice as they revel in some schadenfreude.
This piece of content has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body
