Boss sacked as Robin, Kip and Corey say goodbye
As family, friends and colleagues form the heart of a teary final KIIS 97.3 Breakfast show, owner ARN also axes its head of content.
Robin Bailey, Kip Wightman and Corey Oates left the KIIS 97.3 building on Coronation Drive this morning after a show that offered a heavy dose of nostalgia, a lot of tears, and some revelations about how radio works.
As they played NSYNC’s Bye Bye Bye, said their own goodbyes and hugged it out, it was confirmed in Sydney that Lauren Joyce, the chief audience and content officer at the ailing Australian Radio Network (ARN), which owns the KIIS stations, is following them out the door. (Radio Today has that story here, and Mumbrella covers it here.)
The Brisbane trio, who will be replaced next year by comedian Craig “Lowie” Low, shared their own thoughts and some tributes from friends, family and listeners.
Especially moving were messages from their loved ones recorded by the show’s producers and heard for the first time by the hosts as they were played to air.
Bailey revealed that seven out of the 10-person team involved in the Brisbane KIIS Breakfast show had lost their jobs and praised one of her producers for pushing back against ARN management in Sydney who had tried to force changes on the Brisbane show.
(This may sound familiar to people at other stations who are constantly battling “experts” who know very little about this market.)
The ham-fisted way the departure of the trio was handled, and the axing of Joyce after just a few months in the job, indicates exactly what an omnishambles ARN has become in the past few years.
The company staked its future on hopes of rolling out the Kyle and Jackie O Show across Australia, signing Kyle Sandilands and Jackie Henderson to record-breaking contracts worth a combined $200 million over a decade — far more than ARN is actually worth.
Sandilands and Henderson have also created a headache for ARN by regularly falling foul of the regulator, forcing expensive censorship measures, and being at the centre of a successful campaign by the Mad F—ing Witches, to stop businesses advertising on their show.
(As a point of difference, it should be noted that Robin, Kip and Corey have generated laughs and audience engagement with segments about snoring, bad singing and doing puzzles, as opposed to the Sydney show’s fascination with urination and sexual acts.)
The Kyle and Jackie O Show has failed to ignite in Melbourne and plans to roll it out across Australia have been halted. Thus, the last-minute decision to install the little-known Low in Brisbane next year.
What about the current trio’s future? Bailey has a book, Flamingos Aren’t Born Pink, coming out early next year, while Wightman and Oates will launch a Broncos-related podcast in February.
Robin, Kip and Corey may be gone — with a show that included far too much Kenny Rogers — but ARN’s problems are far from over. Perhaps they’re better off out of this hot mess.
Here’s their final break:
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Disclosure: Brett Debritz used to work in radio and reckons he could program for Brisbane better than anyone in Sydney. But that does not make him special.