March 3, 7am update: Sandilands has said on air that Henderson will be issuing a media statement and will be returning to the show “in the future”.
A new week has dawned, and the media news continues to be all about the fallout from the falling out between Kyle Sandilands and Jackie “O” Henderson.
The Australian’s Media Diary was tipping that Henderson would return to the Kyle and Jackie O Show on KIIS today (Monday, March 2) and the two would make up on air.
But that’s not how it played out. After a week away from the mic last week, Henderson was a no-show again and listeners were told she’d be away all week.
However, it was suggested by one prominent commentator that she might not be back. Ever.
Well-connected entertainment reporter Peter Ford said on 3AW on Monday morning: “I’m told there’s a very, very long and very dark cloud hanging over their future.”
Ford said that network management had become involved, with Henderson communicating via her own manager. He added that some senior staff at KIIS’s parent company, ARN, are actually hoping the show dissolves because of the huge financial cost of paying the two stars.
In a largely sympathetic interview with RadioInfo publisher Steve Ahern, Sandilands was in full mea culpa mode, saying: “If I could wave a magic wand and turn back time I would reverse it all.”
He suggested “internal information” had been leaked (presumably to Ford), but said he was leaving it up to management to sort out.
A far cry from the man who used to boast that he “owned” the show.
Meanwhile, I’m wondering how it was allowed to get to this point — and not just this latest bit where management has, apparently, been forced to do some actual managing.
Given that we now know it wasn’t a prearranged stunt, Sandilands’ tirade at Henderson shouldn’t have even made it to air, given there are several producers and a “censor” with their fingers hovering over the “kill” switch at all times.
That it was broadcast speaks to dysfunction, or perhaps even fear, in the workplace.
ARN’s share price, which was up around $2 five years ago, seems to have settled in at 35 cents. The shareholders must be over the moon.
ABC by the numbers
The appearance of a full-page advertisement in the most recent Sunday Mail for the local ABC radio station piqued my interest.
First, I wondered how much our publicly funded broadcaster had paid for the ad — and decided it can’t have been anywhere near what the paper used to charge back when it had a huge print circulation.
Second, I wondered why they were advertising — and decided that the older demographic of print newspaper readership probably matched the listenership of the station.
Third, I noted that the station is now calling itself (ABC) 612 Brisbane. There was a long while there they’d dropped the 612, which tells people with actual radios where to find the station on the AM dial.
Fourth, I decided that meant it wouldn’t be shifting to the FM dial anytime soon, despite this happening in Perth and there being compelling reasons for it to happen here too.
After all that I did some googling and found that somebody is trying to steal Aunty’s identity with an app that has terrible artwork and implies 612 ABC Brisbane is an FM music station from “Queens Land, Brisbane, Australia”.
I presume the ABC’s lawyers will not be amused.
Mister Brisbane is free to read but you if you really like it, you
can buy me a coffee or take out a paid subscription.
Disclosure: Brett Debritz [insert potential conflict of interest here].
Hey Brett. You may want to check your disclosure. :)