Radio silence for Sandilands as contract deadline looms
Shock jock Kyle Sandilands says listeners still want him back on the show as the final day comes to decide whether he will be sacked by his employer.
Appearing outside his Sydney home on Tuesday, Sandilands said he had heard nothing from KIIS FM’s parent company ARN about whether it would terminate his $100 million contract for inappropriate behaviour.
Sandilands had previously denied breaching her contract by criticizing co-host Jackie “Jackie O” Henderson during a live broadcast on Feb. 20.
However, ARN suspended the controversial presenter on March 3 and said he had 14 days to correct the breach; This means a decision on whether it will return to broadcast is expected on Tuesday.
“At the end of the day I have a contract with ARN and I expect them to honor it,” Sandilands said on Tuesday.
“If not, I have some options.”
Asked whether he would explore buying the media company, which has a market value of about $106 million, Sandilands smiled and said he had “lots of options.”
“I still want to do the show, the listeners want me to come back to the show,” Sandilands said.
The rift between the presenters arose when Sandilands berated Henderson during the live broadcast; Henderson criticized Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor after reading his horoscope.
“You’re with the fairies… every episode, every time you talk, you don’t even know what’s going on,” Sandilands said in her rant.
“You don’t do the rest of the work, and everyone in this building has told me about that.”
In a statement to the ASX on March 3, ARN said Henderson had informed him he could no longer work with the co-host and that Sandilands’ comments were considered a breach of his agreement with the company.
The Sydney ratings darlings are in the second year of a decade-long, $200 million contract that has coincided with a poor entry into the Melbourne radio market.
On Monday, the currently dormant show faced new licensing conditions if it returns to broadcast.
Repeated breaches of decency led the media regulator to order ARN to ensure that no offensive or explicit sexual content was broadcast on the programme.
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