Suspended after “serious misconduct” as Jackie Henderson exits KIIS FM
Updated ,first published
KIIS FM addresses the spectacular collapse of Australia’s most expensive radio show: Kyle and Jackie O The show, which has dominated the Sydney FM market for decades, is at the start of Wednesday’s live broadcast.
Fill-in host Ken “Smallzy” Small told listeners: “This is not how I expected to be here on Wednesday morning. There’s a statement I was asked to read before we start this morning.”
The stand-in broadcast comes after KIIS parent company ARN announced to the stock exchange late on Tuesday that Henderson would no longer be presenting. The Kyle and Jackie O Show and Sandilands was suspended for two weeks for “serious misconduct”. He told her he would host another show on the KIIS network.
“For our KIIS listeners, we have some big news for you,” said Small. “Jackie informed me at breakfast that she could no longer continue working on the show with Kyle. Therefore, Jackie has now officially left the show. Kyle has been given 14 days to remedy a serious breach of contract regarding the programme. During this time he will be off air. Otherwise the contract will be terminated. This is what I have been told and what I have been asked to read to you. You have officially heard from us.”
“There’s a saying in show business that the show must go on. Today you’re all back to work. You wake up and live your own lives. My name is Smallzy. I’m not here to replace either of them. I’m just going to tell us that I love radio and as someone who grew up listening to radio. Kyle and Jackie O Show, it was as much of a shock to me as it was to you to hear this. But it’s Wednesday morning and it’s a new day, so let’s go.”
Shortly after 7 a.m., Small and Brooklyn Ross Kyle and Jackie O’s The news anchor discussed the show’s cancellation.
“I don’t think anyone could believe what happened,” Ross said.
“I just wanted to check on you,” replied Small, who previously worked with Sandilands and Henderson on 2Day FM. “I really appreciate you being here this morning because I got a call late last night and I said, ‘Sure, whatever I have to do to keep the station on the air.’ But I appreciate you coming in and doing it because people are listening right now and it’s a shock to them.”
Ross responded: “I was on the show for 12 years. Wow. And of course they’re great friends with Jackie and Kyle. And yeah, I just…”
“Did you get drunk last night?” Little intervened.
Ross said he didn’t do it because he knew he had to work today, adding that his time on the show “was an amazing journey, so I’ll always remember that.”
Small later noted: “There’s a saying on the radio [that] ‘You can never make it to one last show.’ Sometimes you can never make the last show. I was known to be told this once before I was fired.
“No one knows,” Ross replied. “I don’t know anything about what happened… but I know I’m still here, so I’m glad about that.”
Small later said: “I know it’s strange for those who work here at KIIS, and it’s strange for the people listening too… people underestimate the impact of waking up every day, turning on the radio and hearing two voices you grew up with.
“People drive to work or home every day and get married or divorced; radio is entertainment and an escape and there are two voices that you trust and are familiar with. When that changes it’s a huge shock to the system.”
Small also admitted: “I have legal notice [from management]”, which limited what he could say about the debate.
before Kyle and Jackie O The program was crucial to the ARN’s financial success, as evidenced by the struggles of Sandilands and Henderson’s former station, 2Day FM, in the breakfast space since they were poached by the ARN in 2013. The company paid a huge sum to lure them and in 2023 signed the duo to a record-breaking $200 million contract to secure their services for another channel. 10 years.
Multiple sources at KIIS’ parent company ARN, who were not authorized to comment publicly, told this imprint that they were “very pleased” and “relieved” by the news.
One ARN employee said in this thread: “We’ve had hundreds of redundancies since [Sandilands and Henderson] They signed a contract at the end of 2023.
“The truth is that this expenditure was never justified by the advertising revenue they brought in. Kyle and Jackie always did well in Sydney, but Melbourne was a disaster. The initial idea was to promote the show first to Melbourne, then to Brisbane, before releasing it nationwide – but their performance in Melbourne was so bad that it put the brakes on that plan, which forced the company into all these drastic layoffs.”
In Sydney, where Kyle and Jackie O placing the show ahead of all FM rivals, the pair finished 2025 with 12.7 per cent of the current audience. But they fell to a new low of 5 per cent in Melbourne, placing them eighth overall. (The first radio rating survey of 2026 will be published in mid-March.)
“I think it’s fair to say it’s a blessing in disguise, or perhaps just a blessing, full stop,” one ARN insider said. “The biggest risk is that KIIS will lose its No. 1 position [on the FM ladder] If Kyle were to resign or take over in Sydney it could cause all kinds of problems. But you have to look at the big picture: We were locked into a $200 million contract that was effectively an albatross around the company’s neck.
“This is a chance for a fresh start: it could be a financial reset and gives us the opportunity to get back some of the listeners we’ve lost in Melbourne. Other companies have tried airing breakfast radio shows over the network in different cities before and it’s never really worked. This is further evidence that radio has to be local – especially during the crucial breakfast hours when you make most of your money.”
Another ARN employee, who is not based at the company’s Sydney headquarters, said the impact of the job cuts was being felt “in every ARN office across the country”.
“This place is noticeably emptier,” the employee said, and requested that his workplace be kept secret to reduce the risk of being identified by management. “There are fewer sales staff, less experienced producers — some of whom got the job because they were highly paid, which meant we lost a lot of talent and institutional knowledge — and fewer people in general. You come in every day and see these empty desks, and it’s very discouraging.”
The trigger for the rift between Sandilands and Henderson occurred during a livestream on Feb. 20, sparked by a discussion about astrology that left Sandilands questioning her co-host’s work ethic.
“You’re with the fairies, you’re unfocused, you don’t care… everyone in this building has told me about it,” Sandilands said in response to Henderson’s review of the “natal chart” of the disgraced Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew.
Henderson decided to take a week off to “collect his thoughts” but did not return on Monday as expected.
ARN was forced to use additional censors after the incident. Kyle and Jackie O show violated the industry’s code of ethics a dozen times in 2025.
Sandilands told listeners last year that the show would not appease Melbourne audiences. Rather than tone down his controversial broadcast style, he said he opted to remove his show from the city entirely, adding: “We’re not going to suck up Melbourne day in and day out.”
The duo, who started working together in 1999, are no strangers to controversy. Hired by rival network Austereo (now known as Southern Cross Austereo), they aired a stunt in which a 14-year-old girl was hooked to a polygraph before being questioned about her sexual history, leading to her revealing that she had been raped when she was 12 years old.
They also told a Cambodian-Australian woman that they would bring her niece to Australia, but explained that she would be put behind one of three doors and if the woman could not choose the correct door, her niece would be sent home. After choosing the wrong door, the woman cried and begged until the owners said her nephew could stay.
Sandilands has previously faced criticism for suggesting that beloved artist Magda Szubanski was sent to a concentration camp to lose weight; calling a journalist a “huge asshole” before threatening to “catch him”; and making fun of a disabled baby.
Last week Sandilands rubbished reports that: Kyle and Jackie O The show was about to end. “This goes to show that you can never believe what you read in any newspaper,” he said.
Among the songs played on Wednesday’s broadcast were: Surviving Written by Destiny’s Child; Anti-Hero by Taylor Swift (“I’m getting older but I’m never getting any wiser… I shouldn’t be left to my own devices… one day I’ll watch you go ’cause you’re tired of my schemes”); I’m running Haven (“Come closer, know that I am a mess, tangled in wires, unable to catch my breath”) and How you Remind Me by Nickelback (“I was never a wise man… this is how you remind me of what I really am… this time I was wrong”).
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Michael Lallo is senior culture writer for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect with: X or email.
