Hello, I'm James Cridland, the radio futurologist,
and this is Radioland, my weekly radio industry
trends newsletter, which is also a podcast. And
it's a podcast that I don't edit. Sorry about
that. And we're sponsored by RSS .com, podcast
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can learn more at rss .com. Now, one of Australia's
biggest radio shows, Kyle and Jackie O, has ended.
Tuesday's announcement to the ASX, the Australian
stock market, makes it clear that this is no
stunt. The show is now off the air. Kent Small
is doing the breakfast show in both Sydney and
Melbourne, although this is Australian radio,
so he has to have a nickname, which is Smallsy,
because of course it is. Employment lawyers will
now be involved in two of the biggest media legal
cases in the country as things begin to get messy.
Jackie O. Henderson is now saying that she didn't
quit or resign in a statement that perhaps pointedly
doesn't mention Kyle's name once. Kyle, who has
also taken time away from TV duties, is also
reported to be priming his lawyers for a reported
$88 million. potentially arguing that a similar
argument on air last year wasn't treated as serious
by ARN. His whole show was based on controversy
and a slightly misguided view, in my view, that
ARN's censors should have prevented the argument
going out. Well, there's plenty more informed
coverage in the Game Changers radio podcast.
Now, this may look like a peculiarly Australian
news story, but actually, I think it raises questions
for radio people everywhere. And here are just
nine of them. Question one. Well, Kyle and Jackie
O were on a massive pay packet reported to be
$200 million for 10 years, described by one radio
executive as insanity. That was signed at the
top of the commercial radio wave a few years
ago, but the industry has since seen a decline
in revenue. And this contract seems entirely
unrealistic now. You'd suspect that ARN are pleased
to have an excuse to terminate the show. To sign
up for a 10 -year contract in this media environment
seems careless. So question one, how long are
your contracts? That guaranteed income for Carl
and Jackie O probably made them lazy and disinterested
in staying at the top of their game, and there
is considerable precedent for this in the UK.
Chris Evans, both on BBC Radio 1 and again on
the original Virgin Radio, clearly went through
a period of laziness and disinterest, which cost
him his job on both stations. Most creative people
need to feel challenged to get the most out of
them. So by offering them so much money, $50
,000 per show, it also meant that they were less
hungry to perform well. They earned so much money,
they just needed to turn up, not to be successful.
So question two, how do you pay your creative
people? It's also reported that the $200 million
contract gave all creative control... to Kyle.
So ARN were unable to control the content of
the show. Now, again, this is similar to Chris
Evans, who, as detailed in the Breaking Breakfast
podcast, insisted that he was in charge of the
content of his show. A radio licence holder needs
control of its output. Now, ARN put two sensors
on the show, ostensibly to stop anything bad
going out, but quite what you can do with a 30
-second delay is anyone's guess. So question
three, who is in control? At the same time as
Jackie Henderson signed her $200 million contract,
she also started doing her own podcast called
Her Best Life, co -hosted by her talent manager
since 2022, Gemma O 'Neill, as part of a new
venture called Besties. She left that in January.
Now, I think it's naive to claim that these shows
were competing for audience, as I've heard some
say this week, but the new project was certainly
competing for Jackie and Gemma's attention. When
does a side project derail the main job, is my
question four. The ACMA, Australia's media regulator,
is relatively toothless in what it can do. It
spent the last year investigating the output
from Kyle and Jackie O, but still, hasn't actually
issued any licence changes or fines in spite
of hearing from ARN more than three months ago.
Now, in my view, there is a question over whether
the ACMA is doing its legal duty under broadcast
law. I've got a Freedom of Information request
out for ARN's representation, which you would
assume would be public. So my question five,
what is ACMA doing and who should resign from
there? The mad fudging witches. that's not their
real name, have been campaigning for a long while
against advertisers who fund the show in a campaign
called Vile Kyle. And their website, I mean,
if you're going to use the F word in the title,
then really you don't have much of a leg to stand
on in terms of calling other people vile. But
anyway, their website lists 48 advertisers who
they say they've successfully convinced to stop
advertising in the show. There's no doubt that
this has hurt ARN's revenue. Now, this group
has been dismissed by many in the industry, but
I don't think it should be. People, power matters.
So question six, how brand safe is your programming?
Carl and Jackie O started simulcasting the Sydney
show into Melbourne last year. Making the show
national was the only real way that ARN could
ever hope to recoup some of the costs. But that
has been an abject failure. Some industry pundits
will tell you that it shows that radio needs
to be local to succeed. Others will tell you
that it was just a bad show and audiences in
Melbourne were not familiar with the type of
PURAL programming that Carl and Jackie O have
put out for years in Sydney. I think it was the
latter. And I wonder, question seven, how important
is local? The biggest radio star that ARN now
has is, with all due respect to Kent Smallsy
Small, The breakfast host for Gold, Christian
O 'Connell. He's doing a breakfast show in Melbourne
and now in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.
He's the number one in Melbourne and the exact
opposite of the crassness and lewd output from
Kyle. He's a warm, professional presenter with
a strong work ethic and a real hunger to succeed.
Its first numbers come out on March 19th, Survey
1 always being an unusual one in Australia, being
six weeks long rather than the last two surveys
mushed together, as the rest of the year is.
Sydney's numbers will be keenly watched. So will
the Brit teach the Aussies a thing or two, is
my question eight. And what is KISS if it isn't
Kyle and Jackie O? Some industry pundits have
suggested that the brand is so closely aligned
with Kyle and Jackie O, that it needs an entire
reboot. What's clear... is that in most cities,
Kiss's top 40 format is a highly competitive
space, with Nova and SCA's hit stations also
fighting for the audience, which is a much smaller
audience in radio these days. Gold operates in
a space that's much easier to own, with many
more potential listeners. And I've long argued
that in Brisbane, and who knows, perhaps in Adelaide
and Perth as well, Kiss should move to digital
only, and 97 .3 be used for gold. gold. ARN would
be fools not to do that. So my final question,
question nine, how closely aligned is your station
brand to your biggest star? And what would happen
if they leave? It's a fascinating time in Australian
radio, but there again, it's a fascinating time
in radio overall, and well worth keeping watch.
Elsewhere in radio this week, the BBC appears
to have pulled its Google Speaker Action, or
whatever you call these things. making it impossible
to listen to BBC World Service. From Australia,
Hey Google, play BBC World Service now seems
to default to a random American radio station's
overnight feed. Now that always used to go via
a thing branded on the screen with BBC Sounds,
then a thing just branded BBC. I mean, you know,
it's fine. It's not like there's a new world
war or anything. In the US, one of the largest
radio operators, Cumulus Media, has filed for
bankruptcy. The company which owns the Cumulus
podcast network and Westwood One is trying to
eliminate around $600 million worth of debt.
It'll continue operating under Chapter 11 protection
in the meantime. Competitors iHeartMedia filed
for bankruptcy in March 2018. Odyssey filed for
bankruptcy in January 2024. And Cumulus itself
last filed for bankruptcy less than 10 years
ago in November 2017. In pod news, I love writing
about the history of podcasting. It's a 21 -year
-old industry. It's got surprisingly little information
about the more esoteric parts of its history.
So I'm very proud of a new article that I've
just been writing about Google Listen. Now, Google
Listen predated Apple Podcasts by three years
as a phone app, and by all accounts, did incredibly
well as well. But of course, Google being Google,
they had to... close the thing down. Anyway,
you'll find that linked from my newsletter at
radiolad .email. Something I missed in Brisbane
until I was driving past their studios earlier
on today, Christian broadcaster Family 96 .5
or 965. Is it 965? 96 .5? Anyway, it's now called
Rise 96 .5. So they've got rid of Family, which
is a pretty good thing, particularly Carl and
Jackie O. And now they're calling it Rise, which
I suppose is a little bit more obvious that you're
going to hear Christian music on there. But yes,
who knows? And finally, the BBC responded to
a UK government consultation about the renewal
of its royal charter and how the broadcaster
will be funded in coming years. We will explore
opening up BBC Sounds to UK third parties and
creators, the response claims, which is a brilliant
idea. won the BBC Trail before the launch of
BBC Sounds in 2018, won the BBC Press Released
at launch, promoted again in its 2021 annual
report and has continued sporadically making
piecemeal agreements like with Goldhanger in
November 2024. As ever, Radio France shows the
way and as ever, the BBC appears to be pushing
out new ideas or old ideas dressed as new. I
kind of wish they wouldn't. Now, where am I speaking
next? I am really looking forward to Riga in
Latvia. Two weeks. I'm going via Hong Kong. Don't
worry. I will be doing two things. I'm talking
with Steve Jones of Stingray on TuneIn on Canadian
radio and on more things like that. If you have
questions for me to ask, I would love to ask
them. Please do send them. James at Crid .land
is my email address. That would be fantastic
because I'm very much looking forward to getting
under the hood of TuneIn, which the company now
owns. But also talking about CanCon and all of
that kind of stuff and regulation. Anyway, very
much looking forward to doing that. And also
very much looking forward to a thing that I'm
doing. I think first thing on the Tuesday morning,
the future of audio is people powered. And I
will be talking about what the future of radio
really is. I can tell you now that I now have
one slide. So that's good. I've started. So looking
forward to putting that together and looking
forward to doing that in a couple of weeks time.
It's not long now. I'm also speaking at the podcast
show in London in May, keynoting at that event.
giving the, I'll tell you now, giving the results
of the Pod News report card, which is a piece
of yearly research that Pod News puts together.
So looking forward to that. That should be fun,
as well as recording a Pod News weekly review.
It'd be wonderful to see you there as well. And
I'm probably going to be speaking, as you might
guess, at Podcast Movement in New York, although,
you know, who knows? But all of the details for
that have come out. It looks really good event.
A week long, two days for Sounds Profitable folk
talking about the business of podcasting. Then
a day off when lots of people will be over at
the IAB up front. Then two days with creators
for Podcast Movement. Very much looking forward
to that. More details on that at the Pod News
website or indeed podcastmovement .com. And thank
you to our many supporters, including Radio Today
in the UK, Radio King. Thank you also to Clyde
Broadcast and to Brunn Audio Consulting. And
also thank you to Marty from New York, Gavin
Watson, Greg Strassel. Sam Phelps, Richard Hilton,
Emma Gibbs, Jocelyn Abbey and James Masterton
for being regular supporters. If you would like
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James Cridland. There's a podcast version of
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time, keep listening.