Just days after settling his legal dispute over the termination of his $100 million contract with ARN, Kyle Sandilands has given a no-holds-barred interview with industry podcast The GameChangers.
The podcast is hosted by Sandilands’ former boss Craig Bruce – the man who convinced Sandilands and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson to move from the Hot 30 to the breakfast slot – and fellow radio expert Irene Hulme.
In the chat, which runs for well over an hour, Sandilands is disarmingly honest about everything from the original on-air bust-up that led to the axing of The Kyle and Jackie O Show, to his new role helping Pauline Hanson and the One Nation team.
But if you’re pressed for time (who among us isn’t?), we’ve done the hard work for you, picking out the most intriguing moments from the chat:
Kyle Sandilands in his new studios. Image: GameChangers Instagram
How he really felt in the aftermath of the on-air fight with Jackie
[It was] devastating to me the entire thing. The accusations, the job falling apart and the show falling apart were one thing. But to feel that I wasn’t sure what was real and what wasn’t was real at one stage with the whole Jackie situation, because I’ve always thought we were very open.
Over a decade ago, we said nothing’s off limits between us, and if we do cross a line, we’ll let each other know verbally or visually if it’s a live thing. And that never happened. So I was devastated if that was how she was feeling.
He wonders if what happened may have been a legal strategy
I’ll probably never know [if] it was a legal strategy [but] I’ll probably
never know what happened there, but some old friend of mine who’s like an old radio guy said, mate, it’s like every marriage. It’s you start off cute and cuddly, and everything’s hilarious, and by the end, they fucking can’t stand the sight of you. And he said, There’s no real difference in a work marriage either.
He and Jackie have been in contact
I’ve apologised a half-dozen times, and I’ve sort of let her know what I was doing strategically behind the scenes before the settlement, which she was very appreciative of. I just said to her, look, regardless of what’s been said or what you felt or anything, any time I’ve made you feel anything less than wonderful, I really apologise, and hopefully one day we can talk about that. She was very appreciative of that. And also said she looks forward to, you know, getting through all this and then being able
to chat.
He’s been helping out Pauline Hanson
I was with Pauline Hanson for a couple of days. just spending some time with her camp since all this saga has been happening.
I was just working on getting their messaging across, which I think has been well received. She is really a surprise. She’s like one of my favourite people now. I didn’t like her that much prior. I just thought 30 years of ‘Please Explain’ and word stumbles on the news, like the gotcha moments.
Spending time with her and listening to her, even Barnaby Joyce, who I had no time for, I think I’ve called him a wanker back in the Johnny Depp dog days. I spent time with both of them, and they’re very inspirational. They’re not what everyone thinks they are – a lunatic, racist party of country bumpkins that think that the world should change. [They believe in] a lot more common-sense stuff.
I’ve taken Pauline to meet some folks she didn’t know. Not my gangster friends, mind you, but just more of the upper-society types, who have also expressed great interest in her messaging. And her messaging hasn’t really changed; it’s just clearer now. I’m loving the orange wave.
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He admits that he and Jackie were ‘losing the spark’ on-air long before their on-air bust-up
Bruno [Bouchet, Kyle’s manager] was there to pick up the slack on stuff that either Jackie and I used to sign off on.
But we’d noticed a while back that she just didn’t seem that interested in it [the show]. But it wasn’t enough to have a discussion with her or anything. I just thought, she’s got other things that she’s focused on, and she’d gone through the divorce, and then that was a and then obviously the drug thing, and you know, you want to support and be there.
And until a year and a half later, when it was obvious on air, it was super obvious to me, but obviously, the people who follow the show religiously, they’re gonna see it and hear it the same as I do.
He talks about his ‘lowest point’
When I got the call from Bruno saying that Stepho [ARN CEO Michael Stephenson] had wanted to terminate the contract.
Bruno texted me that, on the phone with Stepho, he wants to terminate the contract. And I wrote whose contract? Like mine or Jackie’s, because Jackie was away. I was still doing it without her. And he wrote back, yours.
And I thought, what the f**k’s going on here? How is this even possible?
And I got on the phone with Bruno after we’d finished with Stepho, then got out of bed, went outside, and saw my wife on the ground with the child. And I pushed these glass doors open that I’ve got into the lounge room. And I looked at her, and she looked at me, and she knew immediately, she was like, What’s wrong?
My eyes welled up with water, and I said, I think I’ve just been fired. So she stood up, and then my son was like, What’s wrong? What’s wrong? And that was quite an emotional, heavy time. And then I didn’t shed a tear about it after that. I think I just went into defence mode, as to, ‘okay, well, what do we do now? How much money do we have? How much is in the bank? What do I owe? You know, I’ve got staff, and I’ve got other companies.
Kyle Sandilands in his new studios. Image: GameChangers Instagram
He reveals the secret behind the KIIS logo
I built the station. Even though I don’t work there, like in my mind, it’s still mine. I picked the logo, I picked the name, I picked everything about it. Even the sexhole lips around the logo, no one’s even noticed. That’s just an open-mouth sexhole.
The KIIS logo, which Sandilands said he designed himself.
He reveals his new show
It’ll be on Monday to Friday, six till ten, live. In the deal, they [ARN] tried to make that not happen. And I said that I’m doing it, whether we do a deal or not. Then they politely reminded me that we have a restriction, and I said, ‘You can shove your f***ing restriction up your a**, take me to court, I’m doing it, whether you guys like it or not’. And then that whole thing turned around very quickly.
It will show up on its own app, and it’s a subscription app. It’s like
a broadcast program through an app.
I think that’s not gonna be ready until the end of July. So we’re thinking maybe the beginning of August. They said 30 to 60 days, and we’ve already been sort of chomping through this with them for a few weeks.
Main image: Kyle Sandilands in his new studios. Image: GameChangers Instagram