Ash London, Isaac Smith and Elliot Garnaut lead KIIS Melbourne Breakfast

ARN has spent months trying to work out what comes after Kyle and Jackie O in Melbourne. The answer, at least in part, was already appearing on its social feeds. 

Ash London’s online videos caught the network’s attention before a coffee meeting brought her together with AFL premiership player Isaac Smith and fashion stylist Elliot Garnaut. 

The three have now been paired up and will launch KIIS Breakfast with Ash, Issie & Elliot next month.

It is a very public local reset for KIIS 1011. 

ARN replaced Jase & Lauren with a Melbourne broadcast of Sydney’s The Kyle and Jackie O Show in 2024, but the show failed to build the audience it wanted. Since Kyle Sandilands and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson left the network, Melbourne has carried Sydney’s Breakfast offering with Mike E and a cavalcade of stars while ARN developed a permanent replacement.

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Ash London was already getting their attention

ARN director of content – Metro Radio Dave Cameron said London’s social media had impressed the team before talks about the new show began.

“We've all been infiltrated by Ash's amazing content online in our social feeds.

“Like everyone else, the ARN team loved that, saw it, and embraced it.”

For Cameron, the appeal went beyond a strong online presence. London is from Melbourne, has deep connections in music and can run the technical side of her own show.

“You know, she will be one of the only Metro female anchors of a show that will do her own buttons [panel] as well.

“She can be in total control, as she should be and as she will be. She's quite a remarkable person.”

The coffee that changed the plan

Smith and Garnaut came into the picture through No Utes in the Valet, the podcast they host together. Cameron said he joined a meeting expecting little more than an introduction.

“So, the way we came across Isaac and Elliot was that I jumped in on a podcast meeting, thinking I was just going to have a coffee and meet someone new.

“And we started talking about the podcast the boys are doing, No Utes in the Valet. And we just kept talking more and more and started talking more about radio. Sometimes the strangest conversations take you in a different direction.”

London then came over from New Zealand to discuss what she wanted to do in radio. Cameron said the three were brought together quickly, though ARN has spent months working on the show off air.

“And to be honest, these amazing worlds collided pretty quickly,” he said.

Now comes the harder part

The new team inherits a station still looking for its footing. KIIS Melbourne reached 1.027 million listeners and a 5.3% overall share in Survey 3 this year. By Survey 5, those figures had fallen to 953,000 and 4.8%. Breakfast’s share was 5.1% in Survey 5, up from 4.8% in the previous survey.

London brings established radio experience; Smith is a four-time AFL premiership player and Norm Smith Medallist; and Garnaut works across fashion, commentary and podcasting. Cameron said ARN has heard the new show in development. “And that show, we've heard it, and it's magical.”

He knows winning back listeners will take more than a promising start.

“Radio can be a tough game sometimes, and it takes a while to change audience habits, and we're fully aware of that. But we also know we are going into 2027 with the best product that we've been able to put together, and it's going to create a new direction for the company.”

On 26 October, Melbourne will hear whether the chemistry ARN found online and over coffee works at breakfast.