Jase Hawkins reveals what it was REALLY like living with radio rival Kyle Sandilands: 'It was interesting'

Daily Mail​

14-05-2025

Jase Hawkins has opened up about what it was like living with his radio rival Kyle Sandilands early in their careers.
Before they were competing for dominance over the Melbourne breakfast airwaves, the Nova star, 42, and KIIS FM's Sandilands, 50, were colleagues at Triple M in Brisbane.
When Sandilands moved to Sydney 's 2Day FM in 1999 to host its Hot30 Countdown, Hawkins followed, with the pair even living together for a time.
Speaking on the Dos and D podcast, Hawkins gave a rare insight into their former living arrangement - and it's not as glamorous as you might think.
'I was 18. Kyle never went out,' Hawkins admitted.
'His idea of the weekend was I'd go down to the servo and get us Paddle Pops and watch copious amounts of Law and Order in a cloud of smoke'.
The radio star added that a 'big night out' for the pair was a rare trip to the local video shop.
'Every now and then he would be like: "let's go to the video shop", and I'd be like: "I'm putting on my best outfit". I'm 18 I haven't gone out anywhere,' Hawkins said.
'I'd be decked out like I'm going to the club just to go to Video Ezy. I did that for a number of years. It was interesting.'
Continuing, Jase said the pair would waste hours chatting about their consuming passion - radio.
'He's a radio nerd as well so we would just talk radio,' he said, adding that it was something that continued long after he moved out.
'Then when I moved out and eventually dated my wife Lou, Kyle and I would go to the same café every Saturday, every Sunday,' he said.
'His partner at the time and my partner Lou would just be like "oh have we got to keep doing this?"
'Kyle said to the girls one day, "you know when you see guys get together and talk about cars? That's what Jase and I are doing this is our cars".'
When asked about how he deals with the current professional rivalry that exists between the pair, Hawkins was philosophical.
'I don't think there's many douchebags in radio anymore that are s*** canning each other,' he said.
'Kyle likes to go out there and have a crack, but this industry's getting so much smaller, I think everyone's got each other's back.'
Hawkins' words come after Sandilands slammed his radio rival, calling his former assistant a 'little sidekick b***h' on air on Wednesday.
Sandilands said Hawkins, who was once known professionally as Labby, got his first paycheck because of him and was treated like a 'slave' early on in his career.
'Jase Hawkins, who we used to call Labby, but he wanted his own name up in lights... He was a great little b***h around here, a little sidekick b***h,' Sandilands said.
Kyle then went on to note Jase's various gigs in radio following their time together, saying he was a fame w***e.
'Then he wanted to be the big fame w***e himself and he went up to Brisbane, failed. Then went to Melbourne, worked for KIIS, failed,' Kyle said.
However, Jackie went on to note Kyle failed to mention Jase was also a success over in New Zealand where he hosted Jase & PJ with Polly Harding.
'Oh, well, no one knows New Zealand. It's still a failure in Australia but people in America would go, "Oh successful in Australia is not really successful,"' Kyle said.
'Anyway, the guy finally got a run and has had some success in Melbourne and he's very good, don't get me wrong, I don't not like the guy.
'But, you know, really he's had success because of the woe is me campaign that they run down there. "Oh, we got fired." You got fired because the show was s***.'