Kyle Sandilands threatens Melbourne exit as company makes more cuts
Warning: this story contains strong language of an explicit sexual nature.
Controversial radio broadcaster Kyle Sandilands vowed to pull his radio show from Melbourne if its ratings did not improve by the end of the year, as the station's parent company prepared to inform staff of more redundancies and an offshoring of several functions on Wednesday afternoon.
Sandilands, who hosts the KIIS FM breakfast show with Jackie 'O' Henderson, told listeners on Wednesday morning the pair were not going to 'super serve Melbourne and ignore our Sydney audience', after the show's first year of expansion significantly underperformed.
'You either glue on in Melbourne or you [expletive]. One or the other. Here's something I haven't even discussed with Jackie... if we don't rate better by the end of this year, I'm pulling the carpet out. I'll just take the show off Melbourne,' Sandilands said. The show employed a censor to block expletives.
'We're not just going to suck Melbourne off all day, every day,' he added, in response to a new promotional pitch to help drive audiences in the Victorian capital.
He made the on-air comments hours before ARN Media chief executive Ciaran Davis would tell staff of further redundancies as part of a business transformation, which includes off-shoring several functions, including finance, technology and media services.
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'We are changing the composition of our team to become leaner and more efficient, which will involve the relocation of some roles and unfortunately, a reduction in head count,' Davis said in a statement.
During the show, Sandilands said he and Henderson had complete control over the show, with the station's management having no control aside from selling advertisements.
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