ACMA attempts to desex the Kyle and Jackie O Show
Kyle Sandilands and Jackie Henderson eyeball Mumbrella during the ARN upfront (Mumbrella)
The communications watchdog will impose a new licence condition that will ban the Kyle and Jackie O Show from using strong and explicit sexual references.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) filed a notice of intention to impose an additional condition on ARN’s station license for KIIS 1065 in Sydney. While the restriction only mentions the Sydney station, because the Kyle and Jackie O Show is simulcast in Melbourne, the ban will effectively apply to that market also.
The condition restricts the Kyle and Jackie O Show, as well as any other show featuring either Kyle Sandilands or Jacqueline Henderson, from making any references to sexual activity or sexual descriptions.
The filing notes that sexual references “include spoken words, innuendo and/or sound effects that would be understood by the ordinary reasonable listener as having a sexual meaning.”
The condition will last for five years from implementation, and requires ARN to “ensure that the program does not broadcast content which is highly offensive to an ordinary reasonable listener, or which contains strong and explicit sexual references.”
ACMA notes that a single reference within any program is enough for enforcement.
In addition, ARN must commission an independent audit of the show’s ‘governance framework’ from a compliance expert within six months of the condition coming into effect. If improvements are recommended, the station has three months to implement them.
There is no reference to penalties in the filing, however any breach of an additional licence condition can lead to remedial directions which, if also breached, means ACMA could then seek an order from the Federal Court to impose civil penalties or a licence suspension.
Sandilands and Henderson at the ARN upfront, where there were definitely some sexual references made on stage
The Kyle and Jackie O show has broadcast on a slight delay with the use of a ‘dump button’, at the direction of ACMA, since a controversial lie-detector segment in 2009, in which a 14-year-old girl revealed on-air she had been raped.
That segment aired on the pair’s former station, 2DayFM, and resulted in the addition of a new license condition that “requires the station to not distress, humiliate or exploit any people under the age of 18.” Although this condition didn’t carry over when the pair jumped ship to KIIS, the show still employs a delay and dump button.
The show introduced a second censor in 2023, again at the direction of the watchdog, after comments Sandilands made about Paralympians fell foul of the Code.
Last November, during Senate estimates, Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young attacked the watchdog for failing to fully investigate the show, after ACMA chair Nerida O’Loughlin confirmed the program had received 59 complaints between July and November, 2024.
“This is revolting, sexist, racist, misogynistic, divisive stuff on free to air radio from 6am in the morning to 10am in the morning, and you haven’t investigated it?”, she asked.
Hanson-Young handed O’Loughlin a piece of paper with quotes from the show, and invited her to read them out, which O’Loughlin declined to do, saying she “wouldn’t think they were appropriate for parliamentary language”.
ACMA chair Nerida O’Loughlin at Senate Estimates last November
Last month, ACMA found that the show had committed seven breaches of the Code in shows that aired between August and December 2024, including an episode Hanson-Young singled out in Senate that featured “a competition where they got female staff to record themselves urinating.”
ACMA’s ruling found these shows “included comments about the genitals of participants, and in the female staff member episode, graphic comments about menstruation and oral sex.”
This year alone, ACMA has found 12 different breaches of the code from the show. During a July program, Sandilands took aim at the watchdog during a spray over contempt of court laws.
“Some laws are just so dumb and stupid, and I’m not playing ball,” he said. “I do what I want to do – and if you don’t like it, tough shit. That’s the way it is with me.
“Judges can shove it in their arses, ACMA can shove it in their arses, and so can the management of the radio station.”
In the October ruling, O’Loughlin threatened ARN with further sanctions, noting the show has “repeatedly and deliberately aired content that is vulgar, sexually explicit and deeply offensive”.
She wrote in a statement issued with the ruling: “ARN as the licensee of these stations appears unwilling or unable to rein in these presenters.
“As a result, the ACMA is currently considering enforcement actions so that ARN takes full responsibility for the content broadcast on their stations.”
An ARN spokesperson told Mumbrella the network “respects the role of the Australian Communications and Media Authority and the Commercial Radio Code of Practice, and we will respond formally in due course as part of the process.
“The Kyle & Jackie O Show is Australia’s most listened-to radio show, enjoyed by more than 1.6 million listeners each week.
“ARN will continue to support Kyle and Jackie O in doing what they do best – creating great content that entertains and connects with their huge and loyal audience base.”
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