‘He knows that they’re scared’: Melbourne breakfast’s #1 Christian O’Connell ‘excited’ by Kyle & Jackie O’s invasion
Kyle Sandilands has taken aim at almost all of his radio rivals since hitting the Melbourne market in April, but the city’s #1 FM host isn’t worried at all – in fact, he loves it.
Appearing on a new episode of Mumbrella’s one-on-one podcast, Gold 104.3’s Christian O’Connell said he is excited by the entrance of long-running Sydney heavyweights Kyle & Jackie O into Melbourne, even as the duo aim to take away the UK presenter’s crown.
“It’s interesting the shows he’s calling out on air. Spoiler alert – that’s deliberate, because he knows that they’re scared and he’s in their head. He’s taken up space in their head,” O’Connell told host Neil Griffiths.
“I enjoy it. I’m glad he’s here. It’s making it interesting. It’s making it fun. If you ask any of my team or anyone in the building, it’s excited me. I’ve used it as an opportunity to go further, work harder, be smarter.
“I’ve said to my team, ‘This is going to be a real test of us.’ Because you’re going to have to be really careful about what you spend your time looking at. It’s very easy to get into [Kyle and Jackie O’s] world. And if you’re not careful, you’ll absorb some of their ways of thinking. And suddenly, we’re in a meeting one day, and you’re saying, ‘Christian, why don’t you talk about threesomes?’ And I’m like, ‘Wait, where’s this come from?’ That’s not going to help anyone. Our listeners want whatever we do every day.”
As well as slamming “dumbed down, moronic, noisy cash competition” content that O’Connell believes other breakfast shows are producing, he said it’s obvious to him that some Melbourne shows are now changing what they do in a bid to compete with Kyle & Jackie O.
“… there are some breakfast shows in Melbourne that have clearly been listening and overthinking what they think they should do and then knee jerking,” he said.
“They’re changing the structure of their shows, whether it’s conscious or unconscious. They deliberately try to do strategies, engineer things to deal with Kyle and Jackie O. And I find that confusing, but really funny.”
Listen to the full episode here.
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Neil Griffiths is the Managing Editor of Mumbrella. He joined the company in October 2023.
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