‘Kyle’s a grubby buffoon’: Steve Price claims Melbourne won’t accept Kyle and Jackie O
Steve Price has dismissed Kyle Sandilands as a “grubby buffoon”, claiming that Melbournites won’t warm to the shock jock and his co-host Jackie Henderson, after the pair signed a “historic” deal yesterday that will see them take over the city’s KIIS FM breakfast slot.
Price made his comments on The Project yesterday, while also admitting the pair are worth the $200 million that ARN will pay them for the ten-year extension. “If you are successful, they will pay you the big money,” Price started, before unleashing on the show’s content.
“Kyle’s a grubby buffoon, and I don’t think grubby buffoons work in Melbourne,” he said, before somewhat steeping the comment back. “I probably shouldn’t call him a grubby buffoon. He’s just a grub.”
“Melbourne will not embrace the style of that program as it is right now,” Price continued.
“Some of the sexually explicit material is off-putting. Sarah [Harris – co-host of The Project] would know better than anyone else on that panel that it’s school drop-off time for kids.
“You don’t want people talking about anal sex at breakfast time, in my view. That’s what they do on that show.
“And Melbourne people are not going to embrace that. Look, the company that is putting them on the air has a different view to that, and I may be proven to be completely wrong, but that doesn’t happen very often.”
Despite the fact that school drop-off also happens in Sydney, where the pair command the breakfast market, Price claimed Kyle and Jackie O were so successful in the country’s largest market due to “lack of competition”, as well as their familiarity.
“They’ve been there a long time; that’s huge in radio. The people who’ve been most successful in Sydney radio have been there a long time.”
As Sandilands and Henderson were signing their historic contracts live on air, Jason Hawkins and Lauren Phillips, the hosts of KIIS FM’s current Melbourne breakfast show were realising their own shaky futures at the network.
“This is certainly not the way we wanted to bow out,” Phillips said yesterday morning during the show. “We didn’t have a choice. It’s a business decision that we have been told is what’s happening. We don’t want to say goodbye.
“We didn’t have to be here this morning to make this announcement, but we’re here.”
This morning, Sandilands began his show by leaving a voice message on Steve Price’s machine.
“Hey you piece of shit, we’ve spoken before,” the message started, before calling Sandilands called Price a “gronk” and told him to “feel free to play this on tonight’s Project.”
He also questioned the idea that “Sydney people don’t work in Melbourne,” dismissing it by saying, “you’re all demented”, adding: “Who cares if Melbourne doesn’t like us? We still get paid.”
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Nathan Jolly is the Deputy Editor of Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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Oh god please no. The last thing we need right now is a Kyle Sandilands / Steve Price feud.
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Having lived in both Sydney and Melbourne I can guarantee that it will work. When it’s the middle of winter, when all the trees have lost their leaves, when it’s a cold grey day in Melbourne there is nothing like this duo to brighten your day and make you laugh. Bring it on.
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This record deal is outrageous and indicative of a decaying in society and societal standards. Cringeworthy reality radio calls, embarrassing people on air – staged or not staged – it is not entertainment worthy of a 200million deal. How can our society support such opulent deals when so many are struggling with the rising cost of living, increased mortgage rates – whilst exposed to the opulent and thoroughly outrageously excessive lifestyle of an extreme minority. If Kyle and Jackie were the types to use that windfall to help others who are so desperately in need. Walk the streets of Melbourne and really see the homeless situation, go visit the people living in the high rise housing commission units, look into the eye of the children who could use hope and opportunity, go to the children’s hospital and see parents with sick children trying to keep families together and pay for parking (discounted but not free). This is real life – not toasting Moët to two individuals who have negotiated a windfall to further increase their own personal wealth without any regard to the real life situations of real people who struggle every day. What it says about a society that thinks this deal is ok, or that celebrates a windfall for two individuals while so many are struggling, and it makes the news – this is disturbing. Perhaps this is a far left, socialist view of the world – and I am not the type of person to express such an opinion publicly – but perhaps we are needing a revolution of sorts to bring people with their heads in the clouds back down to see what is happening back on the ground – in a genuine and authentic way!
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