Latest news with #TheChristianO'ConnellShow
Sydney Morning Herald
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Small bump up for Kyle and Jackie O as Melbourne crowns new ratings winner
Classic hits station Gold has beaten 3AW* to claim the title of Melbourne's No. 1 radio station for the first time since 1992. Gold recorded an overall audience share of 12.1 per cent in the fourth ratings survey of this year, putting it just ahead of 3AW on 11.9 per cent. But 3AW's Ross Stevenson and Russel Howcroft maintained a whopping lead of 16.6 per cent in the crucial breakfast slot – well above Nova's Jase & Lauren on 10.8 per cent and Gold's The Christian O'Connell Show on 10.1 per cent. ABC Melbourne continues to underperform, falling by 0.3 percentage points to 5.9 per cent – while Gold's sister station, Kiis, is languishing in eighth place overall on 5.5 per cent. It is important to note that survey time slots do not always correspond precisely with program time slots. Gold was launched in October 1991, replacing 'hits and memories' format KZ-FM. It surged to No. 1 the following year, but despite its strength on the FM band, it took more than three decades to repeat the achievement. Loading It's welcome news for parent company ARN, given the continued underperformance of its Kiis station in Melbourne. Last year, Kiis axed its Melbourne breakfast presenters, Jason Hawkins and Lauren Phillips, to make way for a networked version of its Sydney-based show, hosted by Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O. ARN splashed a reported $200 million to secure the pair for the next decade – with their entry into Melbourne rumoured to be the first step of a national roll-out. But so far, Kyle and Jackie O has proven to be an expensive flop in the Victorian capital, despite climbing 0.5 points to 5.6 per cent in the latest survey. Meanwhile, Hawkins and Phillips, who were hired by rival network Nova, are now the top-rating FM breakfast show.
The Age
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
Small bump up for Kyle and Jackie O as Melbourne crowns new ratings winner
Classic hits station Gold has beaten 3AW* to claim the title of Melbourne's No. 1 radio station for the first time since 1992. Gold recorded an overall audience share of 12.1 per cent in the fourth ratings survey of this year, putting it just ahead of 3AW on 11.9 per cent. But 3AW's Ross Stevenson and Russel Howcroft maintained a whopping lead of 16.6 per cent in the crucial breakfast slot – well above Nova's Jase & Lauren on 10.8 per cent and Gold's The Christian O'Connell Show on 10.1 per cent. ABC Melbourne continues to underperform, falling by 0.3 percentage points to 5.9 per cent – while Gold's sister station, Kiis, is languishing in eighth place overall on 5.5 per cent. It is important to note that survey time slots do not always correspond precisely with program time slots. Gold was launched in October 1991, replacing 'hits and memories' format KZ-FM. It surged to No. 1 the following year, but despite its strength on the FM band, it took more than three decades to repeat the achievement. Loading It's welcome news for parent company ARN, given the continued underperformance of its Kiis station in Melbourne. Last year, Kiis axed its Melbourne breakfast presenters, Jason Hawkins and Lauren Phillips, to make way for a networked version of its Sydney-based show, hosted by Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O. ARN splashed a reported $200 million to secure the pair for the next decade – with their entry into Melbourne rumoured to be the first step of a national roll-out. But so far, Kyle and Jackie O has proven to be an expensive flop in the Victorian capital, despite climbing 0.5 points to 5.6 per cent in the latest survey. Meanwhile, Hawkins and Phillips, who were hired by rival network Nova, are now the top-rating FM breakfast show.
The Age
29-06-2025
- Business
- The Age
Advertisers defect amid Kyle and Jackie O's disaster move to Melbourne
Not only has it cut more than 200 roles in the past six months, and off-shored three divisions, top on-air talent have been cut for financial reasons, and shares are down 36 per cent since January 1. Now they are faced with further decisions, such as the future of breakfast on sister station Gold FM in Sydney. ARN is readying Melbourne's The Christian O'Connell Show to go north in 2026 and high-rating Sydney duo Jonesy & Amanda are the expected casualty. The national rollout of Kyle & Jackie O is also expected to continue into Brisbane in 2026, in the pair's native Queensland where its top sales execs will hope for a better result than its eighth-place spot in Melbourne. However, they will be without talent booker Kirsten Ploog, who was recently made redundant. Last month, KIIS axed The Zach & Dom Show, which had run nationally from 8pm to 10pm, reducing KIIS to just five live shows per day. In November it axed up-and-coming presenter Mitch Churi from The Pick Up Show, which airs nationally in the afternoon. Jack Post, co-host on The Christian O'Connell Show, then left last month after contract negotiations fell through, two sources with knowledge of the discussions, speaking on condition of anonymity, said. Loading Radio executives say Post, best known for his role alongside radio royalty Hamish & Andy, was crucial to the show's success over the past seven years, and could be costly as it tries to break into Sydney. He has since been replaced by Alex Cullen, who was sacked by Nine in January after a promo segment for billionaire Adrian Portelli went wrong. Post was approached for comment. Now, with Jonesy & Amanda still in contract negotiations, there is a strong belief they will remain with Gold, but in the Drive slot to accommodate O'Connell's arrival. The pair is reportedly asking for an improved contract deal after Sandilands and Henderson's $20 million per year had raised expectations for radio talent's asking prices. An ARN spokesman confirmed it was in negotiations with Jonesy & Amanda, but he declined to comment further. After plastering the city with billboards telling Melburnians they were now 'behaving', a new marketing campaign now sells Sandilands and Henderson's show as 'Radio Gone Rogue', seemingly a return to their roots as a controversial and unpredictable pairing. There were initial signs of improvement in Melbourne earlier this year after the pair appeared to have cleaned up the content on the show, but it may have begun to affect their native audience in Sydney, where numbers are on the slide. Before long, Sandilands was proudly telling listeners he didn't listen to management, and the day before the second ratings survey results would arrive in April, he let rip on the directive to clean the show up, insisting he and Henderson would quit Melbourne if they didn't get their desired audience. 'We're not just going to suck Melbourne off all day, every day,' Sandilands said. The next day, the show's share would rise 0.7 percentage points (though his comments did not fall under this survey period). On the face of it, the rise was good news. But the show's 'cume', meaning the total number of people having tuned into the show in the period, fell by 4000. Loading When survey three's results came this month, which took in the period of Sandilands' outburst, the pair ceded the 0.7 percentage points from the second survey, dropping back to 5.1 per cent (eighth in the breakfast slot) and they lost a further 30,000 listeners. ARN chief executive Ciaran Davis called the past 12 months an 'unmitigated disaster' during a live Q+A with Sandilands and Henderson last week, according to several media reports. Sandilands blamed the company for the show's underwhelming launch, and said they should have launched nationally at once and spent more on marketing. He again said the audience would come around in Melbourne. Breakfast is the most essential slot of the day for commercial radio, setting it up for a flow-on of the day's listening. Changing or tinkering with a station's breakfast show can be like performing open-heart surgery on a network, as one senior radio executive recently described it, speaking on background. While there are still 9½ years to run on their deal, the first step has so far been nothing but disastrous. Since axing its former breakfast hosts in Melbourne, Jase & Lauren, KIIS has lost a third of its audience, equal to 209,000 listeners. During that time in Sydney, KIIS lost more than 20 per cent of its audience, or 188,000 listeners. To make matters worse, Jase & Lauren, who sat on 9.1 per cent share when they left KIIS, were picked up by Nova, whose breakfast share at the time was 5 per cent, with a cumulative audience of 480,000. Jase & Lauren are now the No.1 FM show in Melbourne, doubling Nova's share to 10.2 per cent, with an audience of 741,000 listeners, sending advertisers flocking in their direction.
Sydney Morning Herald
29-06-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Advertisers defect amid Kyle and Jackie O's disaster move to Melbourne
Not only has it cut more than 200 roles in the past six months, and off-shored three divisions, top on-air talent have been cut for financial reasons, and shares are down 36 per cent since January 1. Now they are faced with further decisions, such as the future of breakfast on sister station Gold FM in Sydney. ARN is readying Melbourne's The Christian O'Connell Show to go north in 2026 and high-rating Sydney duo Jonesy & Amanda are the expected casualty. The national rollout of Kyle & Jackie O is also expected to continue into Brisbane in 2026, in the pair's native Queensland where its top sales execs will hope for a better result than its eighth-place spot in Melbourne. However, they will be without talent booker Kirsten Ploog, who was recently made redundant. Last month, KIIS axed The Zach & Dom Show, which had run nationally from 8pm to 10pm, reducing KIIS to just five live shows per day. In November it axed up-and-coming presenter Mitch Churi from The Pick Up Show, which airs nationally in the afternoon. Jack Post, co-host on The Christian O'Connell Show, then left last month after contract negotiations fell through, two sources with knowledge of the discussions, speaking on condition of anonymity, said. Loading Radio executives say Post, best known for his role alongside radio royalty Hamish & Andy, was crucial to the show's success over the past seven years, and could be costly as it tries to break into Sydney. He has since been replaced by Alex Cullen, who was sacked by Nine in January after a promo segment for billionaire Adrian Portelli went wrong. Post was approached for comment. Now, with Jonesy & Amanda still in contract negotiations, there is a strong belief they will remain with Gold, but in the Drive slot to accommodate O'Connell's arrival. The pair is reportedly asking for an improved contract deal after Sandilands and Henderson's $20 million per year had raised expectations for radio talent's asking prices. An ARN spokesman confirmed it was in negotiations with Jonesy & Amanda, but he declined to comment further. After plastering the city with billboards telling Melburnians they were now 'behaving', a new marketing campaign now sells Sandilands and Henderson's show as 'Radio Gone Rogue', seemingly a return to their roots as a controversial and unpredictable pairing. There were initial signs of improvement in Melbourne earlier this year after the pair appeared to have cleaned up the content on the show, but it may have begun to affect their native audience in Sydney, where numbers are on the slide. Before long, Sandilands was proudly telling listeners he didn't listen to management, and the day before the second ratings survey results would arrive in April, he let rip on the directive to clean the show up, insisting he and Henderson would quit Melbourne if they didn't get their desired audience. 'We're not just going to suck Melbourne off all day, every day,' Sandilands said. The next day, the show's share would rise 0.7 percentage points (though his comments did not fall under this survey period). On the face of it, the rise was good news. But the show's 'cume', meaning the total number of people having tuned into the show in the period, fell by 4000. Loading When survey three's results came this month, which took in the period of Sandilands' outburst, the pair ceded the 0.7 percentage points from the second survey, dropping back to 5.1 per cent (eighth in the breakfast slot) and they lost a further 30,000 listeners. ARN chief executive Ciaran Davis called the past 12 months an 'unmitigated disaster' during a live Q+A with Sandilands and Henderson last week, according to several media reports. Sandilands blamed the company for the show's underwhelming launch, and said they should have launched nationally at once and spent more on marketing. He again said the audience would come around in Melbourne. Breakfast is the most essential slot of the day for commercial radio, setting it up for a flow-on of the day's listening. Changing or tinkering with a station's breakfast show can be like performing open-heart surgery on a network, as one senior radio executive recently described it, speaking on background. While there are still 9½ years to run on their deal, the first step has so far been nothing but disastrous. Since axing its former breakfast hosts in Melbourne, Jase & Lauren, KIIS has lost a third of its audience, equal to 209,000 listeners. During that time in Sydney, KIIS lost more than 20 per cent of its audience, or 188,000 listeners. To make matters worse, Jase & Lauren, who sat on 9.1 per cent share when they left KIIS, were picked up by Nova, whose breakfast share at the time was 5 per cent, with a cumulative audience of 480,000. Jase & Lauren are now the No.1 FM show in Melbourne, doubling Nova's share to 10.2 per cent, with an audience of 741,000 listeners, sending advertisers flocking in their direction.
Sky News AU
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Sky News AU
Ex-Today show presenter Alex Cullen to join The Christian O'Connell Show as resident sports guru following shock dismissal
Axed Today show presenter Alex Cullen has landed a new gig in breakfast radio, joining GOLD FM's The Christian O'Connell Show as its resident 'sports guru'. The Melbourne-based program, part of the ARN network, confirmed Cullen's appointment on Thursday. He will step into the role previously held by longtime co-host Jack Post, who announced his departure in May. The move will see Cullen relocate from Sydney to Melbourne with his wife Bonnie and their three children, marking a fresh start just months after his abrupt exit from the Nine Network. In January, Cullen was dismissed by Nine after accepting a $50,000 cash reward from billionaire The Block personality Adrian Portelli. Portelli, 35, had publicly requested to be dubbed "McLaren man" rather than "Mr Lambo"- a nickname tied to his multiple appearances on the reality show. O'Connell revealed the news to listeners live on air, hinting at Cullen's recent media headlines: "We've got some exciting news on the show- we're bringing in someone new to be a part of our radio family," he said. "…Alex Cullen is a brilliant journalist who is actually looking for a job- you might recognise the name - that guy, who took the $50,000. "Now, Channel Nine might go, 'Listen, we can't have that', but commercial breakfast radio, we're very much up for payola. "Don't worry Alex, you've found a home here, my friend," he joked. In a statement shared by ARN, O'Connell said that Cullen "is a real talent and a very likeable guy". "I called him out of the blue a few weeks ago and we hit it off like old mates," the British radio star said. "He came over for a rigorous interview with me- that to onlookers may have looked like a long lunch with flowing red wine- but we bonded over being dads and a shared love of storytelling and how sport could be delivered on my show. "I can't wait for him to join my team and start working together." Cullen, 44, also expressed his enthusiasm about the new chapter in his career. "This is such an exciting next chapter for me. I actually started my career in radio, so to be coming back to it and joining a show that's so loved and so full of heart is a real thrill. "I can't wait to be on air with Christian, Pats and Rio, and to get to know Melbourne, my family and I are thrilled to be making it our new home." More to come.
