The return of Kyle and Jackie O’s morning show on 2DayFM, to me, embodies everything that’s wrong with commercial radio.
Like many around the country (if the thousands of comments on news sites are any indication), I was shocked and appalled by the incident that left a 14 year old girl and her mother victims of what amounts to nothing more than commercial exploitation at the hands of a no-talent hack like Kyle Sandilands. I applauded Ten’s decision to dump him as a judge on Australian Idol, but was skeptical about Austereo’s suspension of the Kyle and Jackie O show, “pending review,” they said.
My suspicion, as it turned out, was justified.
Barely even acknowledging the harm this stunt has caused let alone taking a stand, Austereo has seen fit to reinstate them from suspension while lapping up the bonus publicity that will no doubt translate to an audience windfall come next Tuesday morning.
Having spent the better part of the last decade in radio including a year as GM of a community station in Adelaide, I am not surprised by Austereo’s decision to bring them back. The ugly truth is that this is the bread and butter of commercial: trashy, meaningless drivel masquerading as ‘controversy’. Instead of cultivating quality talent with real substance, a la Hamish and Andy, it has become easier to allow the likes of Kyle Sandilands to pollute and molest the airwaves. The question is, however, at what cost to the community? When does common sense and decency get a guernsey, or does that no longer matter?
Adam Ferrier put it best in his open letter on mUmBRELLA where he urges the ad industry to do what’s right and hit commercial radio where it hurts and refuse to sponsor any radio show that stoops to such depths in the quest for ratings.
For the sake of commercial radio’s soul, I hope they listen.
Just as you are suspicious about Austereo, I am suspicious about the mother and daughter. Something’s not right about the whole thing. Sure has worked for them, though.
True, but regardless of the mother’s claims or any other questions surrounding the incident, my objection is why commercial radio persists with dubious stunts like this in the first place.
I agree with your statements, Mal but I can’t help but think they’re just giving listeners what they want. It has been proven time and time again that these publicity stunts work, otherwise they wouldn’t continue doing them. I read this morning that The Good Guys have stopped sponsoring Kyle & Jackie O – how did I hear about it? Via Twitter because it’d been published and RT’d, thus, adding fuel to the fire. So while advertisers are moving away from sponsoring the show, they’re also jumping on the publicity bandwagon by doing so.
It’s a publicity machine that will only be stopped by listeners tuning out. I expect that will happen when we all stop rubber necking at car crashes.