Duncan Campbell: The long road back for Kyle & Jackie O in Melbourne

You have to wonder whether Duncan Campbell feels a sense of relief.

For the first time since Kyle & Jackie O were networked into Melbourne, and after many a challenging post-survey interview, ARN’s departing Chief Content Officer is finally able to talk about their ratings going up instead of down, albeit only slightly.

In the first GfK Survey of 2025, the KIIS duo rose 0.1 to a 5.1 share in Melbourne Breakfast.

Campbell makes it clear that ARN is under no illusions about the Sydney duo’s future down south.

“We’re very aware of where we are with that station, and that show,” he says in the latest post-survey interview with our sister publication RadioInfo.

“We’ve cleaned the show up. It’s producing some very strong, good content.”

“It’s still the Kyle and Jackie O Show.”

If they’re consistent, Campbell believes we’ll see K & J continue to build their Melbourne audience.

And yes, that will take time.

“We saw the cume go up 46,000, which is a positive sign. If we can convert the cume, then – it’ll be a long road back – but we’ll start the road back for Kyle and Jackie O in Melbourne.”

Campbell says the general public reaction to Kyle’s recent aneurysm diagnosis has been overwhelmingly sympathetic.

“His is one that is requiring monitoring, so personally, he’s concerned about it.”

“He’s got good doctors, so hopefully that all goes well.”

Gold 104.3 was shining light for ARN in Survey 1, with The Christian O’Connell Show knocking Nova 100’s Jase & Lauren off their perch to become Melbourne’s new #1 FM Breakfast show, and gains in all shifts across the day.

Campbell says the Gold result was one of the standouts.

“It’s a solid start. A good foundation to build on for the rest of the year, I think.”

Three months after Sydney’s WSFM officially became known as GOLD101.7, the station saw a drop-off in listeners, but Campbell believes the rebrand was executed well.

And he says ARN isn’t losing any sleep over 2Day FM’s biggest format change in decades, which promises to deliver the hits, before they hit.

“They’re obviously trying to get a foothold in the market, using the new music lever, which is not new – it’s been done before – but I suspect that’s simply to create a bit of noise, and they’ll default back to a more mainstream format in time.”

“It’s also to draw attention to the new breakfast show, which is a smart thing to do. I think they seem pretty committed to this show, which is a good thing. I mean, you can’t keep on changing breakfast shows, you’ve got to at some point bed down.”

“I did say a couple of years ago they should get a good, strong show from the regional markets and put it into Sydney and give it a good crack, and give it time, and that’s what they seem to be doing.”

“We’re not concerned about it, though.”