Duncan Campbell: “What we hoped would happen is happening”

This time last year, Kyle Sandilands boldly declared that he and Jackie O Henderson would be #1 in Melbourne by Christmas.

How things have changed.

This week, he vowed to pull their KIIS Breakfast show off air in Melbourne altogether if the ratings don’t pick up by the end of the year, telling listeners “We’re not just going to suck Melbourne off all day every day.”

You have to wonder whether ARN management is OK with Sandilands making public statements like this, but Duncan Campbell isn’t reading too much into it.

In a post-Survey 2 interview with our sister publication RadioInfo, ARN’s outgoing Chief Content Officer says that’s just “Kyle being Kyle.”

Campbell – who transitions out of his current role at the end of June – reminds us there are multiple sides to Sandilands.

“There’s a King Kyle character, which he has on the air. He does play up to that occasionally.”

And Campbell says that as far as his audience is concerned, Kyle runs the show.

“It’s him being playful, really, in terms of listeners. Listeners love to hear him being the anti-establishment person that he is.”

“A lot of it is theatre, we have to remember that. The King Kyle character is on the air – he’s always been like that on air. He’s always been bullish like that.”

But from a management perspective, Campbell maintains the relationship ARN has with Kyle and Jackie O is very strong. And getting the show to #1 in Melbourne is still the goal.

Survey 1 of 2025 brought a cume increase for the duo. This one saw their share go up 0.7 to 5.8.

“So what we said we hoped would happen is happening,” says Campbell. “We’re now converting cume.”

Kyle & Jackie O have now notched up 50 consecutive surveys at #1 in Sydney and Campbell can see positive signs for Melbourne.

“We’re not shying away from the fact it’s going to be a longer road to success than we had hoped for,” he says.

Campbell says Sandilands isn’t being belligerent just for the sake of it, and that everyone on the team understands where the show needs to be in terms of content.

“He’s been very committed to the modification of direction in terms of content this year.”

In simple terms, it’s all about converting casual listeners into fans of the show.

Campbell declines to comment about the latest round of redundancies at ARN, news of which broke just hours before the release of Survey 2.

“Out of respect for those people who have been made redundant, I mean … I’m really here to talk about survey results,” he says.

“I think it’s obviously an emotional week at ARN, so I think – I want to focus on the results today, because it’s important to acknowledge there’s a lot of work that goes into these survey results”

After what Campbell describes as an abrasive entry into the Melbourne market, he believes the Kyle & Jackie O Show is back on a much more even keel.

“Once you understand the show and become familiar with it, it’s a very hard show not to listen to. It will take a bit of time in Melbourne.”

Campbell is full of praise for Gold 104.3’s The Christian O’Connell Show, still Melbourne’s outright #1 FM Breakfast team.

“He does have a deep connection with the audience. It’s a very inclusive show, and that’s one of the key pillars to his success.”