Has KIIS already signed Kris?

Kris Fade: Image: Virgin Radio Dubai

Something happened last week that immediately made me wonder whether ARN has already signed up Kris Fade to host KIIS Sydney Breakfast.

A post-survey proclamation from ARN Chief Content Officer Kerri Elstub – delivered with conviction mere months after the Kyle & Jackie O Show blew up – stopped me in my tracks.

“Our plans for next year – that we cannot tell you about – are really exciting, and we 100% know that the ratings are going to return for KIIS Breakfast.”

At the same time, Elstub also played down the revolving door of KIIS Breakfast co-hosts:

“What you have read and seen online and in the papers about us auditioning a whole bunch of people simply is not true.”

In an industry currently as volatile as this, it’s a career-defining call to be 100% certain of anything, let alone the future of an FM Breakfast show at the centre of one of the biggest upheavals in Australian radio history.

That is, unless:

You’ve not only found the talent that ticks all the boxes …  

You’ve already signed them up.

Which brings me back to my original thought: How could Fade not be part of ARN’s equation?

Already a bona fide radio superstar in Dubai, Fade is no stranger to the Sydney market.

When Fade hosted The Kris Fade Show nationally across the KIIS Network, then-ARN Content boss Duncan Campbell declared him not only a great radio talent, but a great fit for the network.

In March this year, the radio rumour mill went bonkers. When asked directly if he’d been approached by ARN after K & J’s departure, Fade’s “no comment” response generated more questions than it answered.

Shortly thereafter, Game Changers Radio co-host Craig Bruce said Fade had confirmed to him that he had actually spoken with ARN – but that there was no specific offer on the table.

Of Elstub’s bold prediction, Bruce tells Radio Today “You can’t make a ‘100% better’ statement without having some level of certainty around what you’re doing.”

“Kris is the only person I would be 100% certain about in terms of someone having an impact in the market.”

“If not Kris, then who?”

Fade has little to prove. From starting out as an EDGE 96.1 street teamer in Sydney to becoming the voice of the Middle East – a man so famous, he’s been immortalised in wax – in radio terms, he’s already reached the pinnacle.

Of course, for Fade to relocate to Australia, his asking price might be a major sticking point for ARN. But consider this: His loved ones are here. In Sydney, no less.

Maybe, just maybe, it’s less about money, and more about family.

I’ll eat humble pie if I’m wrong (no guts, no glory), but ARN continues to neatly sidestep the Kris Fade rumours thus far – neither ruling him in, nor out.

Just like the months of rumours which surrounded Kent ‘Smallzy’ Small’s eventual move to KIIS – for now, ARN is happy to sit in the speculation.