“We’ve removed the graphic sexual content. But it’s not going to be a sanitised show.” Duncan Campbell maintains Kyle & Jackie O will be a success in Melbourne

Tall poppy syndrome is alive and well, if you ask Duncan Campbell.

ARN’s Chief Content Officer is reflecting on GfK Survey 6 results, which saw the juggernaut that is Kyle & Jackie O dominate the Sydney airwaves, whilst simultaneously taking a nosedive in Melbourne.

The KIIS duo dropped from 6.1 to a 5.2 share in Melbourne Breakfast.

Not only was share down for KIIS in Melbourne – cume was down as well, with Kyle & Jackie O shedding 71,000 listeners.

Did those listeners indeed sample the show – as had been suggested – and make up their own mind?

The way Campbell sees it, there’s a battle on two fronts: The audience battle … and the media battle.

In an interview with our sister publication RadioInfo, Campbell addresses the show’s shockingly explicit arrival on Melbourne’s Breakfast airwaves and what, in hindsight, might have been done differently.

“We could have explained the show in more detail to the audience over a longer period of time and got them used to that.”

Tweaks have already been made.

“The show was overly-sexualised,” says Campbell. “Kyle’s realised that, and we’ve made the change there, which is a positive. The graphic sexual content’s gone. But it will take time for the audience to pick up on that perceptually and change.”

Campbell says whilst these changes were made four or five weeks ago, the Melbourne media hasn’t really picked up on it.

“That’s the tall poppy syndrome there, but that’s OK.”

Campbell steadfastly maintains that Kyle & Jackie O will be a success in Melbourne.

“It’s still a market that’s unsettled. You’ve got changes happening from survey to survey. Nova last book. Fox this book.”

“We’ve got a job to do. There’s no doubt about that. I’m not saying it’s going to be easy.”

“Christian O’Connell, when he came on … despite it being a different show, everyone said it wasn’t going to work and we were crazy. Eighteen months later, it was #1.”

“Things don’t happen overnight, and we got a bit enthusiastic about it, I think, a bit too early on, and we had some issues there – which we fixed.”

Campbell believes there’s some fatigue around messaging and marketing.

“The marketing messages need to sort of subside a little bit and let the audience decide on which show they like, because they’re still undecided, in my view.”

“I’m not spinning this in any way. We’ve got to be very careful not to remove the DNA of the show. I mean, we’ve removed the graphic sexual content. But it’s not going to be a sanitised show.”

“It’s about relationships. People want to know what Kyle’s going to say next. They hang around for that.”

“When the dust all settles, it’ll be a strong, successful Breakfast show for us in Melbourne.”