“Whether you like it or not, the show cuts through”: K & J’s Day One reviews

“It’s intense. And it’s going to be hard for us to keep up. And it’s only day one.”

The early reviews are in, after Kyle & Jackie O exploded onto the Melbourne Breakfast radio airwaves, taking no prisoners with their extreme and graphic content.

On the latest episode of the Game Changers Radio: Melbourne Radio Wars podcast, experienced programmer Irene Hulme offers her review:

“The first 30 minutes was so explicit, I was horrified for most of it. It was the most explicit 30 minutes of radio that I have ever heard.”

“It was relentless.”

But, she notes, the show certainly lived up to its perceived notion of being outrageous … and extreme.

And, she says, the show did exactly what it set out to do: elicit a response.

“Whether you like it or not, the show cuts through,” says Hulme.

“It was completely authentic. It sounded big.”

Former SCA content boss Craig Bruce even thinks Kyle dialled it up a notch.

“Both of them were on fire on day one. It was super impressive.”

As broadcasters, he says, K & J are dynamite.

“And I just think any question around whether he believes minimising the amount of adult content is a question or not – it’s officially off the table.”

As to how the big advertising clients might react to K & J’s explicit content, creative development coach Wade Kingsley says “If you’re an advertiser and you’re in the Kyle and Jack environment and you’re surprised by what they do, I’d find that more of a surprise.”

But in terms of which on-air team did the best Melbourne show for a Monday morning, Kingsley believes that out of KIIS, Fox and Nova, Nova 100’s Jase & Lauren had a strong showing, particularly given their attention to AFL content.

“Monday morning, you turn up at the work site, you turn up at the office … yes, you’re going to talk about the news events, yes you’re going to have a bit of pop culture, but invariably, the first topic is whether your team won or if your team lost,” says Kingsley.

With players like Collingwood’s Mason Cox as regular guests, Kingsley says Nova’s brekky show is one that reflects the heartbeat of Melbourne.