Tawdry FM
By Andrew Hornery with Ben Cubby
April 1, 2005
Is the 2Day FM presenter Kyle Sandilands desperate to be noticed? We can only imagine so after his probing yet tawdry interview on family-friendly breakfast radio yesterday with Sarah, a prostitute, who at one point said she "loved c--k". Listeners and Kyle's co-host, Jackie O, weren't the only ones a bit shocked by the graphic chat, which a clearly titillated Sandilands was in no hurry to end. The program director, Craig Bruce, stopped the segment but Sandilands challenged him on air. The station, which has spent millions marketing Kyle's allegedly sassy playboy image and won a few more ratings points, returned to more conventional topics, and the complaints started rolling in.
If it was a cynical publicity stunt, it backfired. Austereo's general manager, Patrick Joyce, issued a terse statement on behalf of Kyle and company, admitting that the show had "caused offence to some listeners. The interview was, in our view, inappropriate and was an error of judgement."
Who knows what the advertisers thought? Perhaps Joyce should have listened more closely to Kyle and Jackie O's evening slots. Among their many gauche stunts was a urinating competition, "I pee for an iPod". All class.
http://www.smh.com.au/spike/index.html
