Trending Now: Major blow to Sandilands ahead of radio deadline – Fans React

The embattled Kyle and Jackie O show has hit another major hurdle, just a day before a crucial deadline for host Kyle Sandilands.

The national broadcast watchdog has slapped further licence conditions on ARN Media – which owns the radio stations where the show is broadcast.

It follows repeated flouting of decency provisions in the commercial radio code of practice.

The conditions, announced on Monday, will run for five years and apply to any ARN licensees when broadcasting the Kyle & Jackie O Show or any other program either hosted by or featuring Sandilands or his former co-host Jacqueline Henderson.

“To date, ARN management have been unwilling or unable to control the content that has gone to air. These additional licence conditions mean further breaches will attract strong enforcement action that was not otherwise available to the ACMA,” Australian Communications and Media Authority chair Nerida O’Loughlin said.

The watchdog has ordered ARN and its licensees to commission an independent audit of their governance framework and then provide the report and its recommendations to ACMA, and implement the recommendations.

ACMA said Monday’s action followed findings of nine breaches of decency provisions during 2025. They included:

• Two episodes of a guessing game where audio clips of male and female staff members urinating were aired, with hosts guessing which audio belonged to which staff member. Both episodes included comments about the genitals of participants, and in the female staff member episode, graphic comments about menstruation and oral sex;
• A game where a contestant provided an offensive description of a sexual position
• A segment which contained lewd discussions about masturbation and pornography websites.

“This requirement is designed to strengthen foundational governance structures and reduce the risk of further non‑compliance. The ball is now firmly in ARN’s court to take control of the content they are responsible for,” O’Loughlin said.

The announcement dropped just a day before the Tuesday deadline for Sandilands to remedy what ARN said was “an act of serious misconduct, which is in breach”.

“The KIIS breakfast show will be taken off-air effective immediately, with interim arrangements made for the show,” ARN said earlier this month.

It followed the February 20 on-air blow-up between Henderson and Sandilands. She was left in tears after he criticised her for looking into Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s horoscope, saying her interest in astrology was affecting her job.

“Your fixation on this has made you almost unworkable,” Sandilands said, adding that Henderson was “off with the fairies”.

“You’ve had your head looking into the stars; it is too much, and it is affecting everything else. Every segment and every time you’ve spoken, you don’t know what is going on,” he said.

A “totally offended” Henderson then took more than a week off work.

ARN eventually released a statement to the ASX about the end of the show. It said Henderson had quit because she “cannot continue to work” with Sandilands.

The pair were in the second year of a 10-year, $200 million contract that had been intended to take their Sydney-based radio show nationwide.

Sandilands has since described Henderson as one of the “most important people” in his life. He claimed that ARN terminated her contract on the day he was told he had been suspended for two weeks.

“The truth is that ARN terminated Jackie’s contract on the same day it accused me of a breach. It suspended me from work,” he said.

“All of this happened while I was being told to sit quietly and say nothing. That is not a genuine process.”

Sandilands said he was still committed to his contract with ARN.

“Despite what ARN says, I am not in breach of that contract. I want to be on air. I want to be with my audience. I want to do the job I have done my entire adult life,” he said.

He has asked ARN to reinstate him.

Henderson has made no public comments.