Latest / The Front / Glitchy goldmine: Kyle Sandilands Live’s $5.5m debut

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Glitchy goldmine: Kyle Sandilands Live’s $5.5m debut · The Front

0:03
Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
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Speaker 1: It's Monday, August seventeen, twenty twenty six. The government's Renewable
0:13
Speaker 1: Energy scheme is four years old but has only one
0:16
Speaker 1: project up and running, even as energy companies shower communities
0:21
Speaker 1: with nearly forty billion dollars in sweeteners. That special investigation
0:26
Speaker 1: is live now at the Australian dot Com dot Au
0:32
Speaker 1: one week in a whole lot of technical drama and
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Speaker 1: a huge payday. The Carl Sanderalans Live app already has
0:40
Speaker 1: fifty five thousand subscribers, generating nearly five and a half
0:44
Speaker 1: million dollars in annual revenue for the former radio host and.
0:48
Speaker 2: His loyal team.
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Speaker 1: That's an exclusive by our Media Diary editor Steve Jackson,
0:53
Speaker 1: and he's here to discuss how KS Live is shaping
0:56
Speaker 1: up as the Breakfast show enters week two after a
0:59
Speaker 1: fear frantic weekend trying to fix the tech gremlins and
1:03
Speaker 1: quite a lot of swearing. Jacko's here in just a moment.
1:14
Speaker 1: The Carl Sandalance Show is entering its second week on
1:17
Speaker 1: air and it's got to be better than last week.
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Speaker 3: By the way, Lisa from the Mountains, can't get the
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Speaker 3: app working them. Please, if you've been on the phone
1:26
Speaker 3: to Mayo four thousand times this week, we'll talk about it. Okay,
1:29
Speaker 3: if we play a song Mayo, just fucking ride the wave.
1:33
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, right now, sorry, let me just rephrase that.
1:36
Speaker 3: Hey, Mayo, just ride the wave. Remember, babe, we just
1:38
Speaker 3: said when we're on that wave, we ride it to
1:41
Speaker 3: the beach. Paint the whole thing, mate, do it properly.
1:46
Speaker 1: I'm joined by Steve Jackson, who edits the media diary
1:48
Speaker 1: in the Australian. Jacko, I don't know about you. Have
1:50
Speaker 1: you shouted out you one hundred dollars yet to be
1:52
Speaker 1: a Carl Sandalance fan?
1:53
Speaker 5: Well, actually, Claire, I'd like to note it's ninety nine dollars.
1:56
Speaker 5: You know that trick from when you're a little kid,
1:58
Speaker 5: and it was ninety nine per cents some showing my age.
2:00
Speaker 5: Not quite one hundred dollars, only ninety nine, so double digits.
2:03
Speaker 5: But I haven't shelled it out. What I've been doing
2:05
Speaker 5: is I've been reading all the coverage, looking at the clips,
2:07
Speaker 5: like I imagine a lot of people have going is it
2:10
Speaker 5: worth the outlay?
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Speaker 4: I know you have though.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I've been listening loyally every single day, and I've
2:15
Speaker 1: actually really enjoyed it.
2:16
Speaker 2: I'm a new Carl Sandalance fan.
2:19
Speaker 1: Having previously not quite got what the deal was with Kyle,
2:21
Speaker 1: I now having listened to a lot of his audio,
2:23
Speaker 1: and I get it, and I think he's supremely talented
2:27
Speaker 1: and they've made a great show.
2:28
Speaker 2: It has been catastrophically error plagued.
2:31
Speaker 3: I go home each day after the show like it's
2:34
Speaker 3: the best show I've ever done in my life, even
2:36
Speaker 3: though we've we've got a few little technical issues here.
2:39
Speaker 3: Bruno has been sleeping here for a week. He's been
2:42
Speaker 3: snorting the what do you snort?
2:44
Speaker 1: What?
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Speaker 4: Ridd I snort? Riddle it?
2:47
Speaker 6: He needs a mental health day.
2:49
Speaker 3: Yeah, I can fuck off.
2:51
Speaker 7: Sorry.
2:52
Speaker 6: I know that outrage you.
2:54
Speaker 1: And it does make me one day if they spent
2:56
Speaker 1: enough on the technical solutions. On Friday, for example, the
2:59
Speaker 1: show just stopped at about seven and forty two and
3:02
Speaker 1: that was the end of it. And there's a quite
3:04
Speaker 1: a lovely chat community, all of whom were being very
3:07
Speaker 1: kind and saying, oh well, never mind, I'm still enjoying
3:10
Speaker 1: it even though.
3:11
Speaker 2: It's not actually on.
3:12
Speaker 4: You've done your best.
3:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, that is for most publishers something that you know,
3:16
Speaker 1: we couldn't possibly live with.
3:18
Speaker 2: But the mode of it is really interesting.
3:19
Speaker 1: I mean, what Kyle has done is take the chat
3:22
Speaker 1: that would normally be in the producer's ear and the
3:25
Speaker 1: hosts here onto the air, so everybody gets to hear
3:28
Speaker 1: him fighting with the producers.
3:29
Speaker 3: We used to radio panels, and they've given me this
3:32
Speaker 3: and I feel like, I feel like with this fucking
3:35
Speaker 3: stupid button thing, I feel like Ozzy Osborne in the
3:38
Speaker 3: early Field.
3:43
Speaker 4: Printing label. The interesting thing for me is I've always gone,
3:47
Speaker 4: you know, Harvey quite urbaying, very intelligent.
3:50
Speaker 5: You know, he loves the World War II history documentaries,
3:53
Speaker 5: and now you're saying you love Kyle Sendland's live, and
3:56
Speaker 5: so I think a lot of people will be going,
3:58
Speaker 5: is it the sex jokes or the tal what is it?
4:01
Speaker 1: Well, you know, the other morning he was talking very
4:03
Speaker 1: kind of eloquently and passionately about understanding domestic violence and
4:08
Speaker 1: understanding how people end up in these situations and so on,
4:11
Speaker 1: and I was just beginning to sort of be lulled
4:13
Speaker 1: into I thought I was listening to Radio National, and
4:15
Speaker 1: then it was about whether any of the women on
4:17
Speaker 1: the show have urinated standing up.
4:20
Speaker 4: See I'm old school.
4:22
Speaker 5: I liked Kyle when he was on air when he
4:24
Speaker 5: was I liked him when he was on Today FM
4:26
Speaker 5: when I first moved to Sydney loved it. I loved
4:29
Speaker 5: him and Jackie Oh loved him on TODAYFM, followed him
4:31
Speaker 5: across and listened to him on Kiss as well. That's
4:34
Speaker 5: the thing that's always surprised me about people's perception of
4:37
Speaker 5: Kyle is there's this perception he's just some sort of
4:40
Speaker 5: buffhead's anything, but he is when he wants to talk
4:43
Speaker 5: seriously about stuff, he is actually very thoughtful and I
4:47
Speaker 5: think he turns out he has quite a sensitive nature.
4:50
Speaker 1: I mean, is that coming through it instently? Is like
4:53
Speaker 1: he has positions on things that you wouldn't expect. I
4:55
Speaker 1: mean they had a very sensitive, I thought discussion about
4:59
Speaker 1: where the trans people should be allowed to play women's
5:01
Speaker 1: sport and how that affects women.
5:03
Speaker 4: He's got a very interesting perspective.
5:04
Speaker 5: I now presume this is his opportunity to tell that
5:07
Speaker 5: story about the trans woman he took home.
5:10
Speaker 2: No, he didn't tell that story. Actually, that might have
5:12
Speaker 2: been later in the show.
5:13
Speaker 1: I've missed it all might have been when they went
5:15
Speaker 1: off there, but yeah, it was you know, he was
5:17
Speaker 1: talking about how he understands it that some people feel
5:19
Speaker 1: like they're born in the wrong body. But sorry, you
5:21
Speaker 1: just can't play women's sport if you've been through male puberty,
5:24
Speaker 1: and he explained why. And then you know the other
5:26
Speaker 1: Brooklyn Ross, who I think is outstanding by the way,
5:29
Speaker 1: as the newsreader was chiming in Mary Madigan, who's also
5:32
Speaker 1: very talented, adding perspectives.
5:34
Speaker 3: This is why I say the trans people. You know,
5:37
Speaker 3: I like you good, Onya. You're feeling better about yourself.
5:40
Speaker 3: That's the most important thing. Oh you can't play netball, No,
5:43
Speaker 3: you can't.
5:45
Speaker 6: You can't. Then I wonder, like my question is, you
5:48
Speaker 6: know some people are born really tall, right, and that
5:50
Speaker 6: gives them advantage they're a basketball player. So is it
5:53
Speaker 6: just kind of luck of the draw.
5:54
Speaker 3: It is luck of the draw, but you can't medically
5:56
Speaker 3: intervene and adjust that luck.
5:58
Speaker 6: But I don't think that's why anyone's doing like, I
6:00
Speaker 6: don't think anyone's like, no.
6:02
Speaker 3: You're probably right, they're notbly not giving the sex change
6:04
Speaker 3: to be the wing attack.
6:06
Speaker 2: Especially like that pays so poorly.
6:09
Speaker 6: And I thirty five thousand dollars a year, being like
6:12
Speaker 6: here if you need, here, if you need.
6:14
Speaker 1: It was a great chat, great dynamic, and that is
6:17
Speaker 1: a conversation you actually would never hear. You certainly wouldn't
6:20
Speaker 1: hear it on the ABC because they're too scared to
6:22
Speaker 1: talk about it and there's too many agendas. On other broadcasters,
6:26
Speaker 1: you might hear a much more amped up and kind
6:29
Speaker 1: of polemic version of that conversation. It was a kind
6:32
Speaker 1: of reasonable chat that you might have with your friends.
6:34
Speaker 5: It's weird, And I suppose this is what he's been saying,
6:36
Speaker 5: is that on this show he will not have to
6:39
Speaker 5: worry about Akhma. If I say what I think, there's
6:42
Speaker 5: going to be fifty thousand or fifty sometimes even are
6:46
Speaker 5: quite small numbers of complaints that we need to shift through.
6:48
Speaker 4: So is it worth the Yeah.
6:50
Speaker 1: And he also doesn't have to worry about the feminist
6:52
Speaker 1: advocates who have really destroyed his career, you know.
6:57
Speaker 4: Not the real feminist advocates haven't well, actually.
7:00
Speaker 2: Feministy, you know. I fine with Kyle.
7:02
Speaker 5: Let women be the best at women's sport one hundred percent.
7:06
Speaker 1: I mean, but I'm talking about the kind of activist
7:08
Speaker 1: group online who has marshaled their supporters to target advertisers
7:12
Speaker 1: of his various shows, including on Channel seven. And that's
7:15
Speaker 1: why he's walked away from his deal with Australian Idol
7:18
Speaker 1: because it was just not commercial anymore.
7:20
Speaker 5: It is I've always struck that as very weird. There
7:23
Speaker 5: are people whose stuff I don't like to read. There's
7:26
Speaker 5: people whose stuff I love to read because I don't
7:28
Speaker 5: agree with it. There's people who I like to read
7:32
Speaker 5: who I won't even mention.
7:33
Speaker 4: Usually Benefit Simons.
7:35
Speaker 5: I actually like his column because other people tell me
7:37
Speaker 5: I shouldn't. But it's that thing is if you don't
7:40
Speaker 5: like someone, don't listen to them. The smart thing about
7:43
Speaker 5: what Kyle has done, and as I say, everyone thinks
7:45
Speaker 5: he's you know, this bumbling you know, big cloud mouse. Yeah,
7:49
Speaker 5: but he has negotiated this deal where he remains the
7:53
Speaker 5: highest speed personality in the country until the end of
7:56
Speaker 5: the decade. Let's not forget he gets monthly installments e
8:00
Speaker 5: three million dollar salary paid to him in monthly installments
8:04
Speaker 5: for the next three years up until the end of
8:06
Speaker 5: you know, the twenty eight to twenty nine financial year.
8:09
Speaker 5: So he has this money coming in where he can
8:12
Speaker 5: design a product and continue to pay stuff. I think
8:15
Speaker 5: it's quite savvy. It's in start contrast to what Karl
8:18
Speaker 5: Stefanovic did, and maybe that's because Carl's was a little
8:23
Speaker 5: bit had hoc and has grown along the way, but
8:26
Speaker 5: whereas Kyle's got this dedicated business plan. But you would
8:30
Speaker 5: like to see him succeed. I'd love to see him succeed.
8:33
Speaker 5: I think the thing for him to succeed, though, will
8:36
Speaker 5: be that he needs to get other voices on. It
8:39
Speaker 5: can't just be Carl send Lend's Live.
8:41
Speaker 2: It's exhausting. I mean to do three hours without ads.
8:44
Speaker 1: He had too kind of experience radio personalities on with
8:47
Speaker 1: him this week to sort of, you know, lighten the load,
8:49
Speaker 1: which was great. He works really well with another person.
8:52
Speaker 1: One of the reasons that Kyle and Jackie O was
8:54
Speaker 1: a show was unmissible was that they had the big talent.
8:56
Speaker 1: You know, they would get massive stars on the show
8:59
Speaker 1: who they had person relationships with, they were friendly with,
9:01
Speaker 1: you know, because these guys are also celebrities. That was
9:04
Speaker 1: a bit of a struggle This week for Carl Sanderlan's Live.
9:06
Speaker 1: Karl Stefanovic ghosted them.
9:09
Speaker 4: They had their eye on the comedian.
9:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, they had the impersonator come instead. He was great.
9:13
Speaker 4: It makes him so angry.
9:14
Speaker 1: Johnny Briham made an excuse that he couldn't come because
9:16
Speaker 1: he's got something before Albert it.
9:19
Speaker 4: Was you know, answeredies finding and thor coming it up
9:22
Speaker 4: my mum.
9:24
Speaker 2: So you know, is that a problem for them? Is
9:26
Speaker 2: it gonna Is that going to have to improve?
9:28
Speaker 7: Oh?
9:28
Speaker 4: Look, it's it's fledgling at the moment.
9:30
Speaker 5: I think the grander plan though, is like, as we're saying,
9:34
Speaker 5: like cars Sanderland's life can't just be cars Haendlanz. If
9:37
Speaker 5: he gets shingles, there's no income for a month or
9:41
Speaker 5: six weeks. So I think what we'll see is him
9:43
Speaker 5: not just bring in Carl, do you want to be
9:46
Speaker 5: on the show for a couple of minutes? Is his
9:48
Speaker 5: grand strategy will be to sell equity stakes in his channel.
9:52
Speaker 5: He's got the platform and go all right, Carl, you
9:55
Speaker 5: buy in, and then you do the morning show after me,
9:57
Speaker 5: and then we'll get somebody else who's been canceled and
10:01
Speaker 5: we'll get them in and you'll do the afternoon show
10:03
Speaker 5: and then we'll have a night show. So that basically
10:06
Speaker 5: to build this company. So it's worth all the money
10:08
Speaker 5: he's pouring in. It needs to be a full time
10:11
Speaker 5: channel of its own, which is actually really exciting in
10:14
Speaker 5: an era where we're seeing people cut back in newsrooms.
10:17
Speaker 5: He's trying to build a channel and I think we'll
10:19
Speaker 5: go from seeing three hours every day and what was
10:23
Speaker 5: an hour and a half and Fridays as it turns
10:25
Speaker 5: out so far, so there's something that gradually he will
10:28
Speaker 5: want to go into being twelve hours every day.
10:30
Speaker 1: That's the Peers More Good model, you know, That's what
10:32
Speaker 1: Peers Morgan told Carl Stefanovik he should do. And you
10:34
Speaker 1: could see Carl kind of like his eyes widening, thinking, help,
10:37
Speaker 1: I'm going to do that.
10:38
Speaker 4: Yeah, Peers can. Peers can explain it to him. You
10:40
Speaker 4: can't understand it for him, you know.
10:43
Speaker 1: I mean that is that is pretty daunting, becoming a
10:45
Speaker 1: program director and becoming a business titan. I mean, I
10:49
Speaker 1: guess when you have a huge amount of money in
10:51
Speaker 1: the bank, you have many many properties, as Kyle does,
10:54
Speaker 1: you have a salary still coming in, the pressure is
10:57
Speaker 1: off well.
10:58
Speaker 5: Others have tried and failed in Australia, famously Alan Jones,
11:01
Speaker 5: who's got a few other little dramas at the moment,
11:04
Speaker 5: but he tried it when he left two GB, he
11:06
Speaker 5: went in Australian Digital Holdings and it was going to
11:09
Speaker 5: be this digital channel and it had four or five shows.
11:12
Speaker 4: He never quite caught on.
11:14
Speaker 5: I think calling yourself Australian Digital Holdings probably doesn't roll
11:18
Speaker 5: off the what is that?
11:19
Speaker 4: Is that a channel? But maybe it was.
11:21
Speaker 5: Before its time and people, hopefully, I think, migrating to
11:24
Speaker 5: it because you know, it's good to see new media
11:27
Speaker 5: players emerge. And also I love God bless Carl Sendlant
11:31
Speaker 5: employing a dozen people like it's fantastic.
11:33
Speaker 2: It is.
11:37
Speaker 1: Coming up Kyle's feud with Seven's Natalie Barr. The thing
11:54
Speaker 1: about Kyle, and I'm aware of this every time I
11:56
Speaker 1: say something complimentary about him, is that he bites the
11:59
Speaker 1: hand that feeds in. Natalie Barr interviewed him on Sunrise.
12:02
Speaker 1: They gave him a crack come on to Sunrise, you know.
12:05
Speaker 1: And I think my understanding is that it was not
12:07
Speaker 1: a surprise that they were going to challenge Kyle with
12:09
Speaker 1: some hard questions.
12:12
Speaker 6: When you look back, which I'm sure you'd have in
12:14
Speaker 6: the last few weeks, what do you genuinely regret?
12:18
Speaker 4: If anything, it's not really a regret.
12:21
Speaker 7: It's more of like when you when I've done things,
12:23
Speaker 7: and a lot of these things have been perceived to
12:25
Speaker 7: have been bad. Some are genuinely bad or mistakes or
12:29
Speaker 7: stupid things that I've said, and other things can be
12:32
Speaker 7: twisted once against AM radio and the whole narrative, the
12:35
Speaker 7: reality of what things are changed. The narrative changes when
12:38
Speaker 7: it gets to talk back, and they sort of taked
12:41
Speaker 7: away all the joining words to make it sound more dramatic.
12:45
Speaker 1: Natalie bar that's what she does. You know, she gets
12:46
Speaker 1: elbow on and rips him to shreds. And that's good, Yeah, journalism.
12:51
Speaker 1: But he took offense to her, asking how would he
12:53
Speaker 1: feel if his son heard this content? His four year
12:56
Speaker 1: old son. He took offense to that turned it into
12:58
Speaker 1: sort of social media goal. Did what he did generated
13:01
Speaker 1: a few.
13:01
Speaker 4: Just to clarify he shows not for four year.
13:03
Speaker 1: Olds and had to crack at her personal appearance, which
13:07
Speaker 1: I think was probably pretty hurtful. I mean, really, I
13:10
Speaker 1: mean it is or is that just you can't be
13:13
Speaker 1: annoyed because it's kind?
13:14
Speaker 5: No, No, I do think you should be annoyed, and
13:16
Speaker 5: I think it's right to be annoyed. Anyone who reads
13:18
Speaker 5: the Diary, and I think most columnists now we've gotten
13:21
Speaker 5: past the stage of making fun of people's appearance. It's
13:24
Speaker 5: very juvenile, but it works for him, Like it gets
13:27
Speaker 5: all the headlines. People are talking about Kyl's appearance on
13:29
Speaker 5: the show what he said, and look, you know I
13:32
Speaker 5: would not repeat it because I do think it's inappropriate
13:34
Speaker 5: to comment on people in that way.
13:37
Speaker 1: It's also you won't even let me when I say
13:41
Speaker 1: to it, does my hair look all right?
13:42
Speaker 2: You won't even give me an opinion.
13:43
Speaker 5: Well, I follow the ABC dick that went out that
13:45
Speaker 5: said producers aren't allowed to comment on on air staff's
13:49
Speaker 5: hair or broadcast voice, or even telling if their tires
13:53
Speaker 5: are skewed.
13:54
Speaker 4: That's ridiculous, obviously, but I.
13:56
Speaker 2: Want to know if I've got spinaches between my two
13:57
Speaker 2: look at.
13:58
Speaker 4: Stuff like that.
13:59
Speaker 5: But in generally making fun of someone's appearance, I mean,
14:01
Speaker 5: I think we're a bit beyond that. Kyle knows doing
14:05
Speaker 5: that generates a lot of headlines. He was on this
14:08
Speaker 5: roundabout speaking to her. I actually kind of disappointing that
14:11
Speaker 5: even people picked it up and reported it, because my
14:14
Speaker 5: thing is why I basically amplify these sort of comments,
14:18
Speaker 5: particularly like a.
14:20
Speaker 4: I don't even make fun of blokes appearances. I just
14:22
Speaker 4: think we've come so far from that. Kyle. You're doing
14:25
Speaker 4: all these things right, You've won over Claire Harvey.
14:28
Speaker 5: Then you you go and you know, spoil it all
14:30
Speaker 5: by saying something stupid like that, you.
14:32
Speaker 1: Know, Yeah, yeah, I mean I'm still a fan. I'm
14:35
Speaker 1: still going to be back listening on it this morning
14:37
Speaker 1: when they come back on air on Monday. So you know,
14:39
Speaker 1: I think you could probably get away with a little
14:41
Speaker 1: bit more, Jacko. I do want to know if my
14:42
Speaker 1: hair looks bad?
14:43
Speaker 5: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, Well okay, I'll let you I'll
14:46
Speaker 5: let you know if that happens.
14:47
Speaker 2: Okay, thanks Jako.
14:48
Speaker 6: Right.
14:53
Speaker 1: Steve Jackson is the Australian's media diarist. His column plus
14:57
Speaker 1: all the best in media, news and entertainment, and is
15:00
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