Latest / The Front / The inside scoop on Kyle Sandilands’ $12m peace deal

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The inside scoop on Kyle Sandilands’ $12m peace deal · The Front

0:05
Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
0:08
Speaker 1: It's Thursday, June eighteen, twenty twenty six. Royal Commissioner Virginia
0:15
Speaker 1: Bell has overruled a bid by the federal government to
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Speaker 1: redact evidence about counter terrorism funding, a move welcomed by
0:22
Speaker 1: Jewish groups who say the government must live up to
0:25
Speaker 1: its promise to be transparent about the factors that led
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Speaker 1: to December's Bondai Beach massacre. Victorian police have raided a
0:35
Speaker 1: country home owned by longtime friends of cock killer Desi Freeman,
0:39
Speaker 1: seizing evidence as part of their ongoing investigation into how
0:43
Speaker 1: the sovereign citizens spent months evading capture. Those exclusives are
0:48
Speaker 1: live now at the Australian dot com dot au. Subterfuge,
0:54
Speaker 1: secret meetings and a peace deal with all sorts of
0:57
Speaker 1: hidden benefits. Today we've got the in side scoop on
1:01
Speaker 1: how Kyle Sandalands and his radio bosses resolved their differences
1:05
Speaker 1: and where it leaves his former radio partner Jackie O Henderson.
1:10
Speaker 1: Steve Jackson's here in just a moment. Well, Jacko, we
1:16
Speaker 1: seem to have peace in the Middle East, and we
1:18
Speaker 1: might also have peace with Kyle Sandalans and Aarn his
1:22
Speaker 1: former radio bosses. What's going on?
1:24
Speaker 2: I look, this seemed like it was going to be
1:25
Speaker 2: a conflict that was going to go on for three
1:27
Speaker 2: years at least. All of a sudden, out of nowhere,
1:31
Speaker 2: Kyle and RN they've both signed a peace treaty for
1:35
Speaker 2: a very nominal, modest fee. We've been hearing eighty million
1:40
Speaker 2: dollar legal claim, suggestions that it will cost him forty
1:43
Speaker 2: million dollars Steven Settle. In the end, it's come down
1:45
Speaker 2: to twelve million dollars, a little bit of a contra
1:47
Speaker 2: advertising deal and an agreement to share some revenue. So
1:50
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, they've gone from warring parties to
1:53
Speaker 2: being business partners.
1:55
Speaker 1: Kyle and Jackie I haven't been on here since February twenty,
1:57
Speaker 1: just a week before Donald Trump launched Operation Fury. I
2:00
Speaker 1: don't think that's a coincidence.
2:01
Speaker 2: You're working that analogy hard.
2:03
Speaker 1: The listeners of Sydney have certainly missed. These two ratings
2:07
Speaker 1: have crashed at the network. I feel a bit sorry
2:09
Speaker 1: for the bloke who was filling in.
2:11
Speaker 2: Oh, small zy smaller numbers. It seems to fall into.
2:14
Speaker 1: Place, But it seemed during that time that aarn didn't
2:17
Speaker 1: really know which way to turn. Have they had a
2:19
Speaker 1: master's strategy all along which they were working to.
2:22
Speaker 2: Look, it's one of those things that what do they say,
2:24
Speaker 2: success as many fathers and mothers, but now that they've
2:27
Speaker 2: had a victory, Yes, it was all part of their
2:29
Speaker 2: master's strategy or along, they all knew what they were doing.
2:32
Speaker 2: Turns out smallzy costs a smaller amount. He's got smaller listeners,
2:35
Speaker 2: but it's more profitable. So yeah, this was always planning.
2:38
Speaker 2: Now it's all been. It's all been extremely good luck
2:42
Speaker 2: and some good behind the scenes management. So what we
2:45
Speaker 2: see typically when something goes to court, their lawyers at noon,
2:50
Speaker 2: they're drawing out allegation to boom boom, you know, firing
2:53
Speaker 2: off claims. But what we've seen is some great work
2:56
Speaker 2: by some very level heads behind the scene. I think
2:59
Speaker 2: what will surprise a lot of people with the inside
3:02
Speaker 2: story of what's happened here is that Kyle Sandlands, despite
3:06
Speaker 2: what we hear on radio and what we expect his
3:09
Speaker 2: nature to be, isn't the hot head that I think
3:13
Speaker 2: a lot of people thought he would be. I think
3:14
Speaker 2: a lot of people thought he would be shock jock
3:17
Speaker 2: Kyle through court, and we know when we've seen him
3:20
Speaker 2: at court entertainer to a slow things down. So make
3:25
Speaker 2: up your own mind as to what that strategy is about.
3:28
Speaker 2: I just want to get back, either to work or
3:29
Speaker 2: get back earlier than the family or mortgages to pay
3:32
Speaker 2: like everyone else. But behind the scenes, he's done a
3:36
Speaker 2: lot of negotiating, surprisingly by himself, without his lawyers. Kyle's
3:41
Speaker 2: been off air not even six months, and that's hurting
3:44
Speaker 2: him right Like he's an entertainer, he's the class clown.
3:47
Speaker 2: He's a guy that needs to be talking and entertaining.
3:51
Speaker 2: That wasn't sustainable for him. A RN's got this headache
3:56
Speaker 2: hanging over them. That's not sustainable for them. So from
4:00
Speaker 2: the very outset, while the lawyers were drawing up for
4:03
Speaker 2: them what were great legal arguments and how they were
4:07
Speaker 2: going to combat each other in court, behind the scenes,
4:10
Speaker 2: there's been backdoor negotiations all along that Kyle has personally
4:15
Speaker 2: had with people he trusts in a day or end.
4:17
Speaker 2: So he's been there for a long time and he
4:20
Speaker 2: has trust with certain people and that's what has seen
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Speaker 2: this resolution come about is some level headed, pragmatic conversations
4:29
Speaker 2: saying what's actually the best for both of us.
4:36
Speaker 1: Employment lawyers are famously aggressive, and I'm sure there's some
4:39
Speaker 1: who would have quite liked to get a clip of
4:40
Speaker 1: whatever deal that Kyle got. He's settled for something like
4:44
Speaker 1: just over twelve million dollars. That's not really a lot
4:47
Speaker 1: for someone with four mortgages a fleet of Bentley's to
4:50
Speaker 1: maintain an expensive kind of life.
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Speaker 2: Look, it isn't. It isn't. It's not a lot in
4:56
Speaker 2: terms of what he could have got. But pragmatically, he
4:59
Speaker 2: couldn't get that money anymore, and there was nothing he
5:02
Speaker 2: could do. He had a co host in Jackie o'
5:05
Speaker 2: henderson who said she couldn't work with him anymore. So,
5:09
Speaker 2: while it's not the eighty five eighty eight million dollars
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Speaker 2: he could have got, as soon as she says I
5:14
Speaker 2: can't work with him, well that that deals off the table.
5:17
Speaker 2: You're off with the fairies with me?
5:19
Speaker 1: Where you no, no, no, tell me where I've been
5:21
Speaker 1: off with the fairies during the show.
5:23
Speaker 2: I don't have to. I don't have to prove it
5:26
Speaker 2: doing something. Listener to the program. You'll hear yourself. I'm no,
5:30
Speaker 2: just give me twelve million dollars for not doing anything
5:34
Speaker 2: if you look at it from a glass half full perspective,
5:37
Speaker 2: or even if from a that's not even my glass.
5:39
Speaker 2: I'm looking at that smaller glass over there, and it's
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Speaker 2: filled up with twelve million dollars and now he's free
5:44
Speaker 2: to go do something else. Well, if you look at
5:47
Speaker 2: it from that perspective, it's not so bad. And what
5:49
Speaker 2: he's avoided critically is going to court. And we know
5:53
Speaker 2: what would have happened, and we've been saying this all along,
5:55
Speaker 2: is he goes to court. You know the question, Kyle,
5:58
Speaker 2: how did you feel when you said such and such
6:01
Speaker 2: misogynistic comment about Jackie? Oh, aren't you a bully? Aren't
6:05
Speaker 2: you a misogynist? And even if he defends those allegations,
6:09
Speaker 2: it's going to be detrimental to his brand, his ability
6:12
Speaker 2: to monetize his new project coming forward. So to avoid
6:16
Speaker 2: that drama, to get back on air doing what he
6:18
Speaker 2: wants to do, it's probably been a pragmatic approach and
6:22
Speaker 2: it's all come down to these backroom conversations.
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Speaker 1: This is going to be a real test of what
6:27
Speaker 1: Cole Sandaland's brand is actually Like, He's got a vodcast
6:30
Speaker 1: in the works, sh.
6:33
Speaker 2: Don't tell anyone, But I'm working on a new project
6:36
Speaker 2: and all will be revealed soon. Thank you for your prayers.
6:41
Speaker 2: Coming back guys, bigger than ever. Yes, it's going to
6:45
Speaker 2: be called Kyle Sandaland's Live, so we can presume it's
6:48
Speaker 2: going to be live at probably the very time that
6:51
Speaker 2: his former show was on. It's going to be a
6:52
Speaker 2: breakfast radio format in a breakfast radio timeslot, so we
6:56
Speaker 2: will see him competing for audience again, not that the
7:01
Speaker 2: way the ratings work, you won't see if he's stolen anyway,
7:03
Speaker 2: but he's going to be competing against his former outlet.
7:06
Speaker 1: But we've seen with other stars that when they leave
7:09
Speaker 1: the platform, whatever that happens to be, whether that's radio
7:12
Speaker 1: or it's a big TV broadcaster or it's a big newspaper,
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Speaker 1: it's very difficult to bring that audience with you and
7:18
Speaker 1: to break people's habits. In this case, it's going to
7:20
Speaker 1: require trads and mums sitting in their cars to tune
7:24
Speaker 1: into probably YouTube instead of tuning into the radio. What
7:29
Speaker 1: do you think about that?
7:30
Speaker 2: It's interesting because again I like to come on your
7:33
Speaker 2: show and throw out my wisdom and sometimes I'm right,
7:36
Speaker 2: and I like to remind everyone of those few occasions,
7:39
Speaker 2: and sometimes I'm dramatically wrong and drastically wrong, like when
7:43
Speaker 2: I came and sat in here in January and said
7:46
Speaker 2: the Karl Stefanovic Show will not work. It's going to
7:49
Speaker 2: be boring, And it turns out I was wrong, not boring.
7:52
Speaker 2: If anything, I think it's given Karl Stefanovick a new
7:56
Speaker 2: lease of life. He'd been sort of dragged into a
7:59
Speaker 2: little bit of a rut being the Today Show frontman
8:03
Speaker 2: who was just doing the same stick every day, although
8:06
Speaker 2: he did by remember he did that makeover with the
8:08
Speaker 2: glasses that lasted about three weeks, and then all of
8:11
Speaker 2: a sudden he's broken out and he's become a great personality.
8:13
Speaker 2: He's telling me ABC's media watch to bugger off, and
8:18
Speaker 2: he's saying colorful things, and he's being entertaining, excited, nervous
8:22
Speaker 2: as the reminder it is live and for everyone at home,
8:24
Speaker 2: you can what I mean live.
8:26
Speaker 1: No one damn will told me it was live.
8:28
Speaker 2: I can't believe this. I know it's live. It's definitely live.
8:31
Speaker 2: So you have to watch your p's and ques if
8:33
Speaker 2: you don't mind. Sure, he's only interviewing Pauling Hanson Barnaby Joyce,
8:38
Speaker 2: Pauling Hanson, Barnaby Joyce, and then Pauling Hanson again. But
8:41
Speaker 2: he's big and he's attracted like quite a substantial audience,
8:44
Speaker 2: and I think we're going to see the same with Kyle.
8:47
Speaker 2: Is a guy who was very comfortable in what he
8:51
Speaker 2: was doing at Breakfast Radio, all of a sudden, he's
8:54
Speaker 2: going to be trying new things and he probably will
8:57
Speaker 2: have a new lease of life, and we're going to
8:58
Speaker 2: see a I'll see and here a Kyle that we
9:02
Speaker 2: probably haven't had since he was the underdog trying to
9:06
Speaker 2: be number one. We're talking more than twenty years ago.
9:08
Speaker 2: He's been on top for so long, so it's going
9:10
Speaker 2: to be exciting to see. I think he can win
9:12
Speaker 2: an audience, and obviously arn think he can as well,
9:16
Speaker 2: because part of the deal is they get to clip
9:19
Speaker 2: the ticket for any net revenue of any project he
9:22
Speaker 2: comes up with, all this new podcast project that he's
9:25
Speaker 2: come up with twenty percent of it for three years.
9:27
Speaker 2: So they're basically backing the fact that, hey, we're going
9:30
Speaker 2: to give you twelve million or twelve point zero nine million,
9:34
Speaker 2: but we'll take twenty percent of your new net revenue
9:37
Speaker 2: because we think we'll claw back maybe a couple of
9:40
Speaker 2: mill over three years, so potentially the pay it will
9:42
Speaker 2: only be ten. So they're betting that it's going to
9:45
Speaker 2: be a success.
9:46
Speaker 1: I mean, maybe we'll both turn out to be wrong
9:48
Speaker 1: and now will turn out to be business geniuses running
9:50
Speaker 1: the show at ARN rather than kind of hapless chicks
9:53
Speaker 1: running around with their heads cut off. Well, but if
9:56
Speaker 1: I were them, I would have asked Kyle Sandalans will
9:59
Speaker 1: maybe required as part of this settlement to help me
10:02
Speaker 1: in my negotiations now for a settlement with Jackie. Oh
10:05
Speaker 1: is that going to happen?
10:06
Speaker 2: Well, they haven't asked him so initially he was talking
10:10
Speaker 2: in the background to the a r N chair.
10:12
Speaker 1: That's Hamish mcclennan, right, very experienced media operative in Australia.
10:16
Speaker 2: Yep, he's been there a long time and they're friends.
10:18
Speaker 2: What's happened is six weeks of background chats they've gone
10:22
Speaker 2: in and had to chat at Hamish's house in forty
10:25
Speaker 2: million dollar mansion in Darling Point. It was your place really,
10:29
Speaker 2: we all live in those gone from a meeting as
10:31
Speaker 2: they leave, talk about sliding door. Moment Hamish comes out
10:34
Speaker 2: to see Kyle off all of a sudden, there's Perhaps
10:37
Speaker 2: standing in the street filming and you can see the
10:39
Speaker 2: look on Hamish's face. It's pure disgusted basically that details
10:44
Speaker 2: have been leaked, and he pulls back inside, shuts the door.
10:48
Speaker 2: Kyle walks up the street, big cheeky grin, you know,
10:50
Speaker 2: like just visiting an old friend. And that relationship broke
10:54
Speaker 2: down then because Hamish upset that the paps had been
10:57
Speaker 2: tipped off somehow. Kyle, I don't know what his feelings
11:01
Speaker 2: were on the Perhaps being there, but he's a consummate
11:04
Speaker 2: show man. He puts on a little bit of our
11:06
Speaker 2: cheeky grin and a few casual comments before slipping into
11:09
Speaker 2: the passenger side of an awaiting Mercedes and being whisked
11:13
Speaker 2: off to his own mansion. So when that deal breaks down,
11:16
Speaker 2: what happens is Kiaren Davis, who only a month before
11:20
Speaker 2: this whole thing's been blown up. He's called back in.
11:23
Speaker 2: You know, it's triple o Kiiran Davis, please come save us.
11:27
Speaker 2: So four weeks after he leaves the company and hands
11:30
Speaker 2: over the rains, he's back and he's meeting Kyle sometimes
11:34
Speaker 2: he's meeting two, three, four times a week, and it's
11:38
Speaker 2: so hush hush that Kyle and Kieren they're driving around Sydney.
11:44
Speaker 2: It's like a spy thriller John Lecarrott. They're looking at
11:47
Speaker 2: the rearview. Are we being tailed by the paps? And
11:50
Speaker 2: they're having coffees. Once they'll meet at North Ryde in
11:53
Speaker 2: a nondescript cafe and they're staking in our events, no
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Speaker 2: paps here. The next meeting will be out at Paramatta,
11:59
Speaker 2: and the next meeting they're going into the city and
12:02
Speaker 2: for a month, no one's known these meetings are taking
12:05
Speaker 2: on no one. The paps haven't followed Kyle. These guys
12:09
Speaker 2: who've known each other for fourteen years haven't been seen
12:12
Speaker 2: together once. And just last week they negotiate the deal
12:17
Speaker 2: and one of the stipulations of it is now Kyle
12:21
Speaker 2: is business partners with ARN, so his fortunes are in
12:25
Speaker 2: some way tied to their. So while there isn't any
12:28
Speaker 2: question in the deal that you're going to sport us
12:31
Speaker 2: in the claim against Jackie O one hundred percent, he's
12:34
Speaker 2: now on ARN side. In fact, there's this suggestion that
12:39
Speaker 2: Hamish and Kieran and Kyle and Steve O. That's Michael Stevenson,
12:45
Speaker 2: the Sia. They're all friends again now and it's not
12:48
Speaker 2: Arn's fault. Now they all have one mutual enemy, Jackie O. Henderson,
12:52
Speaker 2: who still has an eighty two million dollar claim against AIRN.
12:56
Speaker 2: So Kyle's now back in the family like the Mafia's
12:59
Speaker 2: he's out. Now he's back in, and he's on their side,
13:02
Speaker 2: and they all blame well, I don't know about Kieran,
13:05
Speaker 2: but I know everyone else sort of seems to blame
13:08
Speaker 2: one person for the breakdown of that show going off.
13:12
Speaker 1: And Kyle that I totally am offended by you saying
13:16
Speaker 1: something bad if.
13:17
Speaker 2: You are, because that's the reality of what we're dealing
13:19
Speaker 2: with here. That is so unfair. I have been in
13:22
Speaker 2: here doing a second.
13:27
Speaker 1: This story arc for her is so interesting, isn't it.
13:30
Speaker 1: I mean, she had put up with Kyle's behavior for
13:32
Speaker 1: all these years, She had been his enabler in chief,
13:34
Speaker 1: she had certainly profited from his behavior, and she had
13:37
Speaker 1: participated in the kind of tacky gags that he was
13:40
Speaker 1: the mastermind of. Then she kind of was positioned as
13:44
Speaker 1: the sort of feminist heroine who was finally saying enough
13:47
Speaker 1: and going her own way, and she launched a thousand
13:49
Speaker 1: think pieces by people saying what a feminist heroine she is.
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Speaker 1: Now she's on the outer again. The dudes have all
13:56
Speaker 1: got together and sorted out their million dollar deal. This
13:59
Speaker 1: could be the next season of a Jennifer Aniston show
14:01
Speaker 1: about Network TV.
14:02
Speaker 2: Jackey, it could be. I do think the gender argument's
14:05
Speaker 2: a bit reductive in this scenario. I know that people
14:09
Speaker 2: love it, and she was, as you say, being painted
14:12
Speaker 2: as the feminist heroine. At the same time, there were
14:15
Speaker 2: stories in one Sydney tabloid newspaper about how she'd let
14:18
Speaker 2: down the entire sisterhood by allowing herself to be Kyle's
14:23
Speaker 2: foil for so long. I think at the end of it,
14:26
Speaker 2: they were a great package because they were the crazy,
14:30
Speaker 2: z any person who would say anything and the comedic foil.
14:34
Speaker 2: I would like to think that you know, it doesn't
14:36
Speaker 2: hopefully become a gender Wars narrative, although it will, as
14:40
Speaker 2: you know it will. But what it means for Jackio
14:43
Speaker 2: now it's hard because unlike Kyle, who you could tell
14:46
Speaker 2: from the moment he wasn't behind the mic, his message
14:50
Speaker 2: that he was clearly saying, and he was saying it
14:52
Speaker 2: literally is I want to be back behind the mic.
14:55
Speaker 2: I want to be entertaining. She seems to have gone
14:58
Speaker 2: through some different life choices and stages or what have you.
15:02
Speaker 2: She doesn't seem to need it as much. She stepped
15:05
Speaker 2: away from her independent podcast. What was the one you
15:09
Speaker 2: saying you listen to it every morning?
15:11
Speaker 1: I never actually said that. I wasn't a regular listener
15:14
Speaker 1: jack I listened once in research for an episode. I'm
15:17
Speaker 1: not enough into horoscopes for this kind of show to
15:20
Speaker 1: work for me, but other people seem to like it.
15:22
Speaker 1: It was called her Best Life. In the meantime, they've
15:24
Speaker 1: been playing host to Megan Markel. I mean, maybe there's
15:28
Speaker 1: a new path for those two.
15:29
Speaker 2: But Jackie hasn't been. She stepped away even from that,
15:31
Speaker 2: so it seems like she's not as determined to be
15:35
Speaker 2: back on air. So I imagine with her what we
15:37
Speaker 2: could see. Does she wait three years for it to
15:40
Speaker 2: play out in court, or does she see, hey, this
15:43
Speaker 2: is the amount of money Kyle said for that's a benchmark.
15:46
Speaker 2: What do you reckon? How does she play it?
15:48
Speaker 1: I mean, if I were her friend, I would say
15:50
Speaker 1: get a settlement and then walk away. Because the court
15:53
Speaker 1: system is an incredibly blunt instrument. It's not going to
15:56
Speaker 1: be a pleasant experience going through commercial litigation with these people.
16:00
Speaker 1: It never is for anyone. And even if you win
16:02
Speaker 1: on payper, it would cost her so much money in
16:04
Speaker 1: legal fees. Anyway, Look, as a journal I would love
16:07
Speaker 1: this to play out in court, but I don't think
16:08
Speaker 1: it's good for anyone.
16:09
Speaker 2: So you look at all of a sudden, you'll have
16:12
Speaker 2: aarn and I imagine Kyle, as I say, with them
16:14
Speaker 2: saying she's also a bully, and she bullied and I
16:18
Speaker 2: know we've talked about it before where she had, in
16:22
Speaker 2: turn Pete Deppler breaking down in tears on the radio
16:26
Speaker 2: because she wasn't calling him back. In all these sort
16:28
Speaker 2: of like psychological fun and games they had with each other.
16:32
Speaker 2: That was part of the chemistry of the show. But
16:35
Speaker 2: she's going to be painted now in a negative light
16:37
Speaker 2: because they're all united against her. So it's one of
16:40
Speaker 2: those things. Is that going to be a win for her?
16:43
Speaker 2: Maybe if she gets eighty million dollars, you know, well,
16:45
Speaker 2: what do I care? I just retire and spend I think,
16:48
Speaker 2: as she said, six months of the year on the
16:51
Speaker 2: Mediterranean in Europe and six months in Bayron Bay. If
16:54
Speaker 2: she gets eighty million, yeah, maybe it's worth it unlikely
16:57
Speaker 2: she'd get that amount. You'd imagine you're seeing it's ow
17:00
Speaker 2: peg to twelve million for Kyle, so that kind of
17:03
Speaker 2: puts like a price range on the value. So I
17:06
Speaker 2: don't know. It will be very interesting to see what
17:09
Speaker 2: she does from here.
17:10
Speaker 1: It will.
17:11
Speaker 2: Thanks JACKO, Thank you.
17:17
Speaker 1: Steve Jackson is The Australian's Mediate Diary editor. You can
17:21
Speaker 1: read his inside story on how peace was achieved between
17:24
Speaker 1: Kyle Sanderlans and Arn right now at The Australian dot
17:28
Speaker 1: com dot au