When Kyle Sandilands emerged from the Federal Court in Sydney on Friday, he told a swarm of reporters that he needed to get back on air to start earning again because he, just like everyone else, has mortgages to pay.
The line caught our attention on a couple of fronts. The first: Why can’t the man with the massive, $100 million deal just pay cash? Then there’s the other, perhaps more intriguing question of just how many mortgages King Kyle has to his name.
Well, on the latter, it turns out there are four.
Sandilands bought his Vaucluse home, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, for $14 million in 2023. That property is mortgaged with NAB, according to documents filed with NSW land registry services, seen by this masthead. Sandilands also has a mortgage on the $3 million Robertson farmhouse in the Southern Highlands he bought in 2018.
Then there’s the Glenorie estate he and his wife, Tegan Kynaston, put on the market in February, with a price guide of $5.7 million to $5.9 million. And finally, there’s the $1.8 million fixer-upper in Copacabana he scooped up on the Central Coast last year, the same neighbourhood where Prime Minister Anthony Albanese bought a $4.3 million mansion a year earlier.
A representative for Sandilands declined to comment.
No surprise then that Sandilands, who is beginning to resemble a Gold Coast rendition of President Snow of The Hunger Games fame, just wants to get back to work. The latest development in Sandilands’ bid to fight the termination of his $100 million contract by ARN Media, the owner of KIIS FM, came in the Federal Court on Friday.
The shock jock’s lawyers have argued for an expedited hearing to try and get Sandilands back on air as quickly as possible. He says his treatment of co-host Jackie “O” Henderson in a segment on February 20 was no different to other bust-ups the pair had had and that it was being used by ARN to get out of paying him.
In a court filing, Sandilands’ lawyers wrote: “The exchange was congruent with the style, tone and nature of the Show and the robust character that [ARN] ‘desired’.”
As things stand, the controversial radio personality is keen to collect the $85 million or so remaining on his eye-watering deal. We sure wouldn’t want to be the ones standing in his way. After all, those mortgages aren’t going to pay themselves.
Kellie Sloane summons glory days
NSW Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane will no doubt be hoping that some of the success recorded by her party predecessors will rub off on her when the state goes to the polls less than a year from now.
So we would guess that when Sloane had a handful of them in the same room last week, she used the opportunity to solicit some advice. Sloane was among a modest gathering of party faithful who turned up to see a handful of the Liberal Party’s living former premiers at Lilyfield’s Le Montage in Sydney’s inner west on Thursday evening.
Former premiers Barry O’Farrell and Mike Baird were among those who addressed guests of the gala dinner late last week, along with Covid-era premier-turned-Optus executive Gladys Berejiklian and Nick Greiner. In the lead-up to the function, former premier-turned-BHP-vice-president Dominic Perrottet was set to beam in via video link, but there has been no word on whether he was able to make it.
CBD wasn’t welcome at the event, as you probably could have guessed. But we did get a picture of Sloane flanked by her (winning) predecessors, smiles abounding. You do have to wonder, though, just how long those smiles will last.
Kyle’s radio rivals talk shop at the MCA
All anybody wants to talk about in Australian media circles – and even beyond – is the battle between Kyle and Jackie O, and ARN, the owner of KIIS FM.
So we weren’t surprised to hear the pair cast a shadow over a corporate get-together hosted by their ASX-listed radio rivals, Southern Cross, at the Museum of Contemporary Art on Thursday evening.
Southern Cross, which just months ago absorbed Kerry Stokes′ Seven West Media before turfing his lieutenants from the leadership team of the newly merged company, scheduled the showcase to woo advertisers and anyone else thinking of spending money with the company.
There was, of course, a panel on All The Things the company will be able to do now that it has swallowed Seven. There was even a performance from Keli Holiday, the man who will sing to just about anybody willing to pay him. (Just don’t tell him Seven is a major broadcaster of horse racing.)
Despite the Thursday evening downpour, we hear the turn-out was decent.
Southern Cross interim chief executive John Kelly was there, along with the company’s chief operating officer, Stephen Haddad and chief commercial officer Seb Rennie. The commercial boss of the company’s Listnr product, Olly Newton, was also there.
The Southern Cross execs worked a room full of advertising executives, CBD hears. And there were even a few Seven executives for good measure.
Judging by the talent turn-out, Southern Cross very much remains focused on the business of audio. The hosts of Triple M’s Sydney breakfast show – Beau Ryan, Cat Lynch and Aaron “Woodsy” Woods – were wheeled out for the crowd, along with 2Day FM’s Nathan Roye and Emma Chow. Life Uncut co-host Brittany Hockley also showed, we’re told, as did former AFLW player and broadcaster Kate McCarthy, along with former cricketer-turned-media personality, James Brayshaw.
And as you could expect on the eve of Sandilands’ appearance at the Federal Court, the situation got a couple of mentions.
John Buckley is a CBD columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via email.
Fiona Byrne is the CBD columnist for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.