Post by Inside Australian Idol on Apr 19, 2005 0:37:40 GMT 10
Shock waves
By Sue Javes
April 18, 2005
In the hot seat: Kyle Sandilands. Photo: Stephen Baccon
Sue Javes reveals the demons and ambitions of radio's bad boy, Kyle Sandilands.
There are many faces of Kyle Sandilands, breakfast radio host on the rise. There's the conspicuously wealthy media star relaxing at his harbourside home in exclusive Woolwich, publicist, manager and personal assistant at his side. The beautiful pop singer girlfriend. A grand piano has been ordered and the boat comes next. "A big, long one, like in Miami Vice."
There's the little boy lost: the former street kid standing outside his aunt's home in Townsville at 17 with all his possessions in a suitcase held together by a belt. Rejected by his feuding parents, facing court for numerous driving offences.
There's the loud-mouthed shock jock, swearing on air, staging peeing contests, outing the gay teenager on his staff, talking dirty with a prostitute, humiliating people on air. There's the bully boy, throwing tantrums at work, intimidating colleagues, demanding junior staff be sacked for incompetence, threatening to bury the band Frenzal Rhomb.
There's Kyle Inc: the budding entrepreneur, ambitious and egocentric, walking the red carpet with slicked-back hair. The MTV presenter, soon-to-be Australian Idol judge, music video investor and owner of the King Kyle record label (one artist so far).
He's crass, a confessed liar with a questionable past, but at 33 Sandilands has forced himself to the front rank of Sydney radio. From here he could go anywhere - up or down.
Sandilands saw himself as a future breakfast star long before his bosses at Austereo. Station executives found the former Brisbane radio jock high maintenance from the moment he arrived in Sydney five years ago to replace Ugly Phil O'Neil on the night-time Hot 30 show. A former manager describes him as a very passionate guy with a massive ego. "It was confronting because he was just so open about being in it for himself."
Colleagues say Sandilands was an explosive character back then, a bit of a bully who intimidated junior staff and was prone to bursts of rage. But they also paint a picture of an insecure, even shy, loner who needed constant reassurance from management and surrounded himself with a small coterie of supporters.
From the beginning, Sandilands adopted the persona of the shock jock - a poor man's Howard Stern or, as one executive put it, Stan Zemanek jnr. Co-host Jackie O became his foil, the good cop to his bad cop, giving the show its dynamic.
Despite management reservation about Sandilands's behaviour, the audience lapped it up. His big break came last year when executives, with some trepidation, let him and Jackie O take over the drive slot. At issue was whether Sandilands could tone down his coarseness and add enough sophistication to appeal to commuters and mothers doing the school pick-up. By year's end, Sandilands and Jackie O had the most successful show on 2Day. Meanwhile, Judith Lucy's breakfast show was critically ill, and the station's ratings were in free fall, so management took a risk and, in December, the breakfast slot was his and Jackie O's. So far, it has worked.
It's a dramatic rise when you listen to Sandilands's account of his childhood, which includes months as a street kid in Brisbane living in a horse float. "Most of my friends from that time are either dead or in jail," he says. Bosses who'd learned to take his yarns with a grain of salt rolled their eyes when he first revealed the story, but there's no doubt Sandilands had a rotten childhood.
At 10, he was an unhappy spectator to his parents' bitter divorce. Both remarried but Sandilands says he rebelled against a physically abusive stepfather and felt displaced by his father's new family. He became the class clown "because when you're the class clown, you don't really fit into any group. You just float around."
At 15, his mother and stepfather ordered him from the house after he held a party and damaged their car while they were away. He never went back, moving between friends' houses and the streets. At 17, his father sent him to live in Townsville with his aunt, Jill Stevens.
"Oh, my God, what I let myself in for," Stevens says with a laugh. "He would lie and cheat and take things from the house. He was in trouble with the police. We called him Lord Davenport because of the grand stories he made up about himself. But I felt so sorry for him. He used to listen to that Tammy Wynette song D-I-V-O-R-C-E and just cry and cry. He's never gotten over his parents' divorce ... When he was living on the streets, he used to sit outside his father's house at night and watch the lights go out."
Sandilands admits his first attempts at work were uninspiring. He was retrenched from a meatworks company, let go from an electronics store after pocketing some of the takings, and sacked from Cadburys after sharing his fuel card with friends. His aunt was despairing when a friend showed him around Townsville radio station 4TO. Sandilands says he was offered a job after impressing an executive with a fake resume, which claimed he'd worked at Triple M in Brisbane. His aunt says he hung around doing work experience until they took pity on him. His first role was driving the promotional vehicle and handing out freebies. Within a few years he says he was running the promotions department for Mike Willesee's Queensland radio stations, which eventually led to an on-air role.
Sandilands shares his Woolwich home with his girlfriend of five years, Tamara Jaber, who used to sing in the girl band Scand'l'us before setting out on a solo career, and with his manager, Ryan Wellington, 28, a radio friend since Sandilands's Townsville days.
Wellington is rarely away from Sandilands's side. Until last year he was Sandilands's producer, but 2Day severed the relationship in September after an on-air blow-up with Frenzal Rhomb.
Since then, Wellington has been working on Sandilands's other business interests. In the works are an Osbournes-style reality show on Sandilands (no takers yet); King Kyle Records, with one artist signed so far (Jaber); TV roles on MTV and Ten's Australian Idol; and investment in a music video production company.
This year will be a make or break. The next two or three months will reveal whether listeners who have sampled his and Jackie O's mix of songs, gossip, celebrities and surprises such as the prostitute interview will stick around. In July, Sandilands takes over Dicko's role on Australian Idol. He will have no trouble being controversial, but does he have the credentials to be a judge?
What Sandilands lacks in talent and education, he intends to make up for with sheer determination and drive. "He's a real fighter and extremely driven and focused, and nothing will get in his way to where he wants to be," says Jackie O, who considers him a loyal friend and "a big soft teddy bear" most of the time.
Austereo knows it's taken a gamble but Sandilands won't hear of anything but winning. Of his chief rivals, Nova's Merrick and Rosso, he says: "We'll beat them in the next few months and once we beat them they'll never be No. 1 again." And Alan Jones? "He might be a bit harder, but I'm happy to wait until Alan passes away."
www.smh.com.au/news/TV--Radio/Shock-waves/2005/04/16/1113509959801.html
By Sue Javes
April 18, 2005
In the hot seat: Kyle Sandilands. Photo: Stephen Baccon
Sue Javes reveals the demons and ambitions of radio's bad boy, Kyle Sandilands.
There are many faces of Kyle Sandilands, breakfast radio host on the rise. There's the conspicuously wealthy media star relaxing at his harbourside home in exclusive Woolwich, publicist, manager and personal assistant at his side. The beautiful pop singer girlfriend. A grand piano has been ordered and the boat comes next. "A big, long one, like in Miami Vice."
There's the little boy lost: the former street kid standing outside his aunt's home in Townsville at 17 with all his possessions in a suitcase held together by a belt. Rejected by his feuding parents, facing court for numerous driving offences.
There's the loud-mouthed shock jock, swearing on air, staging peeing contests, outing the gay teenager on his staff, talking dirty with a prostitute, humiliating people on air. There's the bully boy, throwing tantrums at work, intimidating colleagues, demanding junior staff be sacked for incompetence, threatening to bury the band Frenzal Rhomb.
There's Kyle Inc: the budding entrepreneur, ambitious and egocentric, walking the red carpet with slicked-back hair. The MTV presenter, soon-to-be Australian Idol judge, music video investor and owner of the King Kyle record label (one artist so far).
He's crass, a confessed liar with a questionable past, but at 33 Sandilands has forced himself to the front rank of Sydney radio. From here he could go anywhere - up or down.
Sandilands saw himself as a future breakfast star long before his bosses at Austereo. Station executives found the former Brisbane radio jock high maintenance from the moment he arrived in Sydney five years ago to replace Ugly Phil O'Neil on the night-time Hot 30 show. A former manager describes him as a very passionate guy with a massive ego. "It was confronting because he was just so open about being in it for himself."
Colleagues say Sandilands was an explosive character back then, a bit of a bully who intimidated junior staff and was prone to bursts of rage. But they also paint a picture of an insecure, even shy, loner who needed constant reassurance from management and surrounded himself with a small coterie of supporters.
From the beginning, Sandilands adopted the persona of the shock jock - a poor man's Howard Stern or, as one executive put it, Stan Zemanek jnr. Co-host Jackie O became his foil, the good cop to his bad cop, giving the show its dynamic.
Despite management reservation about Sandilands's behaviour, the audience lapped it up. His big break came last year when executives, with some trepidation, let him and Jackie O take over the drive slot. At issue was whether Sandilands could tone down his coarseness and add enough sophistication to appeal to commuters and mothers doing the school pick-up. By year's end, Sandilands and Jackie O had the most successful show on 2Day. Meanwhile, Judith Lucy's breakfast show was critically ill, and the station's ratings were in free fall, so management took a risk and, in December, the breakfast slot was his and Jackie O's. So far, it has worked.
It's a dramatic rise when you listen to Sandilands's account of his childhood, which includes months as a street kid in Brisbane living in a horse float. "Most of my friends from that time are either dead or in jail," he says. Bosses who'd learned to take his yarns with a grain of salt rolled their eyes when he first revealed the story, but there's no doubt Sandilands had a rotten childhood.
At 10, he was an unhappy spectator to his parents' bitter divorce. Both remarried but Sandilands says he rebelled against a physically abusive stepfather and felt displaced by his father's new family. He became the class clown "because when you're the class clown, you don't really fit into any group. You just float around."
At 15, his mother and stepfather ordered him from the house after he held a party and damaged their car while they were away. He never went back, moving between friends' houses and the streets. At 17, his father sent him to live in Townsville with his aunt, Jill Stevens.
"Oh, my God, what I let myself in for," Stevens says with a laugh. "He would lie and cheat and take things from the house. He was in trouble with the police. We called him Lord Davenport because of the grand stories he made up about himself. But I felt so sorry for him. He used to listen to that Tammy Wynette song D-I-V-O-R-C-E and just cry and cry. He's never gotten over his parents' divorce ... When he was living on the streets, he used to sit outside his father's house at night and watch the lights go out."
Sandilands admits his first attempts at work were uninspiring. He was retrenched from a meatworks company, let go from an electronics store after pocketing some of the takings, and sacked from Cadburys after sharing his fuel card with friends. His aunt was despairing when a friend showed him around Townsville radio station 4TO. Sandilands says he was offered a job after impressing an executive with a fake resume, which claimed he'd worked at Triple M in Brisbane. His aunt says he hung around doing work experience until they took pity on him. His first role was driving the promotional vehicle and handing out freebies. Within a few years he says he was running the promotions department for Mike Willesee's Queensland radio stations, which eventually led to an on-air role.
Sandilands shares his Woolwich home with his girlfriend of five years, Tamara Jaber, who used to sing in the girl band Scand'l'us before setting out on a solo career, and with his manager, Ryan Wellington, 28, a radio friend since Sandilands's Townsville days.
Wellington is rarely away from Sandilands's side. Until last year he was Sandilands's producer, but 2Day severed the relationship in September after an on-air blow-up with Frenzal Rhomb.
Since then, Wellington has been working on Sandilands's other business interests. In the works are an Osbournes-style reality show on Sandilands (no takers yet); King Kyle Records, with one artist signed so far (Jaber); TV roles on MTV and Ten's Australian Idol; and investment in a music video production company.
This year will be a make or break. The next two or three months will reveal whether listeners who have sampled his and Jackie O's mix of songs, gossip, celebrities and surprises such as the prostitute interview will stick around. In July, Sandilands takes over Dicko's role on Australian Idol. He will have no trouble being controversial, but does he have the credentials to be a judge?
What Sandilands lacks in talent and education, he intends to make up for with sheer determination and drive. "He's a real fighter and extremely driven and focused, and nothing will get in his way to where he wants to be," says Jackie O, who considers him a loyal friend and "a big soft teddy bear" most of the time.
Austereo knows it's taken a gamble but Sandilands won't hear of anything but winning. Of his chief rivals, Nova's Merrick and Rosso, he says: "We'll beat them in the next few months and once we beat them they'll never be No. 1 again." And Alan Jones? "He might be a bit harder, but I'm happy to wait until Alan passes away."
www.smh.com.au/news/TV--Radio/Shock-waves/2005/04/16/1113509959801.html