Kyle Sandilands has boasted about being able to broadcast sexually explicit content on breakfast radio as he comes under fire for the “derogatory” language used on The Kyle and Jackie O Show.
After Guardian Australia’s report into how the show skirts decency standards despite having underage listeners, Sandilands and his Kiis FM co-host, Jackie O Henderson, took to the airwaves, playing audio of someone reading out one of Henderson’s sexual fantasies, which was read despite Henderson’s repeated objections.
The audio was graphic, describing foreplay, fingering and penetration in explicit detail, with Henderson explaining that she wants a man to “tease” her before penetration. A number of words were bleeped out by the show’s censor.
Sandilands tells Henderson that “blokes don’t get off on that bullshit”.
“Who’s got the time to roll their finger around all the non-good bits?” he asks.
“You need to be with a woman for that shit.
“No bloke is ever going to waste his time … We only put our finger where we want it.”
After the reading out loud of her sexual fantasy, Henderson says: “I’m surprised we’re allowed to even air that.”
“Contrary to popular belief, everything on this show is Australian legal broadcast standard-worthy,” Sandilands says, in an apparent nod to the Guardian’s report.
“Regardless of [bleeped] or the wackos [bleeped] ever listened or the [bleeped] disturbed, everything you hear is allowed. Just because the other pissants don’t do anything good, doesn’t mean we’re doing anything wrong,” he says.
In two weeks of listening to the Kyle and Jackie O show in early October, Guardian Australia documented content that mocked Asian people, insulted women and mental health patients, as well as vulgar and aggressive sexual language.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, declined to respond to the content, which has been slammed by the Greens’ Sarah Hanson-Young in Senate estimates as “revolting, sexist, racist, misogynistic [and] divisive”.
Albanese, who attended Sandilands’ wedding in 2023 and has appeared on the program seven times since the election, declined to comment on the Guardian’s coverage, referring the matter to the communications minister, Michelle Rowland.
Dutton, who has appeared on the program several times as opposition leader, also did not respond to a request for comment.
In statements from a spokesperson, Rowland took aim at the material.
“There is no place for sexist, racist or otherwise derogatory language in today’s society,” the spokesperson said.
“The Australian Government has been clear in its commitment to addressing attitudes and behaviours that can contribute to gender-based violence – a scourge on our community.
“Australians rightly expect that content on our broadcast channels reflects community standards.”
ARN, the owner of the station Kiis FM that broadcasts The Kyle and Jackie O Show, has said in response to questions from Guardian Australia about the program’s content that it acknowledges it “may not appeal to everyone”.
“[It] remains the nation’s most successful program, with a weekly audience of over 1.7 million people,” a spokesperson said.
