The ink is still wet on their new contracts for ARN’s breakfast slot but presenters Jonsey and Amanda won’t be trading their formula in for more “show biz”, despite having Kyle and Jackie O down the hall. But on the extra resourcing her rivals have at the network, Keller has added this has "pissed me off."
Speaking at the National Radio Conference, Brendan “Jonesy” Jones and Amanda Keller said with superstar radio duo Kyle Sandilands and Jackie 'O' Henderson at ARN they have more access to celebrity interviews. But Keller said that while Kyle and Jackie O are known for “the big showbiz kind of thing”, WSFM won’t be swayed from what works for their audience.
“We made a decision at the beginning of the year that we wanted to be more judicious and hold true to what our show was. We wouldn’t put someone on for the sake of the fact that they were in the building,” Keller said.
But Keller added she was jealous of the resourcing Kyle and Jackie O have, with Jones saying “its like Ally McBeal” in the Kiis studio.
“There has been days where that has pissed me off,” said Keller but added that it made the team more determined to more with less.
The pair has hit the top of the Sydney FM radio ratings several times over the course of this year, including the latest GfK ratings last month.
In April ARN rebranded WSFM from the tagline “Classic Hits” to “Pure Gold” as a way to bolster its offering to the Gen X demographic.
The launch of the Pure Gold Network included an on-air and outdoor advertising push, as well as digital and TV campaigns.
Jonesy said the rebrand of the station was a large contributor to the success, which helped distance it from its old image as a Western Sydney-only station.
Keller added that Kyle and Jackie O’s move changed the dynamic of the industry, which has helped them gain a larger audience base.
“I don’t know if the nature of our show has changed much. I think the sands shifted earlier this year I think a lot of people were rusted on certain listening habits and then suddenly it was up for grabs and people started floating a little more and people found us," Keller said.
“I get a lot of those comments, 'nine years later I found you and I like your show’, so I think partly there was a shakeup in the radio industry this year and we benefitted from that."
Earlier this week the duo signed a new contract with ARN for the next three years, in a deal thought to be worth $6 million. Next year will mark the duo’s 10th year on air together.
Neither would be drawn on the contract amount but Keller said it was interesting that radio was once again “news.”
“It’s a been a number of years since radio has been the big story and I think the market shifted so much this year with Kyle And Jackie O coming over to ARN that radio has become a big media story. Two years ago, who would have even cared less about those kinds of stories?"
“We’ve re-signed in the past and it's never been written about so the up side of coming in in the morning and reading those kind of stories is that radio is being written about.”
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