Last month, ARN CEO Michael Stephenson said two things: despite The Kyle and Jackie O Show being off air for months, the alleged “brand safety issues” tied to the program had left the company with a $38 million revenue gap to close.
Meanwhile, ratings for the once-dominant breakfast slot had gone into freefall. Its Sydney share plunged from 12.7% at the beginning of 2026, when it was the city’s number one FM show, to 6.9% in the latest GfK radio survey. That’s a 45.7% collapse.
The market delivered its own verdict. After trading at 42 cents at the start of the year, ARN’s share price hit a low of 18 cents on 9 April, just weeks after the program was pulled from the air.
The wrong tumour, it seems, may have been cut out.
Now, more than six months later, ARN has confirmed one of the worst-kept secrets in media circles: its new Sydney breakfast team will consist of Dr Chris Brown, Amy Gerard and Jack Charles.
The announcement again prompted Stephenson to reach for the “brand safe” label, with the CEO declaring the trio could “build something very special for listeners and a new, exciting and brand safe proposition for advertisers”.
“This is a big moment for ARN and the future of KIIS Sydney. We’ve brought together big names, fresh new talent and a team ready to create the best content for audio, video, social and in real life experiences,” he said.
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It is the network’s first permanent breakfast line-up in the city since The Kyle and Jackie O Show aired its final episode on March 3rd
According to ARN director of content – metro radio Dave Cameron, who ran the casting process, the long wait was not for lack of trying.
“These things take a lot longer than people realise,” Cameron told Mediaweek. “But we always said that we would take our time on this one, and we have, not because we’re slow at our jobs, but because it just takes time to go through the machinations of building shows.”
The search, he said, rarely begins anywhere near a contract.
“It needs to start with conversations and coffees. And then it starts with working out how the collaboration might work.”
From there, the net is cast wide.
“We need to see who’s around, who’s interested, and who the audience would love,” Cameron said.
“Then you can narrow it down reasonably quickly and then start to work with really amazing people that you can see and feel will deliver a specific magical product for you.”
For Cameron, the brief was never to rebuild what The Kyle and Jackie O Show had created.
“It is a new show. It’s a new era, and it’s going to be a new sound quite significantly because it has to,” he said.
“You can’t follow up a show like Kyle and Jack with another show that is almost that show. We have had to have a look at the pros and cons of that show and work out where we were good and doing successful things, but also work out where there were holes.”
The pitch is also, pointedly, a commercial one, and the numbers show ARN has yet to recover the income it claims the former program cost the business.
ARN’s H1 FY26 results attributed $10.2 million of a 14% revenue decline to the fallout surrounding the show, while metro radio income fell 24%.
Months later, advertisers still haven’t returned at the same rate as listeners. ARN commands 24.9% of the metro audience but attracts only 18.5% of advertising revenue, accounting for the shortfall Stephenson disclosed to investors.
Cost-cutting has helped prop up the bottom line, but the CEO conceded the lost income remains just that: lost.
“We don’t have brand safety issues anymore, of course,” Stephenson told the market. “So, the only thing standing between us and regaining that share is time.”
That puts Cameron under pressure to turn the new team into a product advertisers will buy.
“From a commercial model, we feel like we’ve now got a show that can be as if not more successful commercially than the previous show,” he said.
“There is no point having a juggernaut audience that you can’t optimise and monetise. Commercial success is everything. And that’s why we see success in a completely different way now with the lineups for next year.”
While the combination is new, all three presenters arrive with broadcast experience and established connections to Australian radio.
Brown’s move into breakfast follows nearly two decades of appearances on the medium, beginning with regular veterinary and lifestyle segments on Triple M and Vega FM in 2008. He later featured on programs including Fitzy, Wippa & Kate, filled in on Triple M Sydney Breakfast and, from 30 June, temporarily hosted Nova’s national Drive show alongside Charles and Nikki Osborne.
His television career makes him the trio’s most recognisable name, with credits including Bondi Vet, The Living Room, I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, Dancing with the Stars and the forthcoming Once in a Lifetime. Cameron said the breakfast format would expose a less familiar side of the presenter.
“We’ve ended up exactly with the kind of show that we want, one that will deliver a lot of fun, one that will deliver a lot of surprises that people haven’t necessarily seen from some of our talent, like Chris,” he said.
“I think you’ll see a whole different side of Chris than TV has shown him, and he’s looking forward to showing the audience that.”
Gerard joins the permanent roster after returning for another guest co-hosting stint on 20 July and presenting KIIS weekend breakfast with Chris Page between 8am and 10am on Saturdays and Sundays.
She also co-hosts the parenting podcast Beyond The Chaos, has written the motherhood memoir Strap Yourself In, launched wine brand At Last and runs Rise and Wine, a women-only event series. On her website, Gerard describes herself as a mother whose “entire personality is having a wine with girlfriends” and who enjoys making her plate “as full as my washing basket”.
Charles, meanwhile, has spent 11 years with NOVA Entertainment and serves as anchor and executive producer of The Chrissie Swan Show. His recent Drive stint with Brown means two-thirds of the incoming KIIS team already share an on-air history.
ARN’s challenge will now be to draw on the scale and entertainment credentials of its former flagship without attempting to reproduce it.
The lengthy casting process and unconventional combination make the network’s intention clear: this is designed as a clean break, not Kyle and Jackie O with different names behind the microphones.
KIIS Breakfast with Chris, Amy & Jack launches Monday, 9 November.
From Mediaweek