All the faux allegiances have fallen away in the unfolding high stakes legal saga between radio’s most famous on-air couple Kyle (Sandilands), Jackie ‘O’ (Henderson) and the radio network that was paying them $200 million.
It is now every man/woman/company for themselves after Henderson went on the offensive on Tuesday, filing a legal action against the KIIS network’s owner ARN Media, claiming her contract had been illegally terminated after her complaints of bullying by Sandilands.
The saga has deteriorated to lawyers at 20 paces. For ARN shareholders, the legal actions taken by Sandilands and Henderson could be breaking the company. Each of the radio talking heads is looking for more than $80 million, which is way more cash than the company has on its balance sheet.
Sure, ARN would’ve been wanting to get out of the onerously profligate contract it entered into with Sandilands and Henderson two years ago. But losing these stars and having to pay out their contracts would be the worst of all outcomes.
It would be financially devastating for ARN, which has a market value of $87 million, less than half the value of Sandilands’ and Henderson’s combined 10-year contract.
In most employment cases involving breach of contracts, the employer holds the financial muscle. But Sandilands and Henderson are well-resourced and well-advised adversaries with a lot at stake.
There was an inevitability about Henderson mounting a case against the radio network. She says she had a right to complain to the network about allegedly being bullied by Sandilands, and that ARN had no right to repudiate her contract as a result.
The flashpoint for the Kyle and Jackie ‘O’ blow-up was his disparaging on-air criticism of Henderson, in which he said she was unprofessional and off with the fairies.
Interestingly, ARN has been using Sandilands’ alleged bullying as justification for sacking him. Now, the tables have turned and Henderson is using Sandilands’ behaviour as the reason ARN had no right to sack her.
The juicy letter from Henderson to ARN, which is being teased out, will be crucial to everyone. All we know is that, according to ARN, Henderson said she would no longer work with Sandilands, and ARN says the letter included “psychosocial health and safety and bullying complaints in relations to” Sandilands’ behaviour, and that her complaints included instances even before the February on-air blow up.
She rejects ARN’s assertion that she was given the possibility of another job within the network, and she says the company’s ASX statement to that effect was “misleading and deceptive”.
Sandilands’ case against ARN, which claims he breached his agreement with his “serious misconduct,” seems less clear-cut.
He clearly has a different barometer for misconduct, but he argues he was just doing his job. They wanted a provocative caveman and that’s what they got.
Outside court last week, Sandilands said: “[Jackie] understands. We’ve had blow-ups before. I didn’t do anything different than I’ve been doing for 25 years.
“An argument did happen. I think it was quite tame compared to how they’ve been before, and it would have been something that would have just been over and done with the next day and the show would have cruised on.”
His argument appears to be that this is normal behaviour, which the KIIS network has not taken issue with previously and had therefore tacitly sanctioned, if not commercialised.
His lawyers said terminating his contract was invalid because he was performing his role with KIIS FM as a “robust character” presenting a “deliberately provocative” radio program.
Despite being repeatedly sanctioned by broadcasting regulators for breaching radio’s code of conduct, the show continued unfazed until the February meltdown.
The real entertainment will begin if, or when, the two stars’ actions make their way to a courtroom and the contents of each party’s communications (texts and emails) are revealed.
It’s likely that ARN’s shareholders won’t find this radio drama very entertaining.
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