Kyle Sandilands’ ambitious future plans, his dig at Fordham and the real reason he left Idol

Exclusive: Days after leaving Australian Idol, Kyle Sandilands is making another bold claim: his new subscription platform has raked in enough money that could see him operate for another three years with the cash he’s already banked.

Many questioned whether listeners would pay for a show they’d spent decades getting for free, but in an interview with nine.com.au, the polarising host, 55, claimed the early numbers for Kyle Sandilands Live have already answered that.

“We knew it was going to take, but we didn’t know it would take early,” Sandilands said. “About two to three weeks prior and we’re already in the tens of thousands.

“There’s plenty of money in the bank. We can afford to keep it running for three years based on what it’s made already, and I’m not really expecting the main subscription wave to come until the day of or the night before.”

Sandilands – who settled with his former employer ARN for $12 million after suing them for wrongful termination – couldn’t be sure of the exact subscriber count, but said the platform is still short of the 100,000 milestone that would trigger one of his more ambitious promises.

In the first week of launch, starting August 10, he claims he’ll give away a $10,000 tennis bracelet to a listener.

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“When we hit 100,000, I’ll start giving away a car each month. When there’s 200,000 I’m going to give a house or an apartment away every year,” he added.

It’s strikingly similar to the ‘You Get A’ competition from his KIIS FM era. As for KIIS FM launching that very same giveaway on August 10, Sandilands offered a candid verdict: “They can’t just lay down and die, they’ve got to do something.”

He doesn’t see KIIS FM as competition moving forward – and the same goes for 2GB’s Ben Fordham, who recently reclaimed Sydney’s breakfast crown with a commanding 14.8 per cent audience share.

“Radio do this percentage share thing,” Sandilands snapped. “TV don’t. Newspapers don’t. How many people are watching The Voice? X amount of millions, not such and such a per cent.

“So when you look at Ben Fordham’s percentages of like 16 or 17 per cent, it’s only about 230,000 people. Over on KIIS we might have been on 11 per cent, but that’s 900,000. So who’s the real winner? These fake percentages, or the amount of actual people?”

While those statistics might not be entirely accurate, Sandilands claimed 2GB listeners to be “a different audience” to his own.

“Ben Fordham never has been a competitor, even in radio. You look at newspapers and it says, ‘Ben Fordham’s the leader!’ but no one’s buying ads on that. The FM station is where all the money was. So there never really was any competition. That’s why he’s all bent out of shape.”

He described Fordham as a “nice enough guy” but claimed he was disappointed to hear Ben slamming his $100 million contract in the media.

“I thought – what an arsehole you turned out to be,” he said. I always take people for what I experience, and he was one of the people that tricked me.

“It’s never going to be an issue. Anyone can go on 2GB and do the same thing. You can put a monkey on there, and it’ll still do the same figures. Ben Fordham, a monkey – they’re all the same.”

Fordham declined to comment on Sandilands’ latest comments, but has done multiple times in the past.

The app’s early success comes after one of the most turbulent periods of Sandilands’ career, with the broadcaster not only leaving KIIS FM but also making the surprise decision to walk away from Australian Idol earlier this week.

He publicly blamed the decision on a potential campaign by activist group Mad F–king Witches. In reality, that was only part of the motivation.

“To be very honest, before I got fired from the radio, I was like – it’s a lot to give 100 per cent to both. Idol can be very long hours, and sometimes I’d get sick because I’m a big, fat smoking whale who eats Twisties and lollies…” he said.

“My wife actually said, ‘Do you think you should be taking on both?’ They’re both enormous jobs that require a lot of thought and attention and I need to be well to do both. There’s been times when I’ve been sick a day, but sick for three days on Idol – because when you film for one day that might turn into three on the TV.

“It’s a joy working with Marcia [Hines] and Amy [Shark]. Marcia… we didn’t start off that well 20 years ago. I don’t think she liked me at all. But she and I have become close and she rang every second day since I’ve been terminated.”

As for who will replace him, he remains unfazed. “Good luck to them. It’s really not that big of a deal to me,” he said. “If they bring back Dicko, great. Maybe they’ll even bring out Simon Cowell.”

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His main focus now is the app, which comes with ambitious plans for the future – and plenty of big-name stars he hopes to bring along for the ride.

“We’ve talked about putting a 6 o’clock news live update,” he said. “There’s still 20 hours on this app that’s available, and I intend to fill that up with either television programs or radio programs that people have missed. There’s always a seat for Jackie, as well.”

He said he’s already spoken to Karl Stefanovic and Ray Hadley about joining in some capacity. Both, he claimed, are interested.

When pressed on who could step into his shoes at KIIS FM, he didn’t hesitate.

“Any of the guest hosts they’ve had, we would never have had in the past as a guest, let alone a guest host,” he said. “My friend Kris Fade, who is the breakfast equivalent of me in Dubai, he rang and said they wanted me to do it.

“I said, ‘Do it. Take the job, they don’t want me. You’re not going to do me any favours by walking away from the money.’”

Fade eventually released a statement saying he’d been offered the coveted gig but declined it, with Sandilands claiming he’d be one of the first guests on the show to discuss what exactly happened with those negotiations.

Unsurprisingly, Sandilands added that a plethora of controversial names would also feature in the coming weeks, including Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce.

The new live show will air on his app from August 10.