Sandilands' rival radio rant

2DAY FM breakfast host Kyle Sandilands has thrown the integrity of the final Sydney radio ratings survey of 2007 into question with a reckless spray against his competitors.

The Australian newspaper's Media section understands Sandilands and his employer, Austereo, are likely to be reprimanded by Commercial Radio Australia and-or ratings survey company Nielsen Media Research for his broadcast of November 9 in which he accused a competitor of copying his broadcasts and implored listeners to tell their mates to listen to his show.

"With only two weeks left in the radio ratings, lock yourself into your favourite station and tell people, get friends that do not listen to this radio station to have a try, because sometimes people have the wrong impression of what we do over here,'' he said on air.

His broadcast clearly breaches the code of ethics contained in the 2007 Audience Survey Guidelines released by Commercial Radio Australia: "Members should not make direct or oblique on-air reference to, or in any way directly attempt to encourage the audience to respond in a particular manner to a survey that is being conducted in the licence area in which the station operates, either immediately before or during the period of the survey.''

It is not known whether Austereo or Sandilands will be subject to financial punishment. It is all but impossible to measure what effect such blatant spruiking or manipulation of survey respondents could have on survey results.

But there is precedent for a ratings survey to be deemed void after such a breach.

The host's potentially destructive faux pas comes at the end of a dreadful month in which he missed his final show with a migraine and broadcast deceased former West Coast Eagle Chris Mainwaring's mobile phone message in a clumsy discussion about when to discard numbers from one's mobile phone.

On top of all that, ratings plummeted for the finale of Australian Idol, which he judges. Austereo management could not be contacted for comment on whether Sandilands was reprimanded for airing the mobile phone message.

His attack on his competitors will cast doubt on any upward variation to the Kyle and Jackie O show's 11.6 per cent share from the previous survey in which they hold a sizable lead in the Sydney FM market.

In the November 23 broadcast, Sandilands claimed Nova's Merrick and Rosso were "radio copy cats''.

He continued: "Radio stations are expected to have their own content, especially Nova, who pretend to be different. I would love to be the boss at Nova because all you do is steal other ideas.''

He also accused Nova of copying his program so survey diary respondents would be confused. "I believe that it's a marketing plan to confuse the listener so they don't know what station they're listening to,'' he said.

"So those that have survey books -- because this is how radio stations, this is how they get their ranking, right? -- when you tick the survey book, if you don't know who you're listening to, they just hope that you might tick them by mistake.''

Jackie O then claimed the 2Day FM show never stole any ideas. Peter Cornelius, Pacific managing director of Nielsen Media Research, preferred not to comment on the matter other than tosay: "There's some ongoing discussions but nothing has been resolved.''

An Austereo spokesman said the company did not comment on complaints but confirmed there had been discussions relating to Sandilands' comments on the survey.

The TV ratings for Ten's Australian Idol final event were down one-third on last year's audience figures.

Its average audience for Australian Idol: The Final Verdict was 1.45 million in the five capital cities, down more than 700,000 viewers on last year's finale.

Next year Sandilands will host Ten's Big Brother with his radio sidekick Jackie O.

source: http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/story/0,23663,22840842-5013560,00.html