KIIS FM’s Kyle Sandilands forced into sensitivity training after offensive comments about Paralympians

Radio station KIIS FM has had to employ a second censor and provide sensitivity training to Kyle Sandilands after the shock jock described watching the Tokyo Paralympics as “horrific”.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (Acma) found the broadcasts of the Kyle & Jackie O show in September 2021 breached the commercial radio code of practice decency provisions.

A segment included insensitive and disparaging comments by Sandilands that would have been offensive to the athletes as well as the broader community, Acma said in a report published on Tuesday.

Sandilands also joked that the song Shake It by Metro Station should be the theme song of the games and in a later segment threatened and named a journalist who had criticised the program.

Sandilands, who is a judge on Seven’s reboot of Australian Idol, has the top-rating breakfast show on Sydney radio.

The latest breach follows an incident in October when Sandilands, who reportedly earns $5m a year, and ARN apologised for using a slur against people with disability.

“Have you been watching the special Olympics (sic), it is horrific some of the things,” Sandilands said live on air.

“Some poor bloke ran for the high jump and then veered right ’cause he was blind and landed on his arse on the ground.”

The report found that while the presenters expressed some admiration for the “spirit of the contest”, it would have been clear to the audience that “the Paralympians in question were being mocked by Mr Sandilands, and that they were mocked for the techniques used to participate and compete in their particular sport”.

Sandilands implied that participants in the Paralympics were “a generic group of people that were somehow intrinsically inferior and were in need of special treatment or ‘lifting up’”, the report found.

Radio network ARN told Acma that Sandilands is well known for his “colourful vernacular” and his listeners would not have been offended by the Paralympics segment.

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The Acma chair, Nerida O’Loughlin, said radio broadcasters have a responsibility to ensure that what they say meets the standards expected by their audience.

“Comments like those broadcast on this program have no place in our society, never mind on a commercial radio program,” O’Loughlin said.

“Mocking participants in an event that celebrates equality and showcases the highest levels of human endeavour is beyond any reasonable measure of decency.”

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In reference to the threat made to a journalist, she said “threatening and intimidating an individual is an unacceptable response to criticism and an entirely inappropriate use of broadcast media”.

The second censor will assist ARN’s primary censor to monitor that what is being put to air is compliant with the code of practice.

The station has given a court-enforceable undertaking to maintain two censors and deliver sensitivity training to the program hosts, producers, censor and other relevant staff.

KIIS FM has also promised to review its controls to prevent further breaches of the decency requirements and report back to Acma over the next two years.

Sandilands has been a divisive figure in Australian media for decades. Thirteen years ago he was dropped by Australian Idol (then on Channel Ten) after a public backlash over a lie-detector stunt on his radio show in which a 14-year-old girl revealed she had been raped. Both Sandilands and his co-host apologised on air at the time, saying they did not know the girl had been raped.

Although Sandilands apologised in October for “using filthy language and some derogatory archaic terms”, he said: “I’m never going to change. I’m still not changing [for] the woke world.”

Paralympics Australia president Jock O’Callaghan said he notes Acma’s findings.

“Barriers to diversity and inclusion take many forms,” O’Callaghan said. “Paralympics Australia supports our athletes and the disability community by advocating for deeper understanding and better outcomes. We will continue to do so.”

KIIS FM has been approached for a response to Acma’s findings.