Kyle Sandilands has claimed that a celebrity presenter is slated to take over his former KIIS FM breakfast show, approximately five months after his contract was terminated.
Sandilands, 55, announced on his new show, "Kyle Sandilands Live," on Sunday that veteran presenter Dr. Chris Brown is expected to fill the now-vacant slot. "I've got an announcement to make, a little bit of sneaky information I have got. Dr Chris Brown... No one has a bad opinion of him," Sandilands stated. "He's going to be the new me!" Sandilands added that Dr. Chris would co-host the show with current KIIS weekend presenter Amy Gerard.
However, KIIS FM has denied Sandilands' assertion, stating that no replacement has yet been confirmed. "Incorrect. We haven’t signed him," KIIS FM said in a statement to news.com.au. "We're not commenting on any of the speculation. We'll let you know when we have something to share."
In March, KIIS FM ended the contracts of long-time presenters Sandilands and Jackie 'O' Henderson following an on-air dispute. Sandilands has since launched his own weekday morning podcast.
Sandilands' return to broadcasting faced recent technical difficulties. The first week of his new subscription venture was disrupted by technical issues that forced producers to cancel Friday's show. The highly anticipated subscription service was pulled before it could broadcast, leaving paying subscribers unable to access content as producers attempted to resolve the problems.
In a video message shared on the broadcaster's app, executive producer Jaimee 'Mayo' Blazquez and newsreader Brooklyn Ross apologized to fans for the technical malfunction. Ross mentioned that Sandilands was "very stressed right now" as the issues unfolded.
Blazquez expressed the team's disappointment over the failure, stating, "We're so sorry that the tech has failed us today because the show that we had planned would have been incredible." The producers explained that after multiple unsuccessful attempts to launch the show, they decided to cancel the broadcast rather than continue to frustrate listeners.
Subscribers who paid an annual fee of $99 were assured that the team would work on fixing the issues over the weekend. Blazquez indicated plans to return the following Monday with new equipment, hoping to avoid further technical problems.
Sandilands himself was notably absent from the apology video.