KIIS-FM to launch in Australian market, with Kyle and Jackie O as figureheads

US radio conglomerate Clear Channel seems set to launch its popular brand KIIS-FM in Sydney, as rumours abound that the ARN-owned MIX station will rebrand as KIIS, with the newly-acquired Kyle and Jackie O team spearheading the channel.

Clear Channel currently operates Australian Radio Network as a joint venture with APN News and Media. Last week, Darlinghurst-based ad agency Joy indadvertedly spills the beans on this rebranding, displaying a draft of the new KIIS-FM campaign in their window, which Mumbrella ran visuals of. The week before it also emerged that ARN had purchased the domain name kiis.com.au.

While no official word of the KIIS-FM rebrand has been released by ARN, the press release last Friday announcing Kyle and Jackie O’s defection to ARN, mentions the launch of a new station on 106.5, with CEO Ciaran Davis pointing out that it’s “unprecedented to have the country’s #1 radio team move networks to create a brand new station.”

This alignment with the KIIS-FM brand certainly puts Kyle and Jackie O’s move in a new light. While their contractual squabble with 2Day was originally thought to have been about money, MIX’s format change would see the duo make serious inroads in the US radio market, which is already heavily controlled by Clear Channel.