iHeartCountryThe country radio scene looks like it’s shifting as iHeartCountry breakfast announcer Steve Fitton and drive host Chris “Kristof” Sandilands exit the station. It seems that the split is not amicable with Sandilands posting in his Instagram bio that he’s “Off to find a better platform where I won’t be forced to play shit music!”
Sandilands has teased his next move, posting on his Instagram stories that he is “Workin on something” against a graphic spruiking “KSL Country: Real Country, Real People, Real Passion”, pushing fans to download his brother Kyle’s new Kyle Sandilands Live app.
The new platform went live earlier this month with a daily Kyle show behind the paywall, following on from his dismissal from the Kiis breakfast show after his on air bust up with co-host Jackie O. His new app is $99 per month, with the polarising host teasing a range of potential programs and streams to come.
It seems that his brother will be the first cab off the rank with KSL Country, although it is unclear when the program will launch.
The disappearance of Fitton and Kristof leaves a huge hole in the iHeartCountry line-up, leaving beloved afternoons announcer Justin Thomson with a now-extended shift from 2pm-6pm. Other shifts currently revert to music only, without announcers.
iHeartCountry was relaunched in December 2024, with the network heralding the expanded on-air line-up as a “game-changer for country music in Australia”.
The country radio field on digital radio is a competitive one, but in the last 12 months the expansion we’ve seen into the genre over recent times has hit a wall.
First ARN made the decision to merge the beloved Kix Country brand with iHeartCountry in October last year. Just a month ago, the Nova network axed their Fresh Country station from Brisbane’s DAB+ frequency where it had struggled to find an audience after its launch in 2024, shifting to app streaming only.
The slimming of iHeartCountry’s on air team is yet another blow to country radio, although with Kristof’s tease of the new KLS venture, perhaps the existing players will have some more competition.
Currently, DAB+ has three stations available, with iHeartCountry leading the pack on 129,000 weekly cumulative monthly listeners, airing on all five capital cities except Perth. Their FM broadcasts across dozens of markets in regional Queensland are in addition to that, making them a formidable force.
Triple M Country are next on 106,000 weekly cumulative listeners across the five capital cities except Adelaide. ABC Country also has a healthy 97,000 across all five capitals.
It is worth noting for comparison, however, that top rating FM stations like Nova for example have a five-capital cumulative weekly audience of 4.255 million, roughly thirty-three times the listeners of the top-rating country station, making the genre a commercially tough ask, despite its recent growth in a radio market that’s undergoing larger strategic challenges.
The country market is also served by a range of community and online stations, with the Countrytown Hot 50 tracking eighteen country format stations across Australia including strong and passionate local stations like Today’s Country 94One in Gosford, Brisbane’s Triple A and many more, giving Sandilands a crowded market of free options to be entering into with a subscription-based product.
