Southern Cross Austereo's (SCA) radio shock jock Kyle Sandilands has officially been hit with a second licensing condition, following an outburst last year which saw him call a journalist a “fat slag”.
In March, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) put forward a proposed second licensing condition on Sandilands, after ruling his outburst had breached commercial codes of practise.
The new rule says SCA's 2DayFM cannot broadcast content that offends “generally accepted standards of decency”.
ACMA suggested a second license condition in March, asking for proposals. The condition in its current form has been considerably watered-down from the proposed condition.
SCA has not commented on whether is will appeal the decision in court, but in March SCA chief executive Rhys Holleran told AdNews the company would “take matters further” it ACMA decided to go ahead with the condition.
Holleran said today in a statement: “Southern Cross Austereo acknowledges today’s decision by ACMA and is reviewing all available options. SCA finds the decision broad reaching and its lengthy term unprecedented. SCA believes ACMA has not fully taken into consideration the extensive processes and procedures that the business has taken upon itself to implement with regards to comments made by Kyle Sandilands on 22 November 2011.”
In 2010, ACMA imposed its original licence condition after finding the same program had breached the equivalent indecency provision of the earlier version of of the codes. The licence provided increased protection for children participating in live hosted entertainment programs broadcast by 2DAY FM.
Prior to the ACMA decision and following Sandilands' outburst, 2DAY FM introduced several safeguards, including the installation of a warning light system in the Sydney and Los Angeles studios to allow production staff and content advisers to notify announcers when content may be of concern, while also extending the broadcast delay of the program from 10 seconds to 30 seconds.
Following the remarks last November, the show was faced with an exodus of advertisers and sponsors as a sign of disapproval of Sandiland's remarks.
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