About KIIS 1065

KIIS 1065

KIIS 1065 (callsign 2WFM) is a commercial contemporary hit radio station broadcasting to Sydney on 106.5 MHz FM, owned by ARN Media. It is the flagship of ARN's KIIS Network and one of Sydney's highest-profile hit-music stations, home to the Kyle & Jackie O Show — the country's most talked-about breakfast program. The station's lineage stretches back to 13 February 1925, when it began life as 2UW on the AM band; it converted to FM in 1994 as Mix 106.5 and relaunched under the KIIS brand on 19 January 2014, returning to the Top 40 format of its 2UW heyday.

Overview

KIIS 1065 broadcasts on 106.5 MHz FM plus DAB+ digital radio to the Sydney metropolitan area at 150,000 watts ERP from a transmitter 224 metres above average terrain. The format is Hot AC/CHR — contemporary hit radio with a hot adult-contemporary lean: current chart pop, recurrents and the personality-driven entertainment content that defines the KIIS brand. It is owned by ARN (through Commonwealth Broadcasting Corporation Pty Ltd), with Gold 101.7 as its Sydney sister station.

The station targets the commercially prized under-40 audience — ARN's stations aim at the 25-to-54 demographic — and its brand is built around big breakfast personalities, showbiz news and hit music. The Kyle & Jackie O Show, which moved to KIIS from 2Day FM, is the engine room of the station's ratings and its national profile.

History

2UW: 1925–1994

The station began as 2UW, commencing transmission on 13 February 1925 on 1125 kHz AM — twelve days before 2UE, making it Sydney's first commercial station on air. The frequency changed to 1110 kHz on 1 September 1935 and to 1107 kHz in 1978. In its early decades 2UW was the home of live radio plays, with studios for live programs on Market Street near George Street; management later moved the station to 365 Kent Street while retaining the Market Street live-audience theatre for a time.

In its early decades 2UW was the home of live radio plays, with studios for live programs on Market Street near George Street; management later moved the station to 365 Kent Street while retaining the Market Street live-audience theatre for a time. The live-drama era made 2UW a training ground for generations of Australian actors, writers and producers, and the station's variety and serial programming filled Sydney's evenings before television arrived. One of its early breakfast presenters, Russ Walkington, created the character Gerald the Grasshopper — a predecessor of the novelty characters that would populate Sydney breakfast radio for decades, from 2UE's Sammy Sparrow onward. In 1933 the station was bought by the Commonwealth Broadcasting Corporation, a subsidiary of the Australian Broadcasting Company; CBC would become the Australian Radio Network in 1994. The station had a long association with Consolidated Press, owner of The Daily Telegraph, from 1936 to 1972.

From the early 1960s, 2UW pursued the youth market with a Top 40 format, responding to the music arriving from the United States and Britain and providing a vehicle for the emerging Australian rock scene. But when commercial FM launched in Sydney in 1980, 2UW lost its audience to the new FM stations and retreated to a classic-hits format for its remaining AM years.

Mix 106.5: 1994–2014

On 30 April 1994, 2UW converted to FM — one of two Sydney AM stations to make the leap in the 1990s, alongside 2WS — relaunching as Mix 106.5 with an adult-contemporary format. ARN developed similar Mix stations in Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Canberra, banding them as the MixFM Network. The Mix years positioned the station as Sydney's at-work adult-contemporary outlet, a contrast with the harder hit-music formats elsewhere on the dial.

KIIS 1065: 2014–present

On 19 January 2014, the station returned to its Top 40 roots and relaunched as KIIS 106.5, with the network renamed the KIIS Network to match. The relaunch's masterstroke was securing Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O — whose breakfast show had defined 2Day FM, where they had been moved from drive to breakfast back in 2005 — for KIIS breakfast. The poaching of Sydney's biggest breakfast act instantly made the station the most talked-about in the country and reset Sydney's FM contest, giving ARN a breakfast franchise with genuine national notoriety to anchor its new hit-music brand.

The KIIS Network grew around the Sydney flagship: KIIS 101.1 Melbourne, KIIS 97.3 Brisbane (a joint venture with Nova Entertainment), KIIS 102.3 Adelaide and, from 2026, KIIS Perth on DAB+. ARN itself expanded significantly in the 2020s. The company's roots lie in APN News & Media, which became HT&E (Here, There & Everywhere) and was renamed ARN Media in May 2023. It acquired 46 stations from Grant Broadcasters, took a 15 per cent shareholding in rival Southern Cross Austereo in June 2023, and — in October 2023 — launched an ultimately unsuccessful takeover bid for SCA in partnership with Anchorage Capital Partners, a deal that would have united the KIIS and Triple M networks under ARN ownership. The bid collapsed when Anchorage withdrew, leaving Australia's two big FM groups in continued competition.

Programming and Content

The KIIS format is contemporary hit radio: the biggest current pop hits, high-rotation recurrents and a heavy emphasis on entertainment content. The Kyle & Jackie O Show dominates breakfast — celebrity interviews, showbiz news, stunts and talkback that regularly generate national headlines — while the network's dayparts carry music-intensive programming with ARN's national shows in drive and evenings.

The station's sound is unapologetically populist: hit music, famous voices and water-cooler moments, aimed at the Sydney mainstream. News, traffic and entertainment updates run through the schedule, supporting the music-and-personality core. The KIIS Network's national shows extend the Sydney brand interstate: the networked drive and evening programs carry Sydney-born content to Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide, making KIIS 106.5 both a local Sydney station and the production hub of a national hit-music network.

Coverage and Audience

The 106.5 MHz signal at 150 kW covers metropolitan Sydney, with DAB+ and streaming via the iHeart platform extending reach. The audience is Sydney's hit-music mainstream — younger listeners and the 25–54 demographic advertisers prize — contested by Nova 96.9, 2Day FM and the ABC's youth offerings. KIIS's breakfast dominance, built on the Kyle & Jackie O franchise, has made it the station to beat in Sydney FM ratings battles.

Ownership

KIIS 1065 is owned by ARN Media (Commonwealth Broadcasting Corporation Pty Ltd), one of Australia's largest radio companies with 58 stations targeting the 25–54 demographic. ARN operates the KIIS Network (Top 40/CHR), the Gold Network (adult contemporary) and CADA (rhythmic/urban), plus joint-venture stations and a large DAB+ and iHeartRadio portfolio. The station is licensed by the ACMA as a commercial broadcasting service.

Digital Presence

The station's website at kiis1065.com.au — the address listed in its published profiles — hosts the live stream, show pages, podcasts and entertainment news. Streaming runs through ARN's iHeartRadio platform, and the Kyle & Jackie O Show's podcast and social video extensions give the breakfast franchise a national digital audience far beyond the FM signal. Social media channels built around the station's presenters and celebrity content drive the brand's engagement with its young audience, and the Kyle & Jackie O Show's national profile gives KIIS 106.5 an earned-media footprint — newspaper headlines, television crossovers and viral clips — that extends the station's reach far beyond its broadcast hours.