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Kyle Sandilands was riding high on radio's most lucrative and generous agreement before it all fell apart, it has been revealed.
As the shock jock heads to court to face off with his former employer ARN in an $88 million legal battle, after the radio network terminated his contract last Wednesday, the details of just how cushy that contract was have been laid bare.
In court documents filed on March 20, a statement of claim reveals that Sandilands was handed some very tasty perks, news.com.au reported on Monday.
In addition to a $7.4 million annual base salary, the 54-year-old was paid an extra $200,000 for consultancy, the publication claims.
An additional $2 million was paid annually as a trademark fee for licensing The Kyle and Jackie O Show as a brand.
He was also awarded a whopping $120,000 flight allowance.
Kyle Sandilands was riding high on radio's most lucrative and generous agreement before it all fell apart, it has been revealed. Pictured with Jackie 'O' Henderson
Sandilands earned a further $500,000 annually for 'contra airtime,' which refers to on-air advertising.
It comes as the ex-host of the KIIS FM Kyle and Jackie O Show has reportedly filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the media giant in the Federal Court.
Sandilands was suspended earlier this month for 'serious misconduct' before his axing, following an on-air spat with Henderson on February 20.
An insider says the shock jock will claim as part of his defence that he had no warnings from ARN management over the issue of how he spoke to his co-host.
The former king of the radio ratings will also argue that ARN 'promoted' their notorious on-air brawls.
'(There were) no warnings, whether formal or informal,' an insider revealed to news.com.au on Monday.
'ARN promoted that kind of content and put it in social media snippets and played it across the network,' they said.
According to the report, Sandilands and his legal team are trawling through footage of The Kyle and Jackie O Show to argue that it was 'normal' for the pair to fight.
The insider also revealed that Sandilands is putting in regular invoices to ARN on the basis that his axing was 'invalid and opportunistic'.
As the shock jock heads to court to face off with his former employer ARN in an $88 million legal battle, after the radio network terminated his contract last Wednesday, the details of just how cushy that contract was have been laid bare
In addition to a $7.4 million annual base salary, the 54-year-old was paid an extra $200,000 for consultancy. He was also awarded a whopping $120,000 flight allowance
Apparently, legal mediation is off the table as a way of resolving the conflict between ARN and Sandilands, says the source, because the radio star believes that there was no 'valid reason for his termination'.
Backed by a prominent legal team, Sandilands is claiming that ARN deliberately conspired to sabotage his $100 million, 10-year contract in a calculated attempt to exit the costly agreement after just over 14 months.
Sandilands' legal team is led by the 'ferocious' Kevin Lynch, a partner at Johnson Winter Slattery, according to The Australian.
Over the past two weeks, Lynch has carefully examined every detail of the host's agreement and strategised a comprehensive attack on ARN.
He filed the necessary papers on Friday.
On Monday morning, ARN issued a statement in an ASX market update, asserting that the network disputes Sandilands' claims and plans to defend the proceedings.
'The applicants claim the termination of Mr Sandilands' contract was invalid on the basis they allege that there was no act of serious misconduct or breach of contract, and that the termination was unconscionable under the Australian Consumer Law,' their statement read.
'The applicants seek an order for specific performance of two contracts, payment of whatever amounts are due and payable under the contracts at the time of judgment, and damages.'
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