Jackie O (radio host)

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Jackie O (radio host) bigraphy, stories - Music

Jackie O (radio host) : biography

31 January 1975 –

Jacqueline Ellen Marie Henderson (born 31 January 1975), better known as Jackie O, is an Australian commercial radio host, actress and television presenter. She is best known nationally for presenting The Hot Hits, the Hot 30 Countdown, Take 40 Australia and the Kyle & Jackie O on 2Day FM with Kyle Sandilands and for hosting Australian Princess.

She has also hosted celebrity prank show Surprise Surprise Gotcha and appeared on the 2007 comedy series The Nation on the Nine Network. She also was the co-host of Big Brother Australia, alongside Kyle Sandilands, after the original host Gretel Killeen resigned from the series.

Biography

Early life

Jackie O was born on 31 January 1975 in Adelaide, South Australia.

Radio

Henderson (then known as Jackie Last) originally had no intentions to become a radio personality until meeting Phil O’Neil whilst he was the night host at the Gold Coast’s Sea FM in early 1993. At the time, she had worked as an office girl and sandwich hand at a delicatessen. She moved to Canberra with O’Neil a few months later, after he accepted an offer to join FM104.7. After initial rejections by management to have her as his ‘phone girl’, they finally agreed, although no remuneration was offered.

Soon after, O’Neil accepted an offer to join Triple M in Adelaide but only on condition that Jackie was to be his co-host and it was at this time that she adopted the stage name "Jackie O". When the next survey result came out, the duo’s ratings had doubled, easily beating their main rivals SA-FM in the same time slot. After another ratings rise in the following survey, Phil and Jackie were snapped up by Fox FM in Melbourne. Soon after, their show was networked (Hot 30) after their move to 2Day Fm in Sydney.

The duo co-hosted a Network Ten music show called Ground Zero and the Hot 30 radio show during the late 1990s until the couple divorced and O’Neil relocated to the United Kingdom. Henderson’s career on radio rose to new heights after she was partnered with "shock jock" Kyle Sandilands on the Austereo Network (broadcasting from Sydney station 2Day FM). The pair moved from drive time to breakfast at the beginning of 2005. They continued to host the countdown show The Hot Hits until August 2009.

In addition to radio, TV and advertising appearances, Henderson has also done voice-over work for the animated movie Robots, voicing the character "Loretta Geargrinder" in the Australian release.

In 2004, Jackie O was involved in an incident with Australian rock band Frenzal Rhomb which occurred at the bassinthegrass music festival in Darwin. Jackie O arrived on the stage nine hours late and cut into the playing time of Frenzal Rhomb and attempted to speak with the audience during the band’s already dramatically reduced set time. Frenzal Rhomb played music over Jackie O so she could not be heard and she left the stage in tears. Kyle Sandilands later spoke abusively to lead singer Jay Whalley during an abrasive and confronting radio interview, with Jay Whalley asserting that Jackie O’s security had threatened violence to members of the band. In the radio interview, Jackie O and Sandilands threatened to have Frenzal Rhomb’s songs banned from Austereo radio stations, in which Jay Whalley responded "What the hell are we supposed to think? I mean, you’ve never played us".http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s1167368.htm As a result of the incident Sandilands’ old friend and manager Ryan Wellington was removed as the producer of the Kyle and Jackie O Show by the Austereo network.

Television

Jackie O has hosted a variety of television shows, most prominently the Popstars series, in which televised auditions were held to select members of a vocal group. In 2005, Jackie O also hosted the Network Ten reality show, Australian Princess, in which they transformed a group of women to sophisticated "princesses". A second series of Australian Princess had gone to air during the non-ratings summer period on Network 10 starting in December. No reason was given by the Network as to why it was shown out of the official ratings period.