Guilty ... Kyle Sandilands. Credit:Getty Images He said that if Sandilands or any of 2Day FM's presenters make such remarks again for the next five years it faces a daily fine of $55,000 for the days it is not complying with the new conditions, possible criminal action and ultimately a loss of its license to broadcast, though Mr Chapman said this was not "a path we are going down". Althought the media authority does not have the power to impose a fine on Soutern Cross Mr Chapman said: "We have taken the strongest possible action that we can." Southern Cross Austereo, which owns 2Day FM, said that if ACMA imposed the licence condition, the company would take ‘‘all available remedies’’ to have it revoked. Southern Cross Austereo chief executive Rhys Holleran said the condition was ‘‘unworkable’’.

Jackie O and Kyle Sandilands. ‘‘2Day FM’s core audience is women, predominantly young women,’’ Mr Holleran said in a statement. ‘‘2Day FM has built its significant audience over the past decade by broadcasting programs which appeal to women and their interests in a relevant and entertaining way. ‘‘Our difficulty with the proposed licence condition is that terms such as ‘decency’, ‘demeaning’ and ‘undue emphasis on gender’ are broad and ambiguous and mean different things to different people.’’ ‘‘The ACMA has issued no guidance on the licence condition and in light of that, we consider the condition to be unworkable.’’

The ACMA has issued no guidance on the licence condition and in light of that, we consider the condition to be unworkable. He said 2Day FM ‘‘positively reset’’ The Kyle and Jackie O Show and introduced new systems to ensure the incident could not be repeated. ‘‘The ACMA also appears to have ignored the steps which 2Day FM put in place, well before the investigation commenced. ‘‘It is also relevant that in a 10-year period in which 2Day FM has broadcast approximately 87,000 hours of programming, it has breached the Code only four times. ‘‘We are concerned that the ACMA’s response is disproportionate to the breach of the Code.

‘‘2Day FM considers that the ACMA has given undue weight to complaints received from people who were not listeners of the program.’’ The media watchdog announced that it had kicked off its investigation into the radio personality in late January – almost two months to the day after he launched an on-air tirade against the News Limited journalist for her review of a one-off television show, A Night with the Stars. The Australian Communications and Media Authority was acting on complaints it had received during the rant against Alison Stephenson, the entertainment reporter for news.com.au, after she wrote that his performance in the Channel Seven show was "awkward" and the program itself a "disaster". On air, he said: "This low thing, Alison Stephenson, deputy editor of news.com.au online. You're supposed to be impartial, you little troll. "You're a bullshit artist, girl. You should be fired from your job. Your hair's very '90s. And your blouse. You haven't got that much titty to be having that low-cut a blouse. Watch your mouth or I'll hunt you down."

He also called her a “fat slag” and a “piece of shit”. Sandilands's comments prompted an immediate backlash from advertisers, who fled the show citing concerns about his behaviour but stopped short of actually pulling their dollars out of 2DayFM or its owner, Southern Cross Austereo. A petition on Change.org called for advertisers to stop supporting the show. Holden, the Good Guys, Vodafone, Blackmores, Harvey Norman, Crazy John's, Fantastic Furniture and Telstra were among the first high-profile companies to react. Although Sandilands himself apologised on December 9, releasing an open letter to the media, this did not prevent the media watchdog from launching its investigation more than a month later. "I took my remarks too far and for that - and the offence caused to [journalist] Alison Stephenson and those exposed to my comments - I sincerely apologise,” said Sandilands at the time.

The radio personality's actions have already landed Southern Cross Austereo in regulatory hot water before. Perhaps the most serious offence was in July 2009 when he asked a 14-year-old girl about her sexual history while attached to a lie detector. During the broadcast the girl claimed she had been raped when she was 12. That breach led to a condition imposed on Southern Cross Austereo's licence to provide increased protection for children who appeared on air. No fine was imposed on the company which said that it has since put in place a "management plan" to deal with any future on air tirades by the host. Sandilands and his co-host, Jackie Henderson, known as Jackie O, are the station's highest-rating stars, capturing a 10 per cent share of the Sydney morning radio audience and generating an estimated $15 million in advertising revenue. Today's findings centred on whether Sandilands breached guidelines in the commercial radio code of practice that deal with the way in which women are portrayed in the media.

That code states that broadcasters should avoid promoting "inaccurate, demeaning or discriminatory descriptions of women". Loading The media authority can only censure the licensee and not the personality. with Stephanie Gardiner