2DAYFM and Kyle Sandilands broke a promise to provide a disabled child's family with $150,000 in donations, an investigation by Nine's TODAY show has revealed.
Wendy Koman went on the Kyle and Jackie O show in March as part of a segment to raise money for her paralysed four-year-old son Josh.
"The [producer] was saying to me you've got to sound ... emotional, people will donate more money that way," Ms Koman told TODAY.
Kyle Sandilands promised on air to give the family $35,000 of his own money and several listeners also phoned in with their own pledges, making the total $150,000.
"That's $150,000 in cold, hard Aussie currency," Sandilands said during the segment.
Wendy and her husband John, who have both quit their jobs to take care of their son, were overjoyed with the result.
"I had tears in my eyes," Mr Koman said.
But when the family arrived at the radio station offices to collect their money, they said they were instead given a list of names and numbers to contact the people who had donated.
The family has now been forced to call every number on the list to try to chase up the donations themselves.
"I feel like a debt collector," said Ms Koman.
So far the Koman family has managed to collect $50,204, a third of what they were promised during the radio segment.
The family said that after dozens of phone calls, Sandilands gave them $20,000 — $15,000 short of the $35,000 he promised.
Mr Koman said it was one blow too many for the unfortunate family.
"It wasn't so much about the money," he said.
"During that time, we'd been going through lots of ups and downs."
Austereo, which owns 2DAYFM, told TODAY it was a "highly unusual situation" and not "the normal way" they help families.
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