ABC radio star Sammy J has taken an ongoing “feud” with rival Kyle Sandilands, to the next level – with a cheeky fundraiser.

The feud between the breakfast hosts ignited earlier this month when comedian Sammy J, who will depart the Melbourne airwaves in December, trumpeted his final ratings in the hotly contested breakfast market.

“My final ratings today went up and Kyle went down,” he wrote.

“This means I will forever live rent free in his head as the one man he could never beat. I am his white whale; his tormentor; the last face he sees at night and the first face he will see each morning. When he strolls on the beach at night, the wind will whisper ‘Sammy J’.”

The jibe followed almost a year of lacklustre Melbourne ratings for Sandilands, whose Kyle and Jackie O Show began broadcasting in Victoria earlier this year.

Sandilands and co-host Jackie Henderson have been unable to dominate in Melbourne, as they have in Sydney for years, and listeners continue to shun them. Most recent figures, released earlier in November, gave them just 5.1 per cent of breakfast listeners.

Sammy J, whose real name is real name Samuel Jonathan McMillan, had more – as he has done consistently. Both shows remain well behind market leader 3AW.

Sandilands hasn’t taken his Melbourne flop well, laying into listeners in October.

“I blame everyone in Melbourne. It is your fault, you are late to the party, you are pearl clutchers, you all love the s–t show that used to be on here that we a—holed,” he said.

Asked on Network Ten’s The Project why he took aim at a beaten Sandilands, Sammy said it was the truth.

“I don’t classify it as a fight, I wish Kyle all the best. All I did was point out that in my final ratings I went better than him and that’s a fact that will haunt him until the grave,” he said.

Sandilands hasn’t taken the jesting well, telling his KIIS listeners that he had “never heard of [Sammy J]”.

“There’s some guy at the ABC in Melbourne who quit, but he was saying some weird shit like: ‘I beat Kyle Sandilands,’ and ‘I’m the first thing he thinks about’,” Sandilands said after the comedian’s initial jibe.

“I have never even heard of him and he thinks that he is in my mind. What a deluded flog. I don’t know who you are, dog … Bro, no one knows who you are.”

When Henderson suggested it might have been a joke, Sandilands doubled down: “Jackie, he’s from the ABC. They don’t joke.”

In reponse to that, Sammy J said it didn’t matter, because Sandilands was still the one with inferior ratings.

“It must be painful. Like it’s bad enough to be beaten by a dog, or a flog, or somebody with delusions,” he said.

“But to be beaten by all three at once? How humiliating.”

He followed up with a tongue-in-cheek media release on Monday.

“To describe this as a ‘feud’ is incorrect and offensive to both myself and Mr Sandilands,” he wrote.

“I wish Mr Sandilands well and hope his 4am starts get easier with time.”

Then, on Thursday, came the GoFundMe, ostensibly to “help Sammy J pay rent for living in Kyle Sandilands’ head”.

On closer inspection, it is a fundraiser for the charity Big Brothers Big Sisters Australia. Sammy J said he had been involved with the group for 20 years.

“I don’t earn $15 million a year like Kyle, so I will need some help to raise these funds. But so that you can claim it back on tax, I’m having the money sent straight to Big Brothers Big Sisters, who provide life-changing mentoring and support for young people in need of positive role models,” he wrote.

His initial target of $1000 – which will all go to the charity – was quickly exceeded.

“Have increased target due to overwhelming generosity and insatiable demands of landlord,” Sammy J wrote in an update.

He had raised nearly $2500 by Thursday afternoon, with the total continuing to climb.

Sandilands’ thoughts on the fundraiser are not known.

Meanwhile, Sammy J’s last day on Melbourne’s breakfast airwaves is December 13.