An ABC’s radio host’s trolling of FM rival Kyle Sandilands has had a surprise upside – with a charity fundraiser soaring well into five figures.

Comedian and outgoing ABC Melbourne’s morning radio host Sammy J launched a GoFundMe for one of his favourite charities on Thursday, after a fortnight of needling Sandilands over their respective ratings.

Sammy J (real name Samuel Jonathan McMillan) said the fundraiser was to help him “pay rent for living in Kyle Sandilands’ head”.

On closer inspection, the money was to be funnelled directly to youth support group Big Brothers Big Sisters Australia, with which the comedian has been involved for 20 years.

He initially set a goal of $1000, but that was quickly exceeded. It was raised to $2500 later on Thursday as donations kept coming.

By Friday afternoon, the tally had topped $11,000 and was still rising.

“Nearly $10k raised for accommodation costs. Thank you so much for your help. And please stop calling it a feud – it’s a simple tenant/landlord relationship,” Sammy J wrote on X.

Nearly $10k raised for accommodation costs. Thank you so much for your help. And please stop calling it a feud – it’s a simple tenant/landlord relationship. https://t.co/yxGioCciNS

— Sammy J (@sammyjcomedian) November 28, 2024

The youth group’s windfall comes after Sammy J – who will quit as ABC Melbourne morning host next month – took aim at Sandilands when his final radio ratings were released earlier in November.

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

“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’.”

KIIS FM breakfast hosts Sandilands and Jackie Henderson’s Kyle and Jackie O Show has been roundly rejected by listeners since expanding to Melbourne from Sydney earlier this year.

In the latest round of radio ratings, they had just 5.1 per cent of breakfast listeners. They were well beaten by Sammy J on the AM airwaves – although both shows lagged market leader 3AW.

Sandilands reacted to the trolling, 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 initial roast.

“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 response, 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.”