He’s back: Steve Blanda’s Smooth move

Steve Blanda, once described as the safest man in radio, is back after taking a voluntary redundancy from 2UE following the Fairfax Maquarie merger earlier this year (opinion by Peter Saxon here).

However, he is about to return to the airwaves from next week on SmoothFM.

It was reported at the time of the merger that Blanda, who holds the record for the most ACRAS, hadn’t made the cut and risked being cast to the radio scrap heap just a short time after celebrating his 60th birthday.

Steve said, “I’ve loved smoothfm since its inception so it’s great to be part of the family.”

Management at MRN also decided not to authorise ACRA entries for former 2UE staff who no longer work at the network, even though they are eligible to enter, perhaps costing Blanda his 19th win. But now Blanda may have another GM who will sign his eligibility form to submit his work for this year’s awards.

Blanda has a strong record of wins in the AM award category, while Glenn Daniel has an equally impressive list of wins in the FM News category. Now, with them both on the same station, they will be in direct competition against each other for the first time in many years.

ACRA entries are now in the judging stage. The prized industry awards will be presented at the Gold Coast Convention & Exhibition Centre on the 10th of October.

Steve Blanda can be heard from Monday 15 June on smooth 95.3 (Sydney), smooth 91.5 (Melbourne) and nationally on DAB+.
 

 

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