Beloved radio star and TV personality Red Symons is set to return to airwaves sooner than expected.
The former Hey Hey it’s Saturday star had previously been a presenter on ABC Radio Melbourne for close to 15 years, before his shock departure at the end of 2017.
“This will be my last year doing this program on the ABC,” he told viewers at the time. “Why am I going? They haven’t said and I haven’t asked. Other things have been offered here but I think it’s better to make a clean break.”
It appears that clean break is with 3AW presenter Neil Mitchell, who announced Symons would be joining his popular morning show as a regular guest. The former Australia’s Got Talent judge will begin working with Mitchell from next week.
Taking to Twitter, the 66-year-old announced he had wanted to work with Symons for quite some time.
“I drove in a car race against Red Symons and he was even slower than me. So I’d always wanted to work with him. He joins my team next week,” he said. “Red Symons joins my team from next Thursday. No idea what we will discuss and we probably won’t know until we discuss it.”
3AW said the station decided to make Symons a regular after “an overwhelmingly positive reaction” when he appeared on Mitchell’s show as a guest in May. During that chat, Symons thanked the ABC for “putting my three children through exactly the sort of skills they pretend to disapprove of”.
As adored as he is, Symons is known for pushing the boundaries when it comes to his radio shows. He was forced to issue an apology after a racist interview he conducted as part of his show last year.
Read more: Red Symons apologises for ‘racist’ interview
The Skyhooks band member faced nation-wide backlash when he asked a colleague, who was of Asian heritage, “are you yellow?” and “what’s the deal with Asians?”.
He was also forced to take two months off from his show in July when he suffered a brain injury after falling over and hitting his head walking home from a supermarket in Melbourne.
“When walking home from the supermarket I experienced a sudden lack of consciousness,” he said in a statement shortly after his accident. “This resulted in a fall, with my head hitting the pavement. I am currently in hospital, thankful to be receiving the best of medical attention and working on a speedy recovery.”