Radio veteran Jeremy Cordeaux to replace Alan Hickey on FIVEaa in 2017
RADIO legend Jeremy Cordeaux will be back on air at FIVEaa next year to replace night-time host Alan Hickey who is battling cancer.
RADIO legend Jeremy Cordeaux will be back on air at FIVEaa next year to replace night-time host Alan Hickey who is battling cancer.
Cordeaux, 71, announced last Friday the station wanted him to change timeslots but he declined, saying he would not take another broadcaster’s job.
“I did it with a great sense of principle, with a great sense of regret and a great sense of sorrow,” he said.
“I just can’t take somebody’ elses job — I’ve had that done to me and I really didn’t like it.”
Since then, Cordeaux has been told that Hickey, 58, had been diagnosed with serious cancer and would leave the program next week to focus on his health. As a result, Cordeaux will take on the night shift from January 23.
“I was geared up to leave tomorrow,” he told his listeners. “Tuesday they called me and said listen, we couldn’t tell you everything last week because we weren’t allowed to, we couldn’t invade someone’s privacy. But you’re not taking anybody else’s job.”
Hickey a senior radio and television producer who took over from Cordeaux on nights in October 2014 said in a statement read by Cordeaux that he took strength from listeners as he began his own battle back to good health.
“I look forward to beating this illness, getting back on air and having lots of fun,” he said.
Program director Craig Munn said the station was devastated by Hickey’s diagnosis.
“He is absolutely determined to get well again,” he said. “We wish him all the very best and are thinking of him during this time.”
Cordeaux was close to tears when he told Hickey “our love and best wishes are with you” and said Hickey was not losing his job, nor was he taking it.
“It is with sadness that I give you that news about Alan and it is with delight that I have agreed to go back to doing nights because I really do like - no love - having fun with you.”