Broadcasters Robin Bailey and Terry Hansen will rejoin Bob Gallagher on 97.3FM’s reshuffled breakfast radio show

Morning radio star Robin Bailey is back in her “safe space” after the tragedy of losing her husband, with 97.3FM announcing she will return to the breakfast show she was previously sacked from alongside long-time co-hosts Terry Hansen and Bob Gallagher.

IN a sensational backflip 97.3FM has reinstated previously sacked Brisbane radio presenter Robin Bailey to revive their breakfast show alongside returning co-host Terry Hansen and anchor Bob Gallagher.

The Courier-Mail can reveal the trio – who previously hosted the show for 10 years until Bailey’s axing in late 2016 and Hansen’s subsequent resignation – will return to Brisbane airwaves on January 28, with Bailey replacing her successor Bianca Dye.

Related: Robin Bailey opens up about her grief since losing her husband Sean Pickwell to cancer

Robin Bailey is back with her old radio show co-stars Bob Gallagher and Terry Hansen at 97.3FM’s breakfast show. Picture: Peter Wallis

In a shock shake up, Dye and co-host Mike van Acker, who took over from Hansen in mid 2018, were cut from the prime-time slot in early December following disappointing ratings results, finishing fifth behind ABC Brisbane and their three commercial rivals in the survey prior to their shafting.

97.3FM’s breakfast show was a strong performer with Bailey, who also led Triple M to an audience gain after she jumped ship following her sacking three years ago amid contract negotiations.

While networks can’t comment on individual contracts, it is understood Bailey’s new deal is a substantial six-figure sum.

Bailey ended her contract with Triple M’s The Big Breakfast in September to spend time with her terminally ill husband Sean Pickwell, who died of cancer the following week.

And while rumours ran rife in December that Bailey was waiting in the wings with a lucrative offer to replace Dye, the broadcaster said she signed her contract on Monday having decided on a family trip to India in December to return to work out of “necessity” as a single mother to three sons.

Bianca Dye, Mike van Aker, and Bob Gallagher co-hosted 97.3 FM’s breakfast show together since mid-2018 before Dye and van Aker were cut from the show in December. Photo: Annette Dew

“Sean got really sick really quickly and we thought he would at least last over Christmas but it became quite clear that that wasn’t going to be the case,” Bailey told The Courier-Mail.

“And I just said to management ‘I need to go’ and I can categorically say to you I walked out of that building thinking I’d left radio for good, that I had done my 30 years and now it was time to be his wife. We got six days.”

“What I learnt in India was that it was best for me and my kids that I work. I’ve always been the breadwinner in our family and I could wander around the house endlessly feeling miserable but that’s not going to help anyone.

“And also I want to laugh. I’ve done a lot grief. I want to go to a place where I can have a good time and who better to do it with than people who I intimately know.”

Bailey said Hansen and Gallagher had seen her through the suicide death of her husband Tony Smart in 2014 and returning to the team felt like “a lovely safe space”.

97.3FM has also reinstated executive producer Ruth De Glas, who was initially sacked alongside Bailey.

Bailey’s husband Sean Pickwell died in September after a long battle with cancer.

Hansen is also returning to the program he previously worked on for 14 years after 18 months on the sideline, resigning due to chronic fatigue and weight gain.

Despite deciding in December he was interested in returning to radio, he said the prime time call up was “an absolute surprise”

“It’s an unexpected second shot, it’s great,” he said. “I’m in a really good place. I’m excited about everything. I’ll deal with the weight shortly. Luckily the bike ride (to the new studio) is twice as long.”

While Van Acker was sacked from the network, Dye, who is still under contract, will be shifted to a new role.

Gallagher, who has remained the constant in the team, said he was “absolutely thrilled” to see the duo return.

“One of the things they talk about in breakfast radio with different personalities is chemistry and the three of us have always had great chemistry, so I am looking forward to recreating that,” he said, adding: “I never thought of leaving the show. I like to think of myself as a journeyman, a career broadcaster, and I am a very good adaptor with whatever the boss throws at me.”