Longevity: it’s a numbers game.

Smoothfm’s newest recruit Steve Blanda has reached a radio milestone that very few manage to attain. After leaving 2UE in the great Macquarie/Fairfax purge of just a few months ago, Blanda is today celebrating 40 years in radio.

40 years.  Let’s do some adding up here.  That’s nine prime ministers, 10 Olympic Games, numerous world conflicts and literally thousands upon thousands of news bulletins.

The winner of a record 18 Australian Commercial Radio Awards, Blanda has been a “constant” on the Sydney radio scene, delivering the news in a calm and reassuring manner .

His career has seen him read news at 2SM and Melbourne’s Fox FM, before he returned to Sydney in 1983 to become part of the 2WS news team, where he was News Director for ten years. In 1998, he moved to 2UE, where he spent the next 17 years of his radio career.

In June of this year, he returned to the world of FM to become part of the smoothfm team, joining two other ‘greats’ of news; Glenn Daniel and Ron Wilson.

“I don’t know where the time has gone! The technology is totally different, from typewriters and reel-to-reel tape recorders to computers for everything, but the immediacy and the adrenaline rush is still there for all in radio”.

Says Matt De Groot, Nova Entertainment’s National Newsroom Manager, “what makes this milestone so remarkable is that Steve hasn’t only been on air for four decades, he’s been the standard bearer in news for so much of that time”

“Steve’s passion for radio, news and its delivery are stronger than ever.  It’s both a credit to the man, and an example for those who are still forging their own path”.

40 years in radio and he still has the passion for  the industry.  What’s remarkable is that  there are very few people who have a bad word to say about him.