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BROADCASTER Alan Jones sat up with a cup of tea in hospital yesterday and promised his listeners he would be back on air on Monday.
“The doctors have decided to medicate not operate,” the top rating 2GB host told The Daily Telegraph as he recovered from crippling back pain in St Vincent’s Hospital.
“I am hoping to be out of here at the weekend and back to the happy farm, in the studio, on Monday.”
The 77-year-old was hospitalised after his back was hit by “spasms that were like being attacked by a sharp knife” following his broadcast from the Melbourne Cup.
It also came amid a flurry of controversies following 2GB owner Macquarie Media’s annual general meeting which aired criticism of its star performer.
For his part Jones denied stress had anything to do with his hospitalisation. “That’s just part of the ups and downs of life,” he said.
The board was unhappy after 2GB was ordered to pay Queensland’s biggest defamation payout of $3.75 million to the Wagner family for Jones’s comments linking them to the 2011 Lockyer Valley floods.
Macquarie Media chairman Russell Tate has refused to say whether Jones will be asked to contribute.
Broadcaster Alan Jones gets a visit from friend Wally Meakes. Picture: Justin Lloyd
“I am a firm believer that these are matters for management not for me,” Jones said when asked if there had been any pressure to dip into his own pocket.
“They are the only people who should be answering that question, not me.”
Putting down his biography of former US President Ronald Reagan, Jones said instead he was thinking about why Prime Minister Scott Morrison and the party with sound economic judgment and policies on sovereignty was behind in the polls.
Jones was struck down by back spasms while attending the Melbourne Cup Carnival.
Erika Packer with Jones at the recent celebration of Ros Packer’s 80th birthday at Chiswick, Woollahra. Picture: Dylan Robinson
And small issues such as, why is it so difficult to get a decent cup of tea in hospital? “Standards have dropped … everyone is frightened to set a standard,” he said.
His room is full of flowers and fruit and old mates have been popping in to make sure the radio veteran is all right.
Yesterday former Waratah Wally Meakes poked his head round the hospital curtain to check on his old coach.
“There is a move to bring you back to coach next week,” he joked.
“Wally, if you pick the same team every week and play the same way you get the same result,” started Jones.
It is safe to report his fighting spirit remains undimmed.
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