Radio return 'a bit of a dream' for Bradnam - Brisbane Times
Back on the airwaves: 'I had moments when I wondered whether I'd get back here', Bradnam says.
Entertainers who hit the bottle and fall from grace seem a dime a dozen in America, where reality TV stars or Hollywood hacks soak up pages of glossy ink stumbling from party to public shame.
But in Australia, where a prime minister once impressed with his drinking prowess, celebrity alcoholism is a different story.
It's one to which Nova radio personality Ash Bradnam can personally relate.
Two years ago, Bradnam stopped at a service station on the Pacific Motorway with a blood alcohol reading of 0.214 just over an hour after wrapping his top-rating breakfast show with colleagues Meshel Laurie and Tim Blackwell.
It was the morning of his 37th birthday, and a day he's unlikely to forget.
At the time, it looked like the beginning of the end of a career carefully built up over years in local radio and a family life that included two young children.
It didn't take long for reports to emerge about the extent of his drinking and history of dependence.
Southport Magistrates Court was told Bradnam started drinking heavily in his early 20s but decided to do something about his problem after a brush with the law, checking in for a stint in rehab.
But it was a losing battle and Bradnam confessed to drinking around a bottle of vodka a day leading up to his arrest and eventual fall from grace.
Though Nova Brisbane general manager Sean Ryan publicly defended the popular talent against accusations he was drunk while on air, the station shafted Bradnam in the wake of his arrest, probationary sentence and admission to a private rehabilitation facility in Byron Bay.
Yet it was all smiles yesterday at a high-profile event to mark the return of Ryan's prodigal son when Bradnam was announced the lead of Nova's new breakfast team.
I had moments when I wondered whether I'd get back here, he told brisbanetimes.com.au between promotional photo shoots and with a bad case of jet-lag. I feel like I'm in a bit of a dream because I can't believe it's unfolded this way.
The last couple of years certainly hasn't deadened my enthusiasm for being on air - I listened to a hell of a lot of radio my time away from radio really just made me appreciate how much I do love being on air.
In an optimistic and upbeat mood, Bradnam said he was looking forward to getting back and just being myself on air.
He was also cheered by the news he and wife Jodie were expecting another child.
I figured after all I've put Jodie through, I owed her one more crack at it, so I finally got talked in to it, Bradnam said, laughing.
At the end of the day the support I've received from my family and friends has been the most amazing thing.
Bradnam's comeback is bittersweet, with his return from radio wasteland possible because the team he left behind is moving to bigger, better things.
Laurie and Blackwell, together with Bradnam's replacement Marty Sheargold, were last week publicly propelled up the DMG network ladder with the confirmation they will take over the national drive spot.
They replace Ryan Fitzy Fitzgerald and Michael Wippa Wipfli from September 12.
And Bradnam dismissed any notion of jealousy.
I look upon this job as a privilege, he said. I'm very lucky I've found a job in my life I truly love doing - there's a lot of people who aren't that fortunate.
Joined by fellow former Nova star David Luttsy Lutteral and Austereo turncoat Camilla Severi, who he met for just the second time yesterday, Bradnam said listeners could expect shadows of his former self, albeit without the booze.
I'll be different in the sense I come back with two years of different life experiences I've accrued in the time off air, and I'll be able to talk about that journey when I feel it's appropriate, he said.
What I'm really looking forward to is coming back and having fun.
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