Tribute to Glenn Daniel: Peter Saxon

10 December 2021 · News

If you worked at a station in Sydney anytime in the past 40 years you’re likely to have bumped into Glenn Daniel.

Whether you were in the newsroom, the on-air studio, from the cleaner to the C-Suite at the time, Glenn was the nicest person you could ever hope to meet – a rare thing in radio. He had an impact on you.

He’d been, as they say, through more stations than the Blue Mountains Express.

2WS (1982–88)
2SM (1989–90)
2Day-FM (1990–97)
Triple M (1995–97)
WSFM (1998–2011)
ABC NewsRadio (2012)
smoothfm (2012–2021)

He was an outstanding newsman who then made it to co-host Breakfast on smoothfm. Another rare feat. But, as Ray Hadley, his downstairs neighbour at 2GB, mentioned this morning, he’d been handed a really bad hand, healthwise.

He was much loved and will be much missed by the entire industry.

As Georgie Gardner wrote in her foreword to his 2017 book: News Time: A Life in Radio:

“This book captures the essence of a man universally respected by the media industry. A man treasured by those whose careers he’s shaped, and those whose life he’s touched.”

In her Introduction to the book Amanda Keller wrote:

“I feel the moral compass of a radio station is pretty much set by its newsroom, and when Glenn Daniel was around, you knew you were in safe hands.

“In a world where bulletins are sandwiched between ads and could quite possibly wrap up with ‘Quilton Loves Your Bum’, you rely on the integrity and gravitas of the bulletin itself to stop the whole lot just floating away. Glenn was the most solid and reliable news anchor … in all senses of the word.”

Former Nova Entertainment CEO Cathy O’Connor wrote :

“I have always considered Glenn to be one of the industry’s most rare and talented operators who deserves recognition as one of the great Australian radio newsreaders of all time.

He has a wonderful vocal tone and strong news sensibility that are mandatories for such an accolade, but to me, it’s the way in which he conducts himself in the radio station environment that sets him apart.

In an industry that is fast paced, competitive and at times tough, Glenn has built a strong reputation as a man of integrity, both principled and adaptive, a generous leader and a supportive team player.

In between the Foreword, the Introduction, the Prologue and the Final Word are 279 pages of what can be accurately described as a Life in Radio.

As one would expect from a multi-awarded journalist of his stature, Glenn has kept meticulous notes as well as a vault-full of photographic evidence now exposed to the public.

As is popular amongst radio veterans, reunions abound where stories are retold, revisited and history’s revised, reinvented and embellished in the retelling. News Time: A Life in Radio is a handy reference for use at such functions by which to fact check and settle bets.

100% of the book’s profits go to RPA’s cardiology department to fund research into transcatheter aortic valve implantation or TAVI as it is known in medical circles. TAVI is what saved Glenn’s life, the second time. He was diagnosed with cancer in his mid 20’s and was saved by chemotherapy. But 25 years later doctors found his heart valves had been destroyed by the chemo. TAVI is a relatively new procedure that replaces diseased heart valves without the need for open heart surgery.”

 

Glenn passed away in his sleep last night after recent heart surgery. Tributes are pouring in from industry colleagues in every newsroom around the country.

 

 

 

 

 

Peter Saxon

 

 

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