SYDNEY’S highest-rating radio personality, Alan Jones, has announced he is suffering prostate cancer and will undergo surgery.

Jones, 67, has held a press conference in the boardroom of Macquarie Radio Network, owner of 2GB, amid speculation he was to retire.

However, Jones said he would be back on air four weeks after surgery.
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“Of course I will be returning to air, I’ve got to make a quid,” Jones said.

Jones is 2GB’s breakfast host but has taken numerous weeks of leave this year due to what was described as an ongoing illness.

Jones said he had been diagnosed with the cancer after undergoing a biopsy. His cancer had been described as in the mid range in terms of seriousness.

The surgery would be carried out at Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital in two weeks, and Jones said he intended to be on air until the eve of the operation. He would be off air for several weeks while recovering.

He would return to broadcasting. “Of course I will be returning to air, I’ve got to make a quid.”

Jones was maintaining a positive outlook and was confident he had the best medical team behind him.

“The prospect of full recovery is very significant,” he told media .

Macquarie Radio Network, which also owns Sydney station 2CH, is majority owned by former adman John Singleton.

However Jones is also a major shareholder, having taken numerous options over shares as part of his contract when he moved across from rival station 2UE in 2002.