Tony Blackburn is to return to the BBC, eight months after his acrimonious departure from the corporation.
The veteran radio DJ was sacked by the BBC in February, days before the publication of a report into sexual abuse at the corporation.
Blackburn, 73, was fired over his evidence to Dame Janet Smith’s investigation into the BBC’s culture and practices during the years Jimmy Savile worked there, which it was said “fell short” of the standards demanded.
Blackburn claimed the decision to sack him had been taken personally, by the BBC’s director general, Tony Hall, and said he would sue.
In July, the BBC Trust rejected Blackburn’s complaint over his sacking.
Blackburn had denied in evidence to Smith that he had ever been made aware by the BBC of a complaint against him by a teenager in 1971, even though the corporation told the inquiry he had.
The allegation, strenuously denied by Blackburn, was that he “seduced” Claire McAlpine after inviting her back to his flat following a recording of Top of the Pops. The girl later killed herself.
Blackburn said he wished he had been investigated at the time to prove his innocence, “but I only heard of this in 2012, I think it was”. He said he would have been lying if he told Smith otherwise and that there were no notes of the 1971 meeting when he was supposed to have been told about the allegation.
The BBC said Blackburn would return to present an hour-long programme on BBC Radio 2 on Friday evenings.
Blackburn said: “I do not seek to criticise the BBC for decisions it has made in the past. I have had a difficult year personally, but I’m pleased to be returning to the BBC and can’t wait to get behind the mic again.”
Thank you for all your lovely messages xx
— Tony Blackburn (@tonyblackburn) October 19, 2016
After being sacked, Blackburn continued working for Kent-based KMFM. He said the BBC had given him the opportunity to resign and return to his job a “few months” after Smith’s inquiry concluded but he refused “because I have got nothing to hide”, and stuck by the evidence he gave to the review.
Despite the ill feeling at the time of his departure, Blackburn had opened the door to the prospect of a return to the BBC when he said he was concentrating on getting “my career back and my reputation back”.
He was replaced on Radio 2’s Pick of the Pops by Paul Gambaccini , who described the corporation’s treatment of his predecessor as “beyond travesty”, remarking that “the wrong Tony was sacked”.
Blackburn was the first DJ to broadcast on Radio 1 when it launched in September 1967 and spent 17 years at the station. He also presented Top of the Pops and won the first series of I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here! in 2002.
A BBC spokesman said: “The BBC stands by the findings of Dame Janet Smith and the decision it made to take Tony Blackburn off air at the start of this year based on Dame Janet Smith’s preference for the documentary evidence relating to meetings that took place over Tony Blackburn’s statements.”
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