(Source Sunday Telegraph)


Despite an ongoing struggle with a debilitating form of brain cancer, former radio shock-jock Stan Zemanek has not lost his fighting spirit.


Returning to the public forum today with a new series of the TV panel show Beauty And The Beast, Zemanek has vowed to maintain the opinionated outbursts that have punctuated his career and led to the program’s success.


“When we recorded the first show, everyone was on tenterhooks and worried about how the audience would react to me and how I would react to them just tiptoeing around me,'’ Zemanek told The Sunday Telegraph.


“After the first segment, I thought this isn’t right, and so during the second segment I just gave it to them with both barrels and you could see their faces light up. They knew then they could have a go at me and not worry about it.'’


Zemanek was diagnosed and subsequently operated on for an aggressive brain tumour last May.


In December, he ended his radio commitments with 2UE, after 17 years hosting his own nightly program.


At the time, Zemanek said he was hanging up his microphone to concentrate on his health and to spend time with his wife, Marcella, and his family.


While the nightly radio slot proved too difficult during cancer treatment, Zemanek said his return to television had proved the best form of therapy.


“Doing the program has been really good for me,'’ Zemanek said. “The doctor said I could go one of two ways: either I put my feet up for six months and hope to get through it, or to do what I’ve been doing all my life, which is working hard.


“I’m not working the 16 hours a day that I was working before but, by doing the show, I’m concentrating and doing something I love, allowing me to forget about everything else.


“I forget about questioning whether I’ll live tomorrow and die the next day.'’


Despite their often volatile on-screen relationship, Zemanek’s Beauty And The Beast colleagues, Jeanne Little and Prue MacSween, welcomed his return.


“There is no show without Stan,'’ Little said.