Meldrum hosted Oz for Africa in July 1985, the Australian leg of Live Aid. In January of the following year he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia, with the citation for "service to the fostering of international relief and to youth". Meldrum has earned a reputation as a champion of Australian popular music both in Australia and internationally; his contributions have been acknowledged with an Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Award for Special Achievement in 1993, and the "Ted Albert Award" in 1994 at the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) Awards. Music journalists, Toby Creswell and Samantha Chenoweth describe him as "The single most important person in the Australian pop industry for forty years" in their 2006 book, "1001 Australians You Should Know". In 2014, Meldrum was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame, together with his TV show, "Countdown", he became the first non-artist to receive the accolade. Earlier that year he published his autobiography, "The Never, Um... Ever Ending Story: Life, Countdown and Everything in Between".