By Jordan Baker
As Ray Hadley was attempting a career switch from auctioneer to race-caller in the early 1980s, he drove taxis to make ends meet. One night he picked up a senior radio executive. It was the fare that changed his life.
That ride, which led to a job as a traffic reporter, had implications for the rest of Sydney, too. It paved the way for Hadley’s opinions, delivered in his bullish, blunt, bellicose style, to thunder over the city’s airwaves for decades.
Ray Hadley as he announces his resignation from 2GB with his son Daniel (left) and breakfast presenter Ben Fordham. Credit: Kate Geraghty
He’s listened to in taxis, in offices, on construction sites. He inspires and enrages. And his views have had particular resonance in the nation’s parliaments, where many members fretted for their careers if they got Raymond Morris Hadley offside.
“Hadley won’t like this,” elected ministers of the crown say about proposed policy, particularly if it involves topics in which the broadcaster has a keen interest, such as the management of the NSW Police Force.
Those power dynamics shift dramatically next year, as Hadley will no longer be at the microphone.
On Thursday, he announced he will broadcast his final 2GB morning show on December 13. With Alan Jones disgraced and John “golden tonsils” Laws broadcasting his final show on Friday, the era of Sydney’s original shock jock has come to an end.
“It’s been a hell of a ride, from a young bloke wanting to call the races to being the old bloke sitting in this studio for so long,” Hadley told his listeners. “But the time has come for someone else to do the job.”
The timing raised eyebrows. Last year, Hadley signed a 2½-year contract extension that would have kept him on Nine Radio until the end of 2026. In July, he marked 20 years as No.1 in the morning slot; he is on a run of 160 consecutive ratings wins.
His influence on Macquarie Street and Canberra continues, and the former greyhound race-caller who grew up on a housing commission estate in Dundas Valley is arguably better connected across politics, sport and crime than anyone else in Australian media.
His departure comes soon after a Nine Entertainment review of its workplace culture found the radio division had particular problems; two-thirds of employees there had experienced or witnessed abuse of power and almost half had witnessed or experienced bullying. The Herald does not suggest that Hadley’s departure is linked to any complaints or the findings of the review.
Hadley himself has faced allegations of verbally abusing staff in 2013 and 2019. He addressed those incidents on air when the Intersection report was released last month, saying he was living proof of people’s capacity to change.
“As you all know, 10 years ago, I decided my rather robust way of dealing with some matters had to change, particularly in relation to my dealings with men I work with,” he said. Hadley and Nine Entertainment, owner of 2GB and this masthead, refused to comment on whether the report came up in discussions about his departure.
In his on-air announcement on Thursday, Hadley said his decision was about the early starts, the pressure his job put on his wife of three years, Sophie, and the sacrifices of his children. He wants to spend time with his seven grandchildren.
Ray Hadley in his early days of radio. Credit: Fairfax media
“Back in September, I turned 70 and started to think how long have I got left on this Earth and do I want to keep getting up at 3.30 in the morning?” he said. “At social events, I’m always the first out the door. I don’t want to be the first out the door anymore.”
Hadley said he started conversations about his future with the managing director of 2GB, Tom Malone, “some time ago”, during the Olympics in Paris, and again last week. While he would no longer be on radio, he would not retire. “I’ll bob up somewhere in 2025,” he said.
His announcement was on the same day as Nine’s annual general meeting, which sources said was coincidental, and a day before 89-year-old Laws, his old ratings rival, broadcast his final show on 2SM after 71 years on air.
The Australian Financial Review once put Hadley, as a proxy for the populist, right-wing media, on its list of Australia’s most powerful people because of the way influential people – particularly politicians — responded to him.
Hadley has said his power is overstated. “We [talk-back hosts] are getting far too much credit,” he told this masthead this year. “You have victories every now and again. The listening audience in 2024 is far too sophisticated to be dictated to, by me or anyone else.”
Still, some of the country’s top politicians were quick to respond to his announcement. Premier Chris Minns called into the program, saying he was shocked. “It’s a distinguished career,” he said. “It’s an incredible legacy.
“But if I was [to sum someone up] in one word, I would just say fearless ... you’ve never, ever pulled your punches in something that you believe in. I’ve been on the other end of that at times, but I’d like to say we can also convince you sometimes as well.”
Federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, a regular on Hadley’s program, said he was happy for Hadley, but “devastated in terms of the fact that you contributed so significantly on behalf of your listeners, to the betterment of our country and you’re a true patriot, mate”.
Hadley’s departure rearranges the tectonic plates of Sydney power.
As one senior former political leader said, the prevailing wisdom at Macquarie Street has long been that it’s disastrous for a government or public figure to get Hadley and his stablemate, 2GB breakfast presenter Ben Fordham, off side at the same time.
Now it’s just Fordham. Hadley’s departure is likely to intensify Fordham’s influence, at least until Hadley’s replacement has time to build a following in the high-profile slot. There’s no word yet on who that might be.
In an interview with this masthead in July, before he’d begun discussions about his departure, Hadley described the X-factor required for a broadcaster to succeed. Radio, he said, is all about personality.
“You can disguise insincerity on TV,” he said. “This microphone here: your voice will always expose you if you’re insincere. When you’re happy, laugh. When you’re sad, cry. When you’re angry, get angry. In radio, you have to really think about what you’re going to say and believe in it.”
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