Legendary veteran radio host John Laws announces retirement

After calling the airwaves home for more than seven decades, radio icon John Laws will put down his golden microphone, retiring just short of notching up 71 years on air.

Legendary radio host John Laws has announced his retirement from the airwaves.

The veteran talkback host made the announcement live on his 2SM radio show this morning, with his last day to fall on November 8.

That will be just short of his 71st anniversary on air.

“I think it is time for a rest,” Laws, 89 — whose marathon career saw him rise to be known as “Golden Tonsils” — told listeners.

“I’ve done it for a very, very, very, very long time and 70 years, is that long enough? That is long enough. And I think that I will just call it a day and call it a day pretty soon … probably beginning of November I might give it away,” he said.

Laws will step down in November. Picture: Richard Dobson

Laws broadcasting form the 2SM radio studio at Pyrmont. Picture: Richard Dobson

“The first week of November, it will be 71 years since I started on radio. I don’t want to be greedy, I’ve had 71 fantastic years, I’ve had a really, really good time and most of it loved almost every minute of it.”

Laws made the announcement live on air when speaking to a listener called Paul and said he would now have more free time to do things he loves.

Australian singer Judy Cannon with John Laws on a TV show in the late 1950s or early 1960s. Picture: Supplied

“I will travel, I will sit about, I will read more than I read now, which is a hell of a lot but I will read more and I will travel,” he said.

“And I will catch up with things that I should have caught up with a long time ago but I still feel young, I still feel healthy and when I call it a day, it will be a day, I am not going to go away and then come back again and say it was all a mistake. It may well be a mistake but there will be no return.”

As he notched up his 70 years on air in 2023, Laws said he didn’t imagine retiring, although he supposed “ I will have to one day”.

Laws scored his first on-air gig in 1953 at Bendigo station, 3BO. Four years later, he joined metro broadcaster, 2UE.

There, he became one of the first DJs to play rock ‘n’ roll music, and rose to become one of the country’s most powerful talkback radio hosts, and one of Australia’s highest paid radio personalities.

In recent years he has broadcast for 2SM, despite spending a large part of 2021 off air with respiratory illness, and a month off last year with pneumonia.

* More to come