‘My last day in journalism’: Chris O’Keefe follows Ray Hadley out the door at 2GB

Hours after shock jock Ray Hadley finished his long radio career, fellow 2GB presenter Chris O’Keefe has announced he is leaving to start his own political and media advocacy business.

Adding to the dizzying number of end-of-year changes in Sydney and Melbourne radio, the Drive host said he had been thinking for a year of ending his media career.

2GB Drive presenter Chris O’Keefe has announced he is bowing out of journalism.Credit: 2GB

“Today is my last show and my last day in journalism,” the 36-year-old told listeners. “As much as I’ve enjoyed my time here at 2GB and my 13 years at Nine, the time is right for me to make the call to move on.

“I’m a young father, and I’m looking at what the next 10 years looks like for me and my family.”

O’Keefe told Nine’s managing director for radio Tom Malone last week that he was quitting after two years at 2GB but did not want to divert any attention away from Hadley’s departure.

“I’ve always wanted to run my own business,” he told this masthead. “I love politics. I know it back to front, that’s my real passion. So being able to jump into that space sort-of-adjacent will be a hell of a challenge and a bit of fun.”

O’Keefe said he had spent a third of his life at Nine, “from Canberra to Queensland to Nine News, 60 Minutes, Today show, Current Affair”.

“I’ve written for The Sydney Morning Herald and I’ve had a show on 2GB. I’ve ticked a lot of boxes.

“I just thought that, at my age, I went: ‘If you’re going to make a decision to pivot in your career, it’s probably now’.”

O’Keefe said his new company, Emerald House, would be non-partisan and work with “business interests that need to navigate both the political and media maelstrom”.

“I had to retreat from the intensity of it all”: Sarah Macdonald.Credit: ABC

As well as Hadley making an emotional exit from 2GB, axed ABC Radio Sydney presenter Sarah Macdonald bowed out, saying she appreciated the “utterly overwhelming ... love and support” of listeners since learning she was not part of the station’s plans for next year.

“I am OK, but it’s been a big couple of weeks,” the Mornings host told fill-in presenter Emma Crowe.

On her absence from the airwaves since shortly after learning of her sacking last month, Macdonald said she needed to be silent for the first time since she did a retreat in India 23 years ago.

“I had to retreat from the intensity of it all,” she said. “I needed to find my peace and my strength.”

Macdonald said that after a break she would “pop up in peoples’ lives” in new ways.

“I might set up a new Facebook [account] called, I don’t know, ‘Sarah Macdonald in peace, love and strength’,” she said. “I might do some writing. I’m going to do a Substack.”

As well as ABC Radio Sydney Drive host Richard Glover retiring, Weekend Mornings presenter Simon Marnie has also been axed, and Robbie Buck is leaving the station.

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