Ray Hadley quits 2GB in bombshell announcement to listeners

Ray Hadley, a titan of Sydney’s talkback radio for more than 40 years, has announced his resignation from 2GB.

The mornings presenter told his listeners that he would broadcast his final program on December 13. “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,” he said on Thursday morning.

“But the time has come for someone else to do the job.”

Ray Hadley only recently signed a contract extension with 2GB.Credit: Kate Geraghty

His departure comes as a surprise. In May last year, Hadley signed a 2½-year contract extension that would have kept him on Nine Radio until the end of 2026. Last July, he marked 20 years as number one in the coveted mornings slot.

At the time, Nine’s managing director of radio, Tom Malone, described Hadley as a “broadcaster of unmatched work ethic and likely never-to-be-repeated success”. Nine is the publisher of this masthead.

Hadley said he’d achieved more than he’d thought he would. He acknowledged the sacrifices of his children, and the pressure the job puts on his wife, Sophie.

“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 any more.”

Hadley said he started conversations about his future with Malone “some time ago”, and again during the Olympics in Paris.

Hadley’s influence on politics, both state and federal, is significant. He is courted by politicians across the political spectrum, who feel they can’t afford to get on his bad side. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is a regular on his show.

The Australian Financial Review once described Hadley as one of Australia’s most powerful people because of the way influential people responded to him.

Hadley has said their power is overstated. “We [shock jocks] 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.”

He has broken myriad stories. Most recently he read private text messages from senior state Liberal Alister Henskens on air, which criticised the NSW party leadership after its failure to lodge its local government candidates before deadline.

But Hadley has made the news himself, too. He was briefly suspended in 2013 for allegedly verbally abusing a young staffer. Former staff also accused him of verbal abuse in 2019.

When Nine released an internal report detailing a culture of bullying and belittling last month, Hadley said he was living proof of people’s capacity to change their behaviour.

“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 began his career as an auctioneer. He was driving taxis when he picked up then 2UE news director Mark Collier in 1980, who gave him casual work. He became a traffic presenter, a race caller, then a rugby league commentator on 2GB. He began presenting the 2GB morning show in 2002.

He has won the ratings battle in the morning slot 160 consecutive times.

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