Alan Jones: Mark Latham, Tony Abbott celebrate last radio show with champagne

Mark Latham and Tony Abbott arrived with champagne as the broadcaster signed off on his radio career this morning.

Alan Jones is congratulated by former PM Tony Abbott, right, and Mark Latham after finishing his show on his last day as a radio broadcaster at 2GB. Picture: John Feder

The calls started before he did.

Alan Jones is due to retire this morning, but callers couldn’t wait for him to be on air, with one calling the extra-early morning host to say: “I actually started crying when he announced it. It’s not going to be easy.”

It’s been like that all week on Sydney’s 2GB: callers just bereft at the idea of losing their breakfast companion, whom they’d come to see as a friend.

At 5:27am, the “Wake Up” presenter, Michael McLaren, said: “And now, for the last time, breakfast with Alan Jones.”

But first! News. Top story? “A media giant, farewelling radio.”

“Good morning,” said newsreader Amy Meehan. “A broadcasting legend is about to present his final radio program.”

Reporter Clinton Maynard then took over, saying: “In a few moments, Alan Jones will switch his microphone on, for the last time.”

The audience is huge. He has been No. 1 at breakfast for 226 surveys. But, Maynard said: “On doctor’s orders, he needs to reduce his load.”

Then to coronavirus: when will gyms be allowed to open? A man has fallen from a balcony. One Australian dollar buying 64 cents, and so on. Traffic, the M5 okay at this stage.

It was 22 and a half minutes to six, Jones himself opened with the weather. “Canberra: it’s a bit cool. Party cloudy day for Sydney.

“Just a couple of things in the news before we get onto other business,” he then said, with a chuckle.

Broadcaster Alan Jones during his final breakfast show for radio 2GB from his home at Fitzroy Falls in the NSW Southern Highlands. Picture: AAP

“Good news! An accelerated opening of the national economy” is on the cards.

You’ll soon be able to have 20 people at a wedding, and so on.

“These figures are made up. Can somebody tell us where these figures come from?” Jones said, punchy as ever.

And then: “It is my last day on radio, as you know.”

The correspondence has been, he said, too high to jump over, “but we are jumping.”

He’s busy redirecting listeners to Facebook, where he has a million hits on a good day, and to Instagram, where he’s got a photograph of himself, on his first day.

“It’s going to be a bit of a mixed morning,” Jones said. ‘Then I suppose I’m bound to disappoint.”

“Let me begin,” he added, by reminding everyone that “the program is about listeners.

“My listeners have been wonderful … Critical when necessary, sympathetic at the same time.”

Alan Jones at his Southern Highlands home with Ben Fordham, who will take over the 2GB breakfast slot. Picture: Jonathan Ng

He thanked management at his previous station, 2UE, and now at 2GB.

“They have been supportive, and available,” he said.

“The people in sales, they’ve done their best,” he added, hinting at the social media boycott, and the sponsor maelstrom that rocked his final years.

He thanked his legal team, too.

“I’ve driven them nuts, I’m sure,” he said, another nod to recent troubles, including a $3.7 million payout to Queensland’s Wagner family.

He thanked the people in the café across the road from the Sydney studio, who make everyone’s coffee in the hours before dawn. He pays the bill.

He thanked the guests, “from the Prime minister down” who come on “to face the music.:”

“They make the program,” he said, “and for all of you in every walk of life. I’m very grateful.

“The open line (means) you have a voice. We’ve tried to be the voice of the voiceless.

“But I am grateful to everyone … The program is nothing more really than a great big family.”

He likened the listeners to a “bundle of sticks” – not much alone, but “together we’re pretty strong. And we’ve been pretty strong for 35 years.”

Then came callers, including “Bill” who said: “You’ve been my radio companion for 35 years. You simplify the most complex literature so everyone can understand it. With your exuberance. I believe that you should receive a knighthood!”

Alan laughed, and said: “You’re being too generous.”

Then came Peggy Grande, from LA former assistant to Ronald Reagan, saying: “I am so honoured to join the who’s who of wellwishers this week. I, like so many will miss your witty humour. But it’s better to leave when they want you to stay. That’s a good thing.”

Shortly after 8 a.m. there came a pre-recorded tribute to “Australia’s greatest radio broadcaster.”

It was truly the great and the good, who have been calling in for three decades.

The roll call included all the prime ministers he’s had on the line: Turnbull, Morrison, Abbott, Gillard, Rudd.

There were US presidents, Bill Clinton, and Donald Trump.

The stars got sentimental, and there were so many of them: Nicole Kidman, Dame Edna, Russell Crowe, Elizabeth Hurley, Rod Stewart, Michael Buble, Barry Manilow, Olivia Newton John, and Hugh Jackman saying said Jones was one of the “kindest, most supportive” people I know.

To the tune of “True Blue” “Are you really disappearing?” there were many reminders of the kind, complex, sympathetic, supportive, cantankerous, sometimes unreasonable, and very often joyful broadcaster Jones became over his career.

Generous in spirit, with impeccable instincts, Usain Bolt called to congratulate him on “retiring on the top of your game.”

There were clips from Russell Crowe, saying: “That’s an incredible career, and an incredible impact.”

And from John Howard, “ringing to congratulate you for being such a stellar performer.” And from James Packer saying: “You’re an amazing friend.”

His oldest rival, John Laws said: “I’m going to miss you. I have nothing but the highest regard for you.”

The Prime Minister Scott Morrison called to say on behalf of himself and wife Jenny: “You’ve always spoken your mind, and we’ve had one or two disagreements, but you’ve always done the right thing by your country, and we’re very proud of that.”

There was a recap of some of the worst dad jokes: “How does a lion like his steak? Medium roar.”

Toward the end, Tony Abbott and Mark Latham – truly, there are some odd couples on this program – walked through the door.

They had grins on their faces, and Tony had the champagne under his arm.

But the last words went to Jones himself. Toward the end, he agreed that he’d made mistakes, and was sometimes wrong.

“We are working long before the sun gets up, still going late at night,’ he said.

“It has been a long hard slog, but a privilege to enter the lives of the listener families,” he said.

“I want to thank this crazy lot – the staff – we’ll be going our separate ways, but we’ll always be together.”

They are of course apart, because of coronavirus.

Some callers hinted at the things Jones has done over the years that the wider audience may not have known about: the personal and financial support for indigenous and Olympic athletes; the violins purchased for talented young performers whose parents were in straitened circumstances; the airfares covered for people who desperately needed to get somewhere, to have their shot, who never forgot his generosity.

At three minutes to nine, he read his last ad. At two minutes to nine: “Look, how to end?”

He reminded the audience of one of his favourite sayings: The young must dream, the old remember.’

Referring to a favourite poem, he said he hoped he had provided for people not stumbling blocks, but stepping stones.

‘That’s it from me, together in spirit, always, but for now, goodbye.

‘We’ll see you all somewhere, I’m sure.’

And then, it was back to Amy Meehan, in the newsroom: “The radio career of one of the greatest broadcasters of his era has come to an end.”