Phillip Adams to retire from ABC Radio National

Phillip Adams, host of Radio National’s Late Night Live program, will retire from the ABC in June but will continue his longstanding column in The Weekend Australian magazine.

ABC host Phillip Adams, 84, will retire from radio in June.

Broadcaster Phillip Adams, one of the ABC’s longest-serving on-air presenters, will retire from radio in June.

Adams, who has hosted the Late Night Live weeknight program on ABC Radio National for 33 years, will continue his longstanding column in The Weekend Australian magazine.

“I had always planned to die at my microphone. But I feel this would be unfair to the cleaners. So, I’m leaving the studio, Late Night Live and the ABC under what’s left of my own steam – with decades of happy memories.,” Adams, 84, said in a statement.

Adams, who affectionately refers to his listeners as his “Gladdies”, took to social media platform X earlier on Wednesday to confirm his departure.

“Vale me,” he posted.

“When I started saying I only had one listener, and then her name was Gladys, ABC management ordered me to cease and desist. Naturally, I ignored the order and the name stuck.”

Cath Dwyer, the head of Radio National, said of Adams: “Phillip is an exceptional broadcaster and public intellectual, who intrinsically understands the unique intimacy of radio as a medium.

“Over the past 30 years he’s interviewed thousands of the world’s most influential thinkers and kept us all entertained with his wit and intellect. There’s no one quite like him.”

An ABC spokeperson declined to answer whether the ABC will appoint a new host of Late Night Live to replace Adams, or introduce a new program in the timeslot.

“We’ll have more to say about Late Night Live later in the year,” the spokesperson said.