John Laws has called time on his radio career for the second time after a 13-year run on 2SM.
The announcement of his retirement on November 8 came very casually this morning, with the 89-year-old telling listeners that it is “time for a rest”. In response to a message from a listener, Paul, about his own retirement and love of listening to Laws in the mornings, the broadcaster replied, “cheers Paul, well you’re not going to be hearing it for long”.
“It’s time for a rest, is what I think. I’ve done it for a very, very, very, very long time, and 70 years – is that long enough? That’s long enough, and I think that I’ll just call it a day and call it a day pretty soon, probably beginning of November,” Laws said. “First week of November it’ll be 71 years since I started on radio. So I think, you know, I don’t want to be greedy. I’ve had 71 fantastic years, fantastic years. I had a really, really good time and loved, you know, most of it”.
“Loved almost every minute of it. But Paul, stay tuned, because I’m here for a while yet, but not very much longer in a way, I’m sorry to say”.
This is not the first time Laws has announced his retirement, back in 2007 he announced that he would be stepping back only to return to the air four years later for The John Laws Morning Show on 2SM.
While acknowledging that she still feels young and healthy, he did say that this time, his retirement would be final. “When I call it a day, it’ll be a day. I’m not going to go away and then come back again and say, ‘Oh it was all a mistake’. It may well be a mistake that there’ll be no return. No return, that’s it,” he said.
Laws is one of Australia’s most recognisable voices in the talkback radio space having first got his start at Bendigo’s 3BO in 1953. He is most widely known for his run at Sydney’s 2UE and for his rivalry with well-known and controversial presenter Alan Jones.
Law’s career has seen its share of controversy. In 1999, he and Jones were found to have editorialised paid advertisements for brands like Qantas and Foxtel without proper disclosure. In 2014, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) determined he violated privacy provisions by publicly sharing the full name and phone number of a listener who criticised his show. He faced further breaches in 2020 for making a “dangerous” remark about suicide directed at a listener.
