Ray Hadley quits 2GB live on-air, calls time on 43-year career at top of radio industry: ‘Hell of a ride’

Legendary Australian radio host Ray Hadley has announced he’s stepping back from his top-rating 2GB show.

Hadley, 70, told listeners on his Thursday morning program that he would end his 43-year career on December 13.

“I’ve achieved far more than I ever thought I would,” he said.

The 70-year-old said he wishes to spend more time with his wife Sophie Baird and his four children after their years of sacrifice.

“My own four children made many sacrifices for me over the years, allowing me to realise my ambitions, and I want to spend more time with them and my seven grandchildren,” Hadley said.

He heaped glowing praise on his “supporting, calming, loving and amazing wife” saying that “she deserves a break too”.

Hadley said he first considered the possibility of stepping back from his broadcast duties while in Paris for the Olympic Games.

He said turning 70 this year also made him re-evaluate his priorities.

“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 continued.

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

He said turning 70 this year also made him re-evaluate his priorities: “(I) 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.”

“At social events, I’m always the first out the door. I don’t want to be the first out the door anymore.”

His final show will be on December 13.

This is despite him signing a two-and-a-half-year contract extension in May 2023 that would have seen him on air until 2026.

Hadley has been the voice of Sydneysiders’ morning commutes for decades and has been a stalwart of 2GB’s talkback radio programming.

In 2017 he was inducted into the Australian Commercial Radio Awards (ACRA) Hall of Fame. He is the most awarded broadcaster in the history of the ACRAs, with 33 gongs for his work across sports — including covering NRL grand finals and Olympic Games — news and current affairs.

His career started serendipitously when he was working as a taxi driver and picked up 2UE news director Mark Collier, who he impressed so much that he landed a job at the station in 1983. Hadley stayed at 2UE for two decades.

He then moved to 2GB in 2001, first broadcasting during the breakfast slot until Alan Jones’ arrival in March 2002.

He has won the Sydney audience ratings in his timeslot since 2004, and his show is broadcast across 30 nationwide stations.

The announcement comes a month after a bombshell report exposed the “systemic” toxic culture of bullying, harassment, and abuse of power at Nine Entertainment, which owns 2GB.

The report found that two-thirds of employees in the radio division, which includes 2GB and 3AW, reported being victims or witnessing abuse of power or authority.

Almost half (49 per cent) reported experiencing bullying, discrimination or harassment. Almost a third (29 per cent) reported experiencing sexual harassment, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.