Radio icon Ray Hadley has bid an emotional farewell to the airwaves, capping a 43-year career in a lengthy interview with fellow 2GB host Ben Fordham.
The pair took calls from Hadley’s huge audience of listeners, including Sue from the Gold Coast, who said she had been listening to Hadley’s “cheeky sense of humour” for 25 years.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever receive a nicer phone call in my life”, Hadley said after.
The wide-ranging conversation between Fordham and Hadley also saw them discussing his career.
“What you’ve got to be confident in, is your own ability, and the ability of your colleagues,” he said.
“My best focus group is between my ears.”
He recalled bringing the topic of confronting child sex abuse to the airwaves, saying he was initially told people didn’t want to hear that on the radio.
“Well, that’s why I’m doing it,” he remembered replying.
Hadley, 70, also shared some memories of his late mother Elsie, including her meeting with then-NSW Premier Bob Carr as the president of a local war widows association.
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The elder Hadley apparently told Carr if he didn’t agree to their demands, she would go straight to her son.
“I rang her up and said … ‘Mum, you cannot threaten the premier of NSW with the fact that I’m your son’,” he said.
“She said, ‘well, it worked, because he gave us everything we wanted’.”
You can listen to the full interview in the embedded player above.
