Obituary: John Laws – Television.AU

John Laws, radio and television broadcaster over a career spanning 70 years, has died at age 90.

Born in Papua New Guinea in 1935, his radio career started at Bendigo radio station 3BO in the early 1950s. He made his way to 2UE in Sydney in 1957, quickly cementing himself as one of the highest paid talents on Australian radio and for five decades he was virtually a continuous fixture on Sydney radio. After leaving 2UE in 1958, he worked his way through 2SM, 2GB (twice), 2UW, and three more times at 2UE. He retired from radio in 2007 but in 2011 was back on the air at 2SM and the Super Radio Network, from where he retired for good late last year. His talkback programs were networked across many parts of Australia, particularly across regional areas, being one of the few talkback radio hosts to cross state boundaries and with that came a huge political influence over the voting public. Former Prime Minister Paul Keating once said: “Forget the Press Gallery; if you educate John Laws you educate Australia.”

As well as his on-air profile, Laws was also a part-owner of Sydney FM station 2Day when it launched in 1980.

In 1962, he was appointed host of the Seven Network‘s national variety program Startime. Later in the decade he presided over Seven’s daytime panel show Beauty And The Beast, before hosting a similar program, His And Hers, for the 0-10 Network in the early 1970s.

In 1982, he reprised his role of “beast” when the Ten Network revived Beauty And The Beast. His tenure with the show was short-lived as he went on to replace Steve Cosser as host of Ten’s current affairs program, The Reporters.

He also made some ventures into acting, with a guest appearance in Skippy in 1968 followed by movie credits Ned Kelly and The Nickel Queen, a guest appearance in Hey Dad! and a voice acting role in the animated movie The Magic Pudding.

He was a columnist at TV Week during the 1980s and early 1990s. And following the advent of Foxtel, he hosted his own talk program, LAWS, in the late 1990s.

He was often one to lend his profile to commercials — from selling record club memberships in the early days (pictured), to insect sprays, motor oil, cars, kitchens and home computers, amongst others. In 1999, a Media Watch investigation found that, at 2UE, he and colleague Alan Jones were accepting cash in return for favourable commentary on companies including Qantas, Optus, Foxtel, Mirvac and major Australian banks, without disclosing this arrangement to listeners. Laws always denied any wrongdoing, on the basis that he was not a journalist and that his program and commentary was for entertainment.

In 2003 he was inducted into the Commercial Radio Hall of Fame, and in 2017 into the Australian Media Hall of Fame.

John Laws is survived by five children.

YouTube: Melbourne Press Club