Ray Hadley

For the figure skater, see Ray Hadley, Jr..

Ray Hadley
Born	27 September 1954 (1954-09-27) Paddington, Sydney
Occupation	Talkback radio broadcaster TV personality
Spouse	Suzanne
Children	Daniel, Laura, Emma and Sarah
Website
http://www.rayhadley.com.au/

Raymond Morris Hadley OAM (born 27 September 1954) is an Australian talkback radio broadcaster. He presents 2GB Sydney's morning show, and leads the Continuous Call Team, a rugby league-based talkback radio panel program.

Early Life

Hadley was born in Paddington and grew in up in Dundas Valley in the western suburbs of Sydney but spent a great deal of time with his grandparents in a small village called Eungai Rail on the mid north coast of New South Wales.

He decided at a young age to become a sports broadcaster, but reports being questioned by his family and friends whenever his ambitions were brought up. After sitting his Higher School Certificate at Macquarie Boys' High School in 1971, he tried unsuccessfully to gain a job in sports broadcasting. He soon found work in auctioneering, and after getting his auctioneer's licence, was an auctioneer for ten years.

He soon quit auctioneering to become a taxi driver, so that he could spend his weekends getting casual work as a race broadcaster. By 1980, he was calling the greyhound races at Appin, Bulli and Nowra.

In 2010, Tim Elliott (Sydney Morning Herald) described him as the "...right wing.... brawler of the airwaves."

Radio Career

2UE

One day, while driving his taxi, he was called to Radio 2UE in Sydney to pick up news director Mark Collier, who gave him casual work at the station. Within a month, he was presenting traffic reports for Gary O'Callaghan's breakfast program, and did on-air promotions for various 2UE programs. He eventually landed up as an understudy race caller, behind Des Hoysted and John Tapp.

In 1987, Hadley was chosen to head up 2UE's Rugby League coverage: The Continuous Call Team. The station had ratings victories 10 out of the 13 years 2UE had the rights to cover the game during his tenure.In 1994, he was the first league broadcaster since Frank Hyde to attract 200,000 listeners per quarter hour. During that time, he was also understudy and fill-in presenter for morning show presenter John Laws.

In 1999, 2UE lost the rights to the National Rugby League to 2GB. Faced with a difficult challenge to retain listeners, 2UE asked Hadley to present a rugby league program without access to the actual game. Despite this hurdle, the renamed Talking League Team won every rating period during 2000 and 2001. At times 2GB complained that the frequent "updates" given on the show extended to near real time commentary, which 2UE denied.

During his time at 2UE, Ray also broadcast at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and was commentating on Cathy Freeman's memorable 400m race, where she had won gold. Freeman had later heard the replay of the race, and said that Ray's call made it sound better than she thought it was.

2GB

In December 2001, Hadley joined 2GB to present the weekend rugby league coverage but when fellow 2UE presenter Alan Jones came to 2GB in April 2002 Ray accepted an offer to present the morning show as well.

His talkback show started as a traditionally local, community and state-based current affairs oriented - but over the past two years he has extended his program to networks stations in regional NSW, Queensland and the ACT.

His favourite music genre is country and western (both traditional and modern) - especially new releases and some old favourites but would occasionally play nostalgic 50's 60's and 70's radio-friendly pop hits. Hadley's opening theme is "Murrumbidgee" by one of his favourite country groups, The Wolverines, who are also great mates, while the closing theme is the world famous country instrumental "Last Date" from renowned country pianist Floyd Cramer.

In 2009 Hadley started broadcasting to a wider audience. His program from 9am to midday is also broadcast to stations across Rural NSW, Queensland and parts of Victoria and through Canberra station 2CC. Those stations are part of the Southern Cross network owned by Macquarie Bank Media and Capital Radio and are some of the stations which also broadcast the Continuous Call Team.

While Hadley achieved a new milestone in May 2009 when his 2GB morning show ratings reached 19.1% (the best figure for a morning show since John Laws topped 20% in the early 1980s, and back then there were no FM stations in the Sydney market), he bettered it two years later when in May 2011 he became the highest ever listened to radio announcer in Australian radio, commanding an unprecedented 20.1%.

Awards

He has been named the best Radio Sports Broadcaster at the "Rawards" for the 8 out of the past 11 years, and was awarded an Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the Queen's Birthday 2002 Honours List for services to rugby league (as a broadcaster) and the community, through fundraising initiatives for charitable organisations.

Hadley won an accolade at the 2006 ACRAs (also known as the RAWARDS) for "Best Current Affairs Presenter". He won that award again 2009 and became the first radio broadcaster to win both that award and best sports commentator. He has won 20 major ACRA Radio awards since 1987.

Television

After initially commencing as a sports reporter on Channel 7, Ray was recruited to Channel 9 by having his profile catapulted onto the small screen as part of The Footy Show with his radio and rugby league colleague Steve "Blocker" Roach from 1994 to 1998. Ray made a one-off appearance on The Footy Show in 2005 as part of a forum to discuss brawling and antagonism between Bulldogs supporters at Telstra Stadium during a game against the Brisbane Broncos. Ray also branched out into TV commercials and for 17 years was spruiking the popular menswear establishment Lowes.

During 2010, he had appeared on the Matty Johns Show on the Seven Network, a NRL focoused programme hosted by Matthew Johns.

Also in 2010, Hadley was signed by Sky News Australia to present a weekly current affairs programme entitled Hadley!. The programme aired on Wednesday nights. He resigned from Sky News Australia after only 4 episodes reportedly due to 'differences' and staff not wanting to work with him. In October 2011, Hadley was signed up by Channel Nine to commentate on the 2011 Rugby World Cup semi-final match between the Wallabies and the All Blacks.

As of round three of the 2012 NRL season, Ray Hadley will commentate alongside Peter Stirling and Paul Vautin on Channel Nine's rugby league coverage.

Olympics

Hadley has covered the Summer Olympic Games since 1992. It was during the coverage of the Olympic Games in 2004 that Hadley referred to one of his colleagues as a spastic. Hadley claimed to be embarrassed by his behaviour and offered an apology.

Personal

Hadley has four children. Emma and Sarah to wife Suzanne, with whom he reconciled after a short split in early 2011 and Daniel and Laura, from his first marriage to Anne Marie that ended in 1992.

External links

• Ray Hadley's Official Website
• Ray Hadley at the Internet Movie Database
• 2GB 873 AM