'All the best': Alan Jones signs off radio career with tributes from his political fans
Alan Jones has turned off his microphone for the last time after taking a final congratulatory call from Scott Morrison and welcoming two of his biggest fans, Tony Abbott and Mark Latham, into the studio.
The veteran Sydney broadcaster dedicated his last show in 35 years to his listeners, listeners so loyal they propelled him to an unbroken winning streak of 226 ratings periods and an annual salary of $4m in the competitive breakfast slot.
“I have always been an advocate of the KISS method, keep it simple stupid,” Jones told his listeners, many of whom called in to say how much they would miss him on air each week day from 5.30am to 9am.
“Sometimes you can be wrong, I have been wrong, and then you have to roll with the punches. The fear of being wrong should not dissuade you from prosecuting an argument in which you believe.”
The End: Alan Jones radio career wraps after 35 years, most as #1
Read more: https://t.co/waUSb4lvY0#AusMedia #AusNews #AusRadio #2GB pic.twitter.com/qzeA5iXhau— Mediaweek (@MediaweekAUS) May 29, 2020
Jones is retiring from 2GB one year into a two-year contract after he says doctors advised him to slow down, but Nine Radio was also under revenue pressure as many advertisers had deserted his program after he made disparaging comments about the New Zealand prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, late last year. Jones apologised for saying he hoped the Australian prime minister would shove a sock down Ardern’s throat but many advertisers never returned.
The Ardern controversy was the final blot on the Jones copybook, in a career that included the cash-for-comment scandal on 2UE in 1999 and the attacks on the then Australian prime minister, Julia Gillard, in 2012. The broadcaster said Gillard should be shoved “in a chaff bag” and later that her father had died “of shame” because she “told lies every time she stood for parliament”.
Jones’s last days on air were marked by an on-air apology ordered by the broadcasting watchdog for inaccurate comments he made about climate change in the same program he used the violent imagery about Ardern.
The watchdog had rapped Jones over the knuckles years earlier too, that time for his role in the Cronulla riots. He read out a text message from a listener, which asked people to “Come to Cronulla this weekend to take revenge”.
But the farewell show was all about Jones’s fans not his detractors. It was peppered with emotive musical tributes – The Whole Town’s Talking about the Jones Boy and Andrea Bocelli’s Time to Say Goodbye – and legions of soppy calls. “Yours is the voice of truth justice and common sense,” one caller told him. “I love your jokes,” said another.
There were slickly produced audio tributes to “the greatest career in Australian radio history” which included his chats with everyone from Bob Hawke and John Howard to international celebrities Lionel Ritchie, Jane Fonda and Donald Trump before he became the US president.
Even the news bulletins led with Jones’s retirement.
Jones put his success down to his hard work, extensive research and his dedication to listeners who live on “Struggle Street”. “I’m not a journalist, he said. “I am a broadcaster.”
He said he prided himself on believing Lindy Chamberlain did not murder her daughter Azaria from the start and he retold the story of flying Lindy to Sydney from Darwin for dinner.
“No one believed her,” he said. “I did.”
A dramatic start to an ‘end of an era’ as Alan Jones departs @2GB873 Thank you for bringing sunshine, blustery commentary, clarity & hope when life is dark. We will miss your company with every new dawn & follow you to @SkyNewsAust pic.twitter.com/pPXtUhzmRp
— Prue MacSween (@macsween_prue) May 28, 2020
Jones told the PM all the fuss was “a bit overwhelming to be honest”.
“It’s an extraordinary career by any estimation … Jenny and I want to wish you all the best for your future,” Morrison told him. “I am glad you are taking the medical experts’ advice. I will be doing that a little later today in the national cabinet.”
The NSW police commissioner, Mick Fuller, called in to thank Jones for his support of the police and his Sky News co-host, Peta Credlin, said Jones was “the ombudsman of life”.
Jones will continue his media career at Sky, where he has two shows a week and in print at the Daily Telegraph and the Australian.
The 79-year-old signed off with his signature song Gloria by the late Laura Branigan and promised his audience they would always “be together in spirit”.