Ray Hadley

Ray Hadley was born on September 27th 1954. He grew up 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. Deciding at a relatively young age he wanted to pursue a career in sports broadcasting, Ray says he drew strange looks from family and friends whenever he mentioned his ambitions. Ray completed his Higher School Certificate in 1972 and tried unsuccessfully to find employment in sports broadcasting. He later found work in another type of broadcasting - he became a trainee Auctioneer and after gaining his Auctioneers license, stayed with that profession for 8 years. Still bugged by his desire to enter into the world of sports broadcasting, Ray gave up auctioneering and started driving taxis so he could spend his weekends seeking out casual work as a race broadcaster. He started calling the greyhound races at Appin, Bulli and Nowra in 1980 when fate intervened. He was driving a taxi one Tuesday evening when he picked up a fare at the front of Radio 2UE. That meeting with 2UE News Director Mark Collier was to change Ray's life. Within a month of that meeting, Ray was working casually at 2UE and took on any job that was thrown to him. He presented traffic reports in Gary O'Callaghan's top rating breakfast show, was involved with 'on-air' promotions for various programs and eventually found himself understudy race caller to Des Hoysted and John Tapp. His biggest break came in 1987 when he was offered the job of heading up the 2UE Rugby League coverage. For 10 of the next 13 years, Ray led the Continuous Call Team to ratings victory after ratings victory. Just before the ARL Super League War in 1994, Ray became the first League broadcaster since Frank Hyde to gain almost 200,000 listeners per quarter hour. In 1999, 2UE lost the broadcast rights to Rugby League. Ray faced the most difficult time in his broadcasting career. 2UE asked him to continue to present a Rugby League program for 6 hours on Saturdays and Sundays without access to the actual game and with his reporters unable to speak to him from inside the ground. Despite these hurdles Ray and the Talking League Team won every ratings period in 2000 and 2001, a feat that left industry insiders scratching their heads. It was something else that had never been done before. Hadley made a decision in February of 2002 that was to change his life. Back in October 2001 he had decided to join Macquarie Radio Station 2GB after 19 years with Radio 2UE. 2GB owner John Singleton had asked Ray to come across with his successful "Continuous Call Team" to cover Rugby League. After Ray agreed to terms "Singo" suggested he might have a crack the King of Morning radio John Laws. It was an offer Ray refused until news broke of 2GB's signing of Australia's best known breakfast host Alan Jones. The day Alan signed Ray agreed to host 9 am to noon weekdays on the proviso he could continue to lead the "Continuous Call Team" on the weekend. Ray's Weekday program moved to its new time-slot - 10am-1pm in 2005 following the extended Alan Jones Breakfast show. The rest, as they say, is history. Within one year he had become the only broadcaster in ratings history to be number one 7 days a week. His morning show rated 12.2% by the middle of 2003 and the Rugby League coverage on Saturdays and Sundays was a run-away number one as well. Career highlights include the Sydney 2000 Olympics where Ray Hadley broadcast all major swimming and track and field events. He most memorable moment came on September 25th 2000 when he broadcast the remarkable victory by Cathy Freeman. Later Cathy heard a replay and said his call made it sound better than it actually was! He's also covered Olympics in 1992 and 1996 and lines up for his 4th Olympics in Athens in 2004. His graphic call of the Rugby World cup final in Sydney 2003 goes down as one his other great moments along with 14 Rugby League grand finals, 36 State of Origin games. He broadcast the first League Grand final at both Telstra Stadium and Aussie Stadium and the last one at the SCG in 1987. He's been on three Kangaroo tours and covered the 1991 Rugby World Cup in the UK and two other European tours by the Wallabies. His stand-out grand finals are in no particular order - the 1989 Balmain- Canberra thriller - the 1997 battle between Manly and Newcastle and the upset win by Penrith over the roosters in 2003. Hadley has been named Australia's best Radio Sports Broadcaster for 6 of the past 11 years. The radio industry awards are known as the "Rawards" and Ray has now won 12 in total. Ray was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the Queen's Birthday 2002 Honours List for service to Rugby League Football as a broadcaster, and to the community, particularly through fund-raising for charitable organizations. Home for Ray Hadley is the north-west of Sydney on a 2.5 hectare property where he lives with his wife Suzanne and four children Daniel, Laura, Emma and Sarah.