John Laws broadcasts weekdays to over 60 radio stations across Australia, or as John puts it, 'God's Great Garden' and to listeners around the world via the internet.

He has also hosted four national television programmes, recorded many top selling albums, penned several successful books, written columns for the Sunday Telegraph and hosted his own nightly talk show 'Laws' with Foxtel.

At a dinner to celebrate John's 40th anniversary in radio, Australia's former Prime Minister Paul Keating hailed John Laws as 'the broadcaster of the century'.


Now at his 50th anniversary, John Laws is the highest paid radio broadcaster in the world, at the top of the radio ratings ladder in several Australian markets, and broadcasts the biggest radio programme in Australia from behind a golden microphone.

John Laws has been given the nickname Golden Tonsils and the title, King of Radio because he is the trusted voice of 'dial in democracy', an Australian legend and to those in and outside the radio industry, John Laws is an icon.

John Laws worked as a Jackaroo around country New South Wales, before hitchhiking to central Victoria. He was 18 when he took on the position of general hand at the local radio station of 3BO Bendigo in 1953.

Lawsie's first jobs were to make the tea for the staff and pack away the sixteen-inch long play records of radio serials, like 'Doctor Paul', 'Hagon's Circus' and 'When A Girl Marries'. One of his first on-air shifts was broadcasting via wire recorders from the Bendigo Mayoral Ball and the first commercial Lawsie read on-air was for a haberdashery store called The Beehive.

Lawsie also worked at 4TO Townsville, 2PK Parkes for one night before leaving because they didn't allow him to smoke in the On-Air studio, and 2GZ Orange.

John Laws made his debut in metropolitan radio at 2UE in 1956. The station was Number 1 with a format of Top 40 and the star Disc Jockey line-up started with Gary O'Callaghan, running through the day with John Laws, Howard Craven, Brian Henderson and others.John Laws became a friend of Lee Gordon who moved to Australia from the states and became the top promoter of overseas music artists of the 50's and 60's. Lee delivered the latest singles to Lawsie before anyone else. He flew the biggest acts to Australia from around the world and brought them straight to John Laws.

John struck up friendships with artists like Roger Miller, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Connie Francis, Bill Haley, Neil Sedaka, Tom T. Hall, Roy Orbison, Willie Nelson, Tom Jones and Nat King Cole.

Local Australian artists were just beginning their careers, and John Laws was the Disc Jockey giving them the contact with the biggest listening audience. Again, John made friends with many of our legendary artists, the King of Australian Rock & Roll Johnny O'Keefe, Col Joye and the Joy Boys, Rob E G, Little Patty and many others.

'Talk-Back' was also introduced at 2UE and John Laws adapted his own unique style, which became a hit with the audience.

In 1959 John joined 2SM before moving to the Hunter Valley where he purchased a farm and for several years broadcast a nationally syndicated programme from the nearby Newcastle station 2KO.

In 1962 he moved back to Sydney with 2GB before re-joining 2UE two years later, and remained at 2UE for 5 years.

In 1969 John changed stations to 2UW, where he stayed for a decade. 2UE lured him back in 1979 for another 5 years, before a return to 2GB, where Lawsie was earning a wage that was greater than the Australian Prime Minister's.

John Laws returned to 2UE when the station had plummeted to 8th place in the Sydney ratings, but quickly returned to the top of the ratings, where 2UE has consistently remained since his return in 1988.