I used to panel the John Laws show on the local community radio station and we had to somes cut into his show and play music over the top of his live ad reads as we could only have 5 minutes of ads an hour or sponsorships as they called them. Sometimes you would not know when he would not realise its a live read until sometimes half way through. He used to also do live reads only for 2ue during their ad breaks so you hear on the same channel a count down of time of when they would go back to the program. The ad breaks weren’t a set time due to this. Apart from public holidays.
I remember one time hearing down the line Laws complaining about a particular ad being too shouty. I would love to do this for the copy of the current NRMA ads as they are terrible “a help company “ what is that? What does that mean? But I would probably get in trouble unlike the mix 00’s when ad revenue was higher and could pick and choose the ads more.
John had a close affinity with Bendigo, starting his radio career at 3BO in 1953. He paid a visit on his 50 year anniversary in 2003 and broadcast from the old Golden Square studios that day.
I remember going on a short school holiday trip to Warrnambool with my parents in the late 90’s and after losing the Melbourne stations and tiring of the ABC and Radio National, Dad hit Auto store on the car radio, and we got John Laws via 3YB 882 (possibly)
It was quite a contrast listening to his show, compared to our usual diet of Neil Mitchell etc.
Mum said he was arrogant, I think we even got one of Norman’s calls as well.
My only exposure to him before then were his Valvoline ads and his voice behind various ads, some of them for Toyota.
Melbourne radio tried Laws a couple of times IIRC but while he attracted audiences in various other capital cities, he never really took off in Melbourne.
Australian Olympian Peter Bol has married Mahtut Yaynu, his long-time partner and the mother of their daughter.
The couple met as children when they ended up in the same neighbourhood in Perth. Though they were at different schools they were in the same social circles. They later rekindled a friendship and both settled in Melbourne, which led to their relationship.
They got engaged in early 2024 before welcoming their daughter, Reyna, later that year.
