Biography
Born in Wau, Papua New Guinea, Laws contracted polio twice - once as a child, and again as a young man.
Laws was educated at Mosman Preparatory School and Knox Grammar School in Sydney, Australia. He began his radio career in 1953 at 3BO in Bendigo before working at several rural radio stations prior to joining 2UE in 1957, the first of four terms at that Sydney radio station, during which time Laws, (along with Bob Rogers, Tony Withersand and Stan Rofe) became prominent as one of the first Australian disc jockeys to play rock'n'roll music. Laws is said to have pioneered the practice (soon taken up by Rofe) of using contacts in the airline industry to supply him with the latest pop releases from overseas, a facility which gave him an edge at a time when many pop records were not released in Australia until weeks or even months after being issued overseas.
Laws left 2UE two years later, and moved for a time to the Hunter Valley, where he ran a farm. In 1962 he moved back to Sydney where he joined 2GB, remaining with the station for two years before he rejoined 2UE in 1964. His stint at 2UE continued until 1969, at which point Laws joined 2UW's line-up and remained there for 10 years. He returned to 2UE in 1979, this time for another five years. He then moved to 2GB after a highly publicised bid for his services, but returned to the 2UE fold when the station was number eight in the ratings. The return of Laws was the primary cause of the station then being number one in Sydney for many years. Laws' radio program was syndicated nationwide, with it especially popular in rural areas. Capital city stations taking Laws include 4BC in Brisbane, 2CC in Canberra, 101.7 HOFM in Hobart and Mix 1049 in Darwin.
1998 saw Laws make the move to television, with John Laws – In One Lifetime on Network Ten and LAWS on Foxtel. While LAWS continued until 2000, John Laws – In One Lifetime was dropped after two episodes – although the remaining five episodes that were commissioned by Network 10 were aired later that year. (The Network 10 show was parodied for a title of the skit "John Laws: In One Bucket" on the Martin/Molloy's 1998 comedy album Eat Your Peas).
However, his appeal began to wane. In 2002, station colleague and archrival Alan Jones moved from 2UE to 2GB, and soon took that station to the top talk position in Sydney.
Laws also has recorded numerous albums (mostly of Australian country music), and has written several best selling books.
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