The Ray Hadley Morning Show | 1503 2BS Gold

Ray Hadley was born on September 27, 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 was driving a taxi one Tuesday evening when he picked up a fare at the front of Radio 2UE. That chance meeting, with 2UE News Director Mark Collier, was to change Ray's life.

Within a month of that fare, 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 programmes 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 2UE's rugby league coverage. For 10 of the next 13 years, Ray led the Continuous Call Team to ratings victory after ratings victory.

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 programme for six 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 which left industry insiders scratching their heads.

Career highlights include the Sydney 2000 Olympics, where Ray Hadley broadcast all major swimming and track and field events. His most memorable moment came on September 25, 2000, when he broadcast the remarkable victory by Cathy Freeman. He's also covered Olympics in 1992, 1996 and 2004 in Athens.

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 and 36 State of Origin games. He broadcast the first league Grand Final at both Telstra Stadium and Aussie Stadiums, and the last one at the SCG in 1987.

In 2006, Ray Hadley received the Australian Commercial Radio Award for Best Current Affairs Commentator. Ray has also been named Australia's best Radio Sports Broadcaster for six of the past 11 years. He has a total of 13 Radio Awards to his credit.

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 fundraising for charitable organisations.

Ray Hadley Mornings can be heard 9am to 11am Monday to Friday mornings on 1503 2BS Gold.