John Laws, king of the airways, hooked me — line and sinker

“Obviously you’re a loser in life and you’re not going anywhere. Goodbye.” Those were the last words John Laws said to me live, in his famous baritone voice, on his most-watched morning show.

It was 1991 and Laws was the king of broadcasting. I, on the other hand, was an unemployed 19-year-old who recently traveled from Lismore to Sydney on XPT. This was the height of Paul Keating’s “recession we had to live through” and I was desperate to find work.