The Herald Sun reports that after more than 30 years at 3AW, Philip Brady is retiring. He says: “it’s time to move over and give the younger guys a go”. Brady, 85, announced on 3AW’s Remember When program on Sunday night that he was hanging up his headphones and switching off the microphone. His career in entertainment in TV and radio has endured unbroken for 67 years.
“Well it has come to this, after 67 years in the business I am quitting and I am very sad to be leaving you, but, well, I have been around forever and I have been at 3AW since time began,” Brady said in a message to his loyal listeners played on Remember When just before 11pm on Sunday.
“But it is time to move over and give the younger guys a go like Andrew (McLaren), for example.
“Don’t think I will ever forget you, I love you, each and every one of you.
“I treasure our friendship, but it is time to move on for the younger guys.
“I’ll be looking out for you. Goodbye now.”
Andrew McLaren has been the fill-in co-host on Remember When in recent years and is expected to become the show’s regular co-host alongside Simon Owens following Brady’s retirement. Brady has been absent from the show for a couple of weeks.
The show’s phone lines were immediately flooded with fans wishing Brady well and congratulating him on his extraordinary innings.
A TV and radio veteran, Brady has been an integral part of 3AW’s since 1990 when he teamed up with Bruce Mansfield to present two shows; Nightline and Remember When.
Following Mansfield’s passing in 2016, Brady was joined by Simon Owens at the helm of both top rating programs.
In September 2019, Nightline was axed but Brady and Owens continue to host Remember When.
While Brady has spent the past 34 years with 3AW, his career in entertainment stretches back to the earliest days of TV in Australia.
In 1958, Brady left school at Xavier College and almost immediately landed a two week job as a booth announcer at Channel 9.
He ended up staying at Nine for the following 13 years.
Not long after joining Nine he was asked to appear on-air reading a commercial and then close the station.
In the early days of TV the stations would close for the evening around 11pm each night.
He was spotted doing the on camera live read by Graham Kennedy who quickly brought him into the In Melbourne Tonight fold.
Brady worked on air with Kennedy at Nine for more than five years in the 1960s and continued making guest appearances on other shows that Kennedy hosted during his career.
During the 1970s, he became a quiz and panel show host and helmed seven shows for Reg Grundy including The Moneymakers, Casino Ten, Password, Get the Message, Concentration and Everybody’s Talking.
Brady was 3AWs weekend music shift host during the summer non-footy season from 1971 to 1979.
In 1986, he moved to the Gold Coast and worked for the radio station Easy Listening 97 at Tweed Heads.
He returned to Melbourne in 1990 and teamed up with Mansfield to create a great radio partnership at 3AW.
In 2018 Brady was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for services to the broadcasting industry.
Story courtesy of Fiona Byrne – Herald Sun Newspaper.
Farewell to another legend. Philip Brady was an inspiration and a true showman. I hold fond memories of his early TV work on IMT. Now in my early 70s I seem to be bidding farewell to many of my media friends who entertained me via screen and radio.