Alan Jones (radio broadcaster) facts for kids
Jones in 2011
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
| Birth name | Alan Belford Jones | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | 13 April 1941 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Oakey, Queensland, Australia | |||||||||||||||||||||
| School | Toowoomba Grammar School | |||||||||||||||||||||
| University | Kelvin Grove Teachers College University of Queensland University of Oxford |
|||||||||||||||||||||
| Occupation(s) | Radio presenter | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | ||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Rugby league career
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Coaching information
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
Alan Belford Jones AO (born 13 April 1941) is an Australian former radio broadcaster. He is a former coach of the Australia national rugby union team and rugby league coach and administrator. He has worked as a school teacher, a speech writer in the office of the Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, and in musical theatre. He has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Queensland, and completed a one-year teaching diploma at Worcester College, Oxford. He has received civil and industry awards.
Jones hosted a popular Sydney breakfast radio program on radio station 2GB from 2002 until 2020. Jones advocates conservative views, and the popularity of his radio program has made him a highly paid and influential media personality in Australia. Despite his success, he remains a controversial figure. His on-air conduct has received adverse findings from Australia's media regulators, and he has frequently been sued for defamation. In May 2020, Jones announced his retirement from his role at 2GB. In November 2021 it was confirmed that his contract with Sky News Australia would not be renewed. Since December 2021, Jones has presented Alan Jones: Direct to the People on ADH TV.
In November 2024, Jones was arrested and charged with 24 offences.
Contents
Early life and career
Jones was born to farmer and coal miner Charlie Thomas (1906–90) and former school teacher Elizabeth 'Beth' (née Belford; 1906–82). Alan was the middle of three children, with an older brother, Robert Charles, and a younger sister, Colleen, both of whom would become school teachers like their mother and brother. Jones was raised on a dairy farm near Oakey in south-east Queensland, attending primary school at Acland State School, before transferring to Toowoomba Grammar School as a boarder.
After leaving school, Jones trained as a teacher at the Kelvin Grove Teachers College (now part of the Queensland University of Technology) in Brisbane. In 1961, he commenced his teaching career at a state primary school, Ironside State School in the inner suburbs of Brisbane. In 1963, he obtained a position at Brisbane Grammar School, a private secondary school for boys, where he remained until the end of 1969. Throughout this period he also studied part-time at the University of Queensland for a Bachelor of Arts degree, which he was awarded in 1967. Apart from his teaching duties at Brisbane Grammar, Jones additionally proved to be a highly successful sporting coach in athletics, tennis, and, later, rugby union.
In 1970, Jones was appointed Senior English Master at The King's School, Parramatta in Sydney. Again Jones was also heavily involved in coaching a number of sports with considerable success, including progressing to coaching the First XV rugby union side, which he took to the championship in an unbeaten season in 1974. At the end of the first term in 1975, following a meeting with the school's principal, Jones chose to resign from the school. It has been reported that reasons for his resignation include his divisiveness and his inappropriate relationships with students.
After leaving King's School Jones briefly moved to Canberra where he made a failed bid to win preselection to stand as a Country Party candidate for federal parliament. He then spent several years as the manager of a small airline in Quirindi in country New South Wales, where he also coached the local rugby team. During this same period, over 1976–77 while in his mid-30s, Jones spent time in England where he completed a one-year diploma in educational studies at Worcester College, Oxford. While at Oxford Jones won a university Blue for tennis.
In 1978, Jones returned to Sydney to run for the State Parliament as a Liberal Party candidate. After failing to win his seat in the election, Jones worked for some time as a speechwriter for the Liberal NSW Opposition leader, John Mason. In 1979, Jones was recruited as a speechwriter for the Liberal Prime Minister of Australia, Malcolm Fraser, so returned to Canberra for the position, remaining there until early 1981. He then moved back to Sydney after being recruited to be executive director of the New South Wales Employers' Federation, where he worked until he began his radio career in 1985.
In October 1985, Jones was awarded the Rostrum Speakers' Award as the Communicator of the Year.
Political aspirations
In 1974, a parent at The King's School, Parramatta, Doug Anthony, leader of the Country Party (now the National Party of Australia) in the Australian Parliament, offered Jones a position with the party in Canberra. In 1975, Jones sought party preselection as the candidate for the Federal parliamentary seat of Eden-Monaro, but lost the bid.
In 1978, he was the candidate for the July 1978 by-election for the NSW state seat of Earlwood for the Liberal Party of Australia, formerly held by deposed Liberal leader Sir Eric Willis. He lost what had been considered a "safe seat". Jones again contested the seat for the Liberal Party at the 1978 New South Wales state election held in October; the Australian Labor Party candidate was returned with a greater majority.
In September 1979, Jones stood for Liberal preselection for the Federal Division of North Sydney, placing third in the ballot. The winning candidate, Peter Solomon was later disendorsed, but Jones did not re-contest the ballot in March 1980, with John Spender taking preselection and winning the seat.
In 1986, Jones nominated for the Liberal preselection for the Federal Division of Wentworth in Sydney, but was a late withdrawal from the ballot; the preselection and seat was won by future Liberal leader Dr John Hewson.
Coaching career
Rugby union
1982 was the beginning of Jones' association with semi-professional rugby, firstly appointed as (part-time) manager of the NSW Rugby Union team. The next year he served as coach for the Manly Rugby Union team, winning the Shute Shield competition for the first time in 32 years.
In February 1984, Jones replaced Bob Dwyer as coach of the Australia national rugby union team (the Wallabies). Jones coached the Australian team for 4 years with 86 victories from 102 matches including 23 victories in 30 Tests. When he took the team on it included Mark Ella, and it soon recruited Peter FitzSimons and James Black, both Manly players, and Nick Farr-Jones. Also in 1984, Australia's national team, the Wallabies, won the Grand Slam victories over England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland, and a Barbarians side made up of the best players of those countries and France. In 1985, Jones was awarded Coach of the Year from the Confederation of Australian Sport.
The 1986 Bledisloe Cup victory against New Zealand in New Zealand was the first time that had been achieved in 39 years. In 1988, Jones was made a Member of the Order of Australia for his service to Rugby Union football. In 1989, Jones was elected to the Sport Australia Hall of Fame for his contribution to sport as the Australian rugby union coach.
In October 2007, Jones signalled his interest in coaching the Wallabies after Queensland Rugby Chairman Peter Lewis suggested to the media he was the right person for the job. "If Peter Lewis and the Queensland Rugby Union – who have played a major role in Australian rugby for many years – are of the view I am the person who can make that contribution then I am obligated to put my hand up and say, 'Well if that is the case, I'm available'."
The Australian Rugby Union (ARU) on 14 December 2007 ruled Jones out of the coaching position, instead appointing New Zealand Crusaders coach Robbie Deans.
In 2017, Jones took up an invitation to coach the Barbarians against the Classic Wallabies in Lismore and the Wallabies in Sydney during the 2017 end-of-year rugby union internationals.
Rugby league
In 1990, Jones replaced Warren Ryan as coach of the Balmain Tigers rugby league football club, without accepting a fee. Balmain had been quite successful, including coming runners-up in 1988 and 1989 in the New South Wales Rugby League premiership, but with Jones in charge they struggled despite his claims upon appointment that "Balmain are sick and tired of coming second". It was while coaching Balmain that Jones was dubbed with his best known nickname, the 'Parrot', by comedian Greig Pickhaver in his role as sports commentator H.G. Nelson, although Jones has never approved of the name.
Jones coached Balmain from 1991 to 1993 with these results: 1991 – 8 wins, 12th place; 1992 – 10 wins, 10th place; 1993 – 5 wins, 12th place. At the end of the 1993 season he reapplied for the coaching role, offering a new business plan to the board, but when it was rejected he resigned. He was soon after appointed as the Manager of Football Operations with the South Sydney Rabbitohs rugby league club, also without a fee.
Media career
Radio
In 1985, Jones joined the Sydney AM radio station 2UE as the morning show host after long-time host John Laws left for 2GB. Laws returned to 2UE in 1988 to again host the morning show, so from March of that year Jones was moved to the breakfast slot from 5.30 am to 9.00 am. On changing to the breakfast show, Jones first adopted the program's long-time opening and closing theme music, "Gloria" by Laura Branigan. By the mid-1990s Jones' audience share in the Sydney market was up to 22%, giving him the largest radio audience in Sydney, and, including his transmissions into regional and interstate markets, possibly the largest radio audience in Australia.
Jones' program has remained little changed over time, as a mixture of opinion pieces, interviews, talkback, and commercial endorsements. His on-air popularity has made him a highly paid and powerful media personality. Jones uses his program to advocate largely conservative views, and he has been described as one of the most influential broadcasters in Australia.
In May 2020, Jones announced he would retire from his role at 2GB at the end of that month, citing ill health.
Jones' first regular position in the media was writing a column called "The Way I See It" for the Quirindi Advocate newspaper from November 1977 until February 1978. From 1988 until 1990 Jones wrote a regular column for the Sydney Sunday tabloid The Sun-Herald, but did not appear following a petition by staff calling for his removal as a contributor. This followed Jones' publication of a column predicting an oil crisis, in which a large amount of material had been taken from Frederick Forsyth's novel The Negotiator without attribution or indication that their source was a work of fiction. Jones was later hired by the Sun-Herald's rival paper, The Sunday Telegraph, where he wrote a one-page column titled "To the Point" until 1995.
Since the 1980s, Jones has frequently been the subject of profile pieces in newspapers and magazines throughout the country, which have ranged in style from complimentary to investigatory and critical.
Television
At the end of January 1994, Jones debuted in his own Network Ten program, Alan Jones Live, intended to be similar in purpose and content to the American program Larry King Live. Proving to be a ratings failure, it was cancelled in April 1994 after just 13 weeks on air. In March 1995, he began a segment making editorial comment on the Nine Network's Today breakfast show. Jones continued to present this 7.15 am editorial on Today until it was eventually cancelled in June 2007.
From 2013, Jones began co-hosting a political discussion program on Sky News Australia with Graham Richardson named Richo + Jones. The episode on 22 April 2014 was the twentieth most watched show on subscription television reaching 39,000 viewers and was the channel's second highest broadcast that day. An episode on 17 June, featuring a live interview with Clive Palmer, was the seventeenth most watched show on subscription television and the most watched broadcast on Sky News with 43,000 viewers. The program was then retitled Jones & Co and co-hosted by Peta Credlin. In November 2021, Jones' contract with Sky News was not renewed. This means that for the first time in Jones' media career he has not had a media platform.
Since December 2021, Jones began co-hosting a political discussion program on the free, digital platform, ADH TV,
Stage
Jones had his stage musical debut in 2012, playing the role of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the Lyric Theatre's production of Annie the Musical in Sydney.
Charity work
Jones is noted for his support of charity organisations and charitable causes. As well as financial contributions, Jones has regularly made personal appearances and given talks to support organisations which he backs. Jones is also well known for providing support to individuals, such as listeners who contact him through his radio show, and for giving personal, professional, and financial assistance to friends and acquaintances, especially young elite sportspeople.
In 2004, Jones received a Queen's Birthday Honour of an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) partly for his service to the media and sports' administration, but also helping many charities. These organisations included Youth Off The Streets, the Children's Hospital, Starlight Children's Foundation, the Sir Edward Dunlop Medical Research Foundation and the Heart Research Institute.
Views and comments
Jones is a supporter of the Galileo Movement, a climate change denial group which argues that climate change is a hoax perpetrated to form a world government.
Jones has called for consideration of expanding Australia's irrigation and dam systems. He opposed the Iemma Labor Government's plan to privatise the Snowy Mountains Scheme in 2006, and in 2011, he broadcast from Mildura from where he criticised the Gillard government's Murray-Darling Basin Plan, saying "we're seeing policy made without any consultation with people who are the stakeholders – the farmers".
Jones has been a campaigner against coal seam gas mining in prime agricultural regions in Australia. He is a critic of foreign ownership in Australia, especially by China.
Personal life
Jones has never been married and has no children. He resides in Sydney. In 2003, Jones purchased a 27-hectare property in Fitzroy Falls for $2.3 million. It was sold by Jones in 2022. In 2017, Jones purchased an apartment in Circular Quay for $10.5 million. In 2021, he bought a riverfront house in Southport, Queensland, for $12.25 million.
