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Legendary radio presenter Doug Mulray, known to listeners as ‘Uncle Doug’, has died at the age of 71 after struggling with a chronic illness for several months.
He died in intensive care in a Sydney hospital on Thursday night.
His last public appearance was at a Triple M staff reunion held at The Oaks Hotel in Neutral Bay seven weeks before he was hospitalised in December last year.
One of the pioneering voices of Australian radio in the 1980s and ’90s, Mulray was best known for his time at Triple M, which he helped launch and where he spent the majority of his career.
He was a ratings winner in the highly competitive breakfast slot, with one radio industry figure calling him ‘the Kyle Sandilands of his day – possibly even better’.
Legendary radio presenter Doug Mulray, known to listeners as ‘Uncle Doug’, has died at the age of 71 after struggling with a chronic illness for several months. (Pictured in the 1990s)
Mulray’s (centre) last public appearance was at a Triple M staff reunion held at a Sydney hotel seven weeks before he was hospitalised last year
Mulray is seen with his arm around Kerri-Anne Kennerley on set of the last-ever episode of the Midday show on November 27, 1998
While his cause of death is unknown, Mulray was said to be reclusive and battling poor health in his later years.
Known for his outrageous humour and memorable on-air characters, Mulray made a touching speech at the gathering of radio veterans in late 2022.
‘We were the right thing, at the right time, in the right place, with the right attitude,’ he said, recalling the days Triple M dominated music radio.
Mulray, who grew up in Dee Why, in Sydney’s Northern Beaches, started his career at 2AD in Armidale then moved to 2GO Gosford on the Central Coast.
He rose to notoriety on Mulray and The Man in the mid-1970s on 3AW Melbourne before joining the ABC station 2JJ before it was rebranded as Triple J.
He then left to join the new commercial station Triple M in 1982, beginning the most successful and high-profile chapter of his working life.
His post-Triple M career saw him co-host the 2SM drive slot with Peter FitzSimons. He was also employed by the Sydney station 2WS (now WSFM) until he left in 1999.
Mulray was inducted into the Commercial Radio Hall of Fame in 2019.
‘It was just an astounding thing to be part of,’ he once said of his days at Triple M. ‘We were blessed to have that thing… It was a joy to be there.
‘When I left radio, I was over it. I wanted the privacy and I kind of distanced myself… It was kind of like a fantasy.’
One of the pioneering voices of Australian radio in the 1980s, Mulray (seen in 2010) was known for his time at Triple M, which he helped launch and where he spent the majority of his career
Despite his popularity on radio, Mulray was unable to reach the same success on television. He briefly appeared on Channel 10 talk show Beauty and the Beast in 2002 and fronted the short-lived program Mulray on Seven in the early ’90s
Speaking to the Suddenly Senior podcast in September last year, Mulray explained his decision to step away from the microphone two decades ago.
‘I was pretty keen to get out. I’m pretty much living what I said I would do,’ he said.
‘I never did it for the money. I always did it because it was a joy to do.’
During his career on the airwaves, Mulray worked with the likes of Peter FitzSimons and Andrew Denton, and also recorded a series of well-received comedy albums.
He was often compared to Kyle Sandilands – the undisputed king of contemporary commercial radio – although their styles were completely different.
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Despite his popularity on radio, Mulray was unable to reach the same success on television – in part due to a notorious run-in with Channel Nine owner Kerry Packer.
He was hosting an episode of the bawdy clip show Australia’s Naughtiest Home Videos in 1992 when he introduced a video of a boy pulling a kangaroo’s testicles.
A puritanical Packer, watching from a party at his Sydney mansion, was so furious and embarrassed he phoned the studio and yelled: ‘Get that s**t off the air!’
The show was abruptly pulled, replaced with a re-run of U.S. sitcom Cheers and was never screened again. Mulray was fired and banned from the network as a result.
However, he did return to Nine years later as a judge on the talent show StarStruck in 2005, the year of Packer’s death.
He also briefly appeared on Channel 10 talk show Beauty and the Beast in 2002 and fronted the short-lived program Mulray on Seven in the early ’90s.
Mulray (pictured with Jeanne Little at the 2002 Logie Awards) was known for his outrageous humour and memorable on-air characters
Mulray is pictured here with his wife Liz Muir, known to listeners as ‘Miss Lizzie’
2GB breakfast host Ben Fordham remembered Mulray on Friday as one of the greats of the industry, saying he was known for his ‘adrenaline’-fuelled broadcasts.
‘If there’s a radio station in heaven, they better get the dump button ready, because Doug Mulray is coming,’ Fordham said.
KIIS FM host Jackie ‘O’ Henderson said she was ‘very sad’ to learn of his death, as her co-host Kyle Sandilands added: ‘I knew he wasn’t well.’
Triple M Sydney host Mick Molloy said: ‘It is a terrible morning. A huge gaping hole has been left in the landscape of FM radio, particularly in Sydney where Doug Mulray ruled since 1982.
‘He was the man, he was a legendary radio performer. For anyone in comedy, particularly going into radio, he was considered the biggest star in the firmament. He ruled Sydney radio for a long time.
‘A lot of us who do this for a job owe him a great debt. He paved the way in many ways. He was like a god on the FM train, he worked at the station and just dominated it. He transformed Triple M Sydney, and his impact reverberated around Australia. This is an important passing, especially for people in our industry.’
Brad March, a former SCA executive who runs the Marchmedia talent agency, called Mulray ‘arguably the greatest FM breakfast host ever on Australian radio’.
March added to Mediaweek: ‘Heard on Triple M Sydney, he was the original, the funniest and one of the most entertaining announcers I have ever heard.
‘His show was so compelling I used to listen for hours each morning during the ’80s.
‘Hired by the legendary Rod Muir, Doug dominated radio ratings and gave rise to Andrew Denton, who started as a writer on his show. Mulray was an extraordinary wordsmith, a brilliant broadcaster, and a great comedian.
‘In FM radio, before Kyle and Jackie O, Wendy Harmer, Hamish and Andy, The D Generation and Martin Molloy, there was Doug Mulray, a real pioneer and regarded as true radio royalty.’
Mulray’s friend and former colleague Dave Carlson said: ‘I saw Doug only three weeks ago and while he wasn’t well, he was still his kind, witty self.
‘An absolute legend who was very supportive of me when we worked together at Triple M.’
Mulray’s former protégé Andrew Denton said this morning: ‘Within a decade, he’d taken Triple M to the top of all radio in Sydney, and the reason was, he was crazy. He had a genius for radio. He was absolutely suited to radio and he could do it all.
‘He could do brilliant impersonations. He was so fast. He could perform. He could sing. He was prepared to try anything.
‘In the years when I was working with him, we had an audience of about a million.’
