After a 45 year radio career, Hobart’s Brett ‘Marls’ Marley has announced he will be hanging up the headphones on Friday, July 1st.
Marls, who hosts 107.3 Triple M afternoons, has been one of Hobart’s longest standing radio jocks since the day he started behind the scenes in radio operations in July 1977 before being promoted to head of production in New Town, Hobart.
In 1979, Marls finally found home behind the microphone, hosting the midnight to dawn shift on Hobart’s 7HO, recalling the first song he ever played: Let’s Go by The Cars. Marls later moved to the drive timeslot which saw him become the first FM radio voice ever heard in Hobart when 7HO converted to a FM frequency in 1990.
A decade later, Marls made the move to breakfast radio on MAGIC 107.3 Hobart in 1999 before becoming content and music director at HOFM. Marls returned home to Heart 107.3, later to become 107.3 Triple M in 2016, as music director and workday announcer where he remained an integral part of Hobart’s 107.3 Triple M DNA.
Throughout his career, Marls counts many highlights including helping raise $63,000 for the Children’s Ward at Royal Hobart Hospital in 2003 for the station’s inaugural Give Me 5 For Kids campaign.
“Not many people get the chance to do what they love all their working life, get to the end and finish on their own terms – I did. This has been an amazing ride which is about to end and like all fantastic rides, if you get off and you’re smiling you know it’s been good… I’m smiling.” Marls said.
SCA Hobart content director, Phil Bradley, says: “It will be hard to believe when July is here, and Marls isn’t in the building. He’s become such a vital part of the Hobart radio landscape and deserves to be proud how far the boy from Hobart’s Northern Suburbs has come.
“His milestone career is hard to match these days and you can’t go anywhere in the city without people asking, ‘How’s Marls?’ He will always hold a special place in the hearts of Tassie radio listeners.”
Brett ‘Marls’ Marley will farewell his Hobart radio audience with a week of outside broadcasts around the city.