However, his appeal began to wane. In 2002, station colleague and arch-rival Alan Jones moved from 2UE to 2GB, and soon took that station to the top talk position in Sydney. After 55 years on air, Laws announced on 25 June 2007 that he would retire at the end of the year. However, he was pre-empted by other media agencies, who broke the story at 9:00 am. Laws made the announcement at about 9:10 am, saying that he had planned to make the announcement at about 9:45 am.Laws' last broadcast was on 30 November 2007, one week after the federal election. He began as always, "Hello world, I'm John Laws" and signed off with his usual quote, "you...be kind to each other." He then left the 2UE building in Sydney in his distinctive Rolls Royce Phantom surrounded by hordes of cameramen.