![\"96FM](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/c2f259d73fb4e0fc5cdf0c93fc5e1baeb9b537c4.jpg\")
Camera Icon96FM breakfast hosts Dean Clairs and Lisa Shaw in the studio. Clairsy announced his retirement from the show today. Credit: Supplied<\/p>\nBumper stickers all over town used to proclaim \u201c96FM rocks Perth\u201d, but it was the radio industry itself that was rocked today when 96FM breakfast host Dean Clairs announced on air he was walking away from the coveted gig.<\/p>\n
One half of the high-rating Clairsy & Lisa Show, Clairs has been a fixture on the airwaves in this State for more than four decades, but revealed in an exclusive interview with The West Australian it was finally time to unplug the mic.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve done breaky for 12 years straight \u2013 starting with seven and a half years at Mix 94.5 and four and a half years at 96FM \u2013 and I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve got anything to prove,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Just like footy players, radio hosts very rarely get to leave on their own terms in what is a famously cutthroat industry, where careers live and die on the basis of ratings surveys.<\/p>\n
Camera Icon96FM breakfast hosts Dean Clairs and Lisa Shaw in the studio. Clairsy announced his retirement from the show today. Credit: Supplied<\/p>\n
So, in footy terms, what Clairsy has managed to do today is hang up the boots, fresh from kicking a goal after the siren to win the grand final.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll take that. That works for me,\u201d he laughs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy not do this \u2026 while the station\u2019s f…ing rocking, when things are good \u2026 and what an absolute privilege to be able to go out when it\u2019s rating No.1.\u201d<\/p>\n
The success of 96FM in the ratings doesn\u2019t come without sacrifice, and Clairsy admits the 3.45am starts of a breakfast radio host started to hit different when he was on the wrong side of 60.<\/p>\n
He says he\u2019s been fortunate to have the indefatigable Lisa Shaw as co-host since arriving at 96FM and reveals he and Shaw will announce his replacement on the show on Friday.<\/p>\n
Clairsy\u2019s career in radio began in the 1980s, when, as a 17-year-old, he approached industry legend Gary Roberts for a job.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was banging on a voice trying to sound deeper to impress Mr. Roberts, because I was so scared I was actually shitting myself,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n
The advice he received was to head bush and get some experience, so the teen Clairsy found himself on the wireless in Merredin, where his first shift fell on the night Australia won the America\u2019s Cup.<\/p>\n
As fate would have it, Clairsy would eventually end up working for Roberts, when the radio boss hired him to co-host 96FM\u2019s breakfast show with Shaw, following the legendary Fred Botica\u2019s retirement in 2021.<\/p>\n
Now it\u2019s Clairsy\u2019s turn to pull the pin, although he\u2019s nearly had as many farewells as Farnsy at this point.<\/p>\n
The host seemingly retired back in 2020, when he announced his departure from Mix 94.5\u2019s breakfast show.<\/p>\n
And there\u2019s a good chance this latest departure won\u2019t be permanent, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love broadcasting, and I\u2019ll miss talking to listeners and stuff, so it doesn\u2019t mean I won\u2019t do that ever again, but I\u2019m just not getting up early,\u201d he admits.<\/p>\n
Listeners shouldn\u2019t be surprised if they hear Clairsy\u2019s velvety voice filling the odd shift at the station if the opportunity arises, and the self-confessed music nerd hopes to indulge his passion for music with a podcast on the subject.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t believe in the word retirement,\u201d he acknowledges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bumper stickers all over town used to proclaim \u201c96FM rocks Perth\u201d, but it was the radio industry itself…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60361,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,341,44],"class_list":["post-60360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}