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Sydney talkback radio is a cacophony of babble where he or she who shouts loudest, crudest, rudest and angriest is rewarded with ratings, celebrity and wealth. Few weep when they leave the microphone.
And then there is James Valentine.
With his death on Wednesday, something true, treasured and fine has died in Sydney’s heart.
Valentine was a mainstay of ABC Radio Sydney. The massive outpouring of sadness, fondness and nostalgia that came this week when news spread he had died are testimony to his ability to touch people across the city and how he became part of so many families’ lives.
For much of the past 27 years, he made each Afternoon program a Valentine’s day until he retired formally last February to focus on his battle with cancer. It had been first diagnosed in his oesophagus in March 2024, before more tumours were discovered in his abdomen in 2025.
Smart, funny and spontaneous, Valentine offered gentle, jazzier talkback that was also conversational, thoughtful and mischievous and encompassed daily life and human experiences rather than solely politics or hard news.
And if he did touch on sharp topics, his scallywag humour blunted the edge and made them listenable even to the most entrenched ABC critics.
Listeners were invited to comment on social dilemmas and everyday dramas on segments like “The Done Thing” and “This is What I Live With” and his double-handed satire with H. G. Nelson, the Even Greater Sydney Planning Committee (mission statement: “Heritage Is Constraint, Gambling Is Good, Congestion Is Value”), oversaw all planning decisions for Sydney. A chairlift to Cockatoo Island was one of their mocking recommendations.
Ballarat-born Valentine first came to public notice as a saxophonist with Melbourne post-punk/new wave band Models and later performed with Kate Ceberano, Wendy Matthews and Joe Camilleri before moving to host an ABC children’s afternoon show in 1987. He then shifted to radio, running an afternoon show in Canberra and a Sunday morning jazz program before alighting in Sydney to host Afternoons in 1999. By then, he was the consummate broadcaster who amused and educated but never annoyed.
His pleasant, honest and uplifting spirit touched audiences across Sydney. It was his greatest gift. Valentine bravely showed the way and allowed his decision to use voluntary assisted dying to bring international focus to one of the deadliest yet least understood cancers.
In an interview with the Herald’s Peter FitzSimons after retirement last February, Valentine said he wanted a joyful funeral.“I want to be marched out by every saxophone player in Sydney. I want everybody singing great pop songs we love. I want to lift the roof,” he said. “I want us all to look into the great unknown, and I want us not to fear that.”
Five days before he died, Valentine was made a Member of the Order of Australia. The citation, in part, reads: “On radio, screen and stage, James has reminded us that conversation and community matters, and kindness belongs at the heart of public life.”
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