James Valentine, the saxophonist-turned-broadcaster whose warm, wry voice anchored ABC Sydney afternoons for more than two decades, has died at his Sydney, Australia home. He was 64.

Valentine died on April 22 by voluntary assisted dying, two years after he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, his family said in a statement. The choice, his loved ones said, was characteristic of a man who navigated his illness with the same lightness of touch he brought to the airwaves.

“James passed peacefully at home surrounded by his family, who adored him,” the family said. “Throughout his illness, James did it his way, which lasted all the way until the end when he made the choice to do voluntary assisted dying.”

From Stage to Studio

Long before he became one of Australia’s most recognizable broadcasters, Valentine was a working musician with a saxophone and a pop sensibility. His career took flight in 1982 when he joined Joe Camilleri’s group, Jo Jo Zep. He played with the Models from 1984 to 1987 and with Absent Friends from 1989 to 1990. He also toured and recorded with Pseudo Echo, Kate Ceberano, and Iva Davies, threading himself through a remarkable run of Australian acts.

That musical chapter earned him formal recognition in 2010, when he was inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association Hall of Fame as a member of the Models. By then, however, Valentine had long since pivoted toward another stage entirely.

He hosted “The Afternoon Show” on ABC TV from 1987 through 1990, a children’s series where he became, in the words of a 1997 student newspaper profile, “a preteen, demi-god, hip big brother of our generation.” His crimson sneakers were nearly as memorable as his on-air patter. But Valentine, ever self-aware, declared himself “past it” when it came to children’s television and moved on.

He served as the movie reviewer on Showtime for more than a decade and appeared on Good Morning Australia, Midday, Sunrise, and It Takes Two. He also presented TVTV and The Mix for the ABC.

Finding a Home on Radio

It was a fill-in radio gig at 666 ABC Canberra in the mid-1990s that revealed Valentine’s truest medium. The ABC brought him to Sydney in 1998, where he presented Sydney Mornings, though he later admitted he wrestled with the pressure of trying to “sound more like a journalist” in a hard news environment. The fit improved dramatically the following year, when he moved to ABC Sydney Afternoons in 1999 and settled into the rhythm that would define his career.

For more than 20 years, Valentine sat behind the Afternoons microphone. He was inclusive rather than combative, jovial rather than controversial, building the kind of trust that turned a daily program into a daily companion. In 2020, the show won a Bronze Award for Best Two-Way Telephone Talk/Interview Show at the New York Festivals Radio Awards.

“I think after a while people aren’t listening to the content; they’re listening to the friendship,” Valentine once said.

In late 2021, the ABC named him the new host of Breakfast, replacing Wendy Harmer and Robbie Buck. He started on Dec. 13 that year. Two years later, he returned to Afternoons, the program that always fit him best. In total, he hosted radio and television shows for the ABC for more than 30 years, including 25 years at 702 ABC Sydney.

An On-Air Diagnosis

Valentine’s instinct to share his life with listeners shaped even the most difficult chapter of his story. In March 2024, he announced on air that he had been diagnosed with esophageal cancer, then promptly interviewed his surgeon, turning a private terror into a public conversation.

“It’s generally a jolly show, so let’s have a good time here for a few months rather than shade that whole time with my disease,” he told listeners at the time.

He stepped away for treatment and returned to the airwaves in 2025. Then, in June 2025, he shared a fresh diagnosis with his audience: doctors had discovered tumors in his omentum. He left the program once more and formally announced his retirement from the ABC in February 2026.

His family, in their statement, said Valentine made his final choice on his own terms. “Both he and his family are grateful he was given the option to go out on his own terms. He was calm, dignified as always and somehow still making us laugh.”

Valentine’s career, as colleagues reflected in the days after his death, encompassed writer, television host, and musician as well as radio presenter — a multitude that, somehow, never felt scattered. He once described his craft simply: creating talk worth listening to, he said, was a form of performance and a kind of music.

For nearly four decades, Australian audiences listened. And many, in his absence, will keep listening for him still.

Valentine is survived by his wife, Joanne, and children, Ruby and Roy.