{"id":411431,"date":"2026-04-23T10:32:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T00:32:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=411431"},"modified":"2026-04-23T10:32:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T00:32:25","slug":"abc-radio-star-james-valentine-dies-at-64-after-cancer-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=411431","title":{"rendered":"ABC Radio Star James Valentine Dies at 64 After Cancer Battle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The beloved ABC radio presenter and saxophonist, known for turning everyday calls into hilarious human moments on 702 ABC Sydney Afternoons, passed peacefully on Tuesday after a two-year fight with oesophageal cancer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Diagnosed in March 2024, he briefly returned to his show before retiring in February 2026 as the illness spread; just days before his death, Governor-General Sam Mostyn awarded him the Member of the Order of Australia for his broadcasting and music. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tributes from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who called him a national treasure, and colleagues like Paul Barry highlighted his warmth, creativity, and joy; he leaves behind wife Joanne and children Ruby and Roy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Diagnosed in March 2024, he briefly returned to his show before retiring in February 2026 as the illness spread.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":411437,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[273,35],"tags":[20138,5026,2139],"class_list":["post-411431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australia","category-breaking-news","tag-abc-radio","tag-nsw","tag-sydney"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=411431"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":411439,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411431\/revisions\/411439"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/411437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=411431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=411431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=411431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}