Ah yes, biting the hand that feeds them. 
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A public memorial for beloved ABC presenter and musician James Valentine will be held on May 29 at Sydney Town Hall.
Valentine died aged 64 last month using voluntary assisted dying, two years after being diagnosed with cancer.
The celebration of life is open to the public with registrations to be released in a series of waves.
The first release of tickets will happen on Friday, May 15 at 12:30pm and will be available on the 702 ABC Sydney website.
Further releases of tickets will happen next week.
The memorial will also be broadcast on 702 ABC Sydney radio and through the ABC listen app from 12:30pm to 2pm on the day.
702 ABC Sydney station manager Nick Lowther said Valentine wanted a radio show as part of his memorial.
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Just announced, ABC Melbourne afternoons Ali Moore is being replaced by Charlie Pickering
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Mooreās last show will be on Friday, May 29.
Charlie Pickering will continue to host Thank God Itās Friday on ABC Local Radio in Melbourne and Sydney.
Awful appointment. Raf made that timeslot so listenable, having a very bland ācomedianā who fancies himself an intellectual there is a terrible decision.
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He can piss off too. About as funny as a fart in an elevator and stinks twice as bad.
The ABC are being run by idiots and itās getting harder and harder to defend them.
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I wonder where Ali is going?
How long has she been in that timeslot?
Jesus Christ what a bad decision - while I think Charlie is good in small doses, I donāt think having him on for three hours five days a week is appealing.
Surely they couldāve given the gig to Waleed Aly or Justin Smith.
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Since 2023 when Raf left to replace Virginia Trioli on Mornings
Moving to Italy for āa new adventureā
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No. Just no. He should not be allowed anywhere near a media outlet, digital or otherwise. He thinks heās all that and a bag of chips.
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Do you really think heās worse than Charlie?
Iām tarring him with the same brush. Pseudointellectual tosspots who thinks their crap doesnāt smell. Iām seen and heard kids in the inclusive education unit and the school footy team come up with more insightful and intelligent stuff than those two, and others.
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So 3LO has given up on journalism in the Drive programme?
This decision is terrible. Awful. Is the ABC talent pool really that shallow?
That might be the end of me listening to 3LO drive after many many years. Pickering is intolerable.
I am not defending the hire of Pickering for the timeslot. I am not a fan, but he did co-host The Project for many years so I suppose that has given him some grounding in hosting a program that has a focus on news and some serious content, albeit on a different scale. But youāre right he is not a journalist and I am not sure he is a good fit at all for drive. There must be some serious journalism grunt behind the scenes to guide the show?
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He also has a law degree
Give Charlie a go you lot. I reckon heāll be alright
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Heās already on The Weekly and TGIF, are ABC that bereft of talent they need to keep recycling the same few people?
The new guy is talking about not just renewing shows because theyāve been around for a while, time to think the same way with talent too.
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774 appeared to be heading in the correct direction last year, but 2026 has seen it hopelessly loose its way yet again. Without Sharnelle the breakfast program has descended into a rambling repetitive mess.
I did. Iād rather listen to an hour of Hitlerās speeches than Charlie.
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The first wave of tickets went very quickly. I should have been able to grab one, but the site was being slow, and I thought there was an issue, I refreshed and then suddenly it was showing as sold out.