Richard Glover said he will miss his listeners dearly as he made his farewell at his show presenting ABC Radio Sydney Drive on Friday. 

Glover announced his departure in October, and intends to continue his weekly column in the Sydney Morning Herald and spend more time with his grandchildren.

“These amazingly generous people would ring you up and tell you their story,” Glover said about the ABC Radio Sydney audience. 

“They’re very adept at talking about really serious, quite dark subjects one minute and having enormous fun and being silly and stupid the next.” 

Speaking on air in front a crowd of 150 people at the ABC's Ultimo studios, Glover said he would miss the mix of stories his Drive show covered, from long-form interviews with world-renowned authors to breaking hard news. 

"I think its one of the best jobs in journalism," Glover said. 

"It is a great privilege to have this job."

Glover was performing his final radio variety show segment known as Thank God It's Friday. 

A show to capture that Friday feeling

Since 1998, Radio Sydney listeners knew it was 5pm when a trumpet fanfare started blaring. 

The song, a mashup of the theme to the 1978 film Thank God It's Friday, marks the beginning of Richard's weekly variety radio segment, aptly named Thank God It's Friday.

The segment invites comedians to dissect the issues of the week. It kicked off in 1988 with Tommy Dean, James O'Loghlin and Gretel Colleen on the panel. 

Glover founded the segment to replace a forum about politics held by previous presenter Mike Carlton. 

"I thought what people actually want is something really lively and funny and relaxing to mark the end of the working week," Glover said.

"I wanted to create something that matched that moment."

Before his final show, Glover said he wanted the show to capture "the magic" of the radio variety shows of the 1950s and 60s, where comedy and music would be performed to a live audience. 

The show began regularly inviting live audiences in 2008 at the ABC's Ultimo studios, occasionally going on the road to suburban venues and regional centres.

"It's kind of loose and has these moments of great hilarity and then these moments where it all falls in a heap and then we pull ourselves back together," Glover said. 

Thank God It's Friday will take on a new life after Glover's departure. The show will be hosted by Charlie Pickering and be broadcasted on Radio Sydney, Radio Melbourne and on Radio National next year. 

Glover to miss audiences the most

Earlier in the show, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called in to congratulate Glover on his final show. 

"You listen, you engage, you challenge and you are a serious journo where at times unfortunately I think there's a lot of just yelling in the media, rather than actually seeking information and having a genuine conversation.

"I just really wanted to say thank you."

Fellow Radio Sydney presenter James Valentine paid tribute to Glover during a Q&A held after the Thank God It's Friday segment.

"Its been such a pleasure to watch you work and to learn from you," Valentine said.

Farewelling his job of 26 years, Glover said the thing he would miss the most was the listeners, who had shared some of their happiest moments but also their deepest pains.

"They're happy to revel in all of that and talk about all of that."

Chris Bath, a former TV news presenter and Radio Sydney Evenings host, will present Radio Sydney's Drive program next year.