Forum for former BBC staff

Forum for former BBC staff
http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl >> Notices, obituaries and tributes >> John Watson http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1077904727 Message started by Forum Admin on Feb 27^th, 2004, 5:59pm

Title: John Watson
Post by Forum Admin on Feb 27^th, 2004, 5:59pm

This obituary on John Watson appered in Ariel on February 24, written by Andy Whysall:

I emailed a friend and former colleague to tell him that our old manager from Radio Cleveland days. John Watson, had died. In reply my friend briefly discussed the characteristics we have all found in some managers. But John, my friend was glad to point out, was none of these things.
John Watson was a thoroughly decent and honourable man with a good humour that made him a complete pleasure to work with. He was a journalist, starting his career at the Hartlepool Mail. He was manager at Radio Cleveland through most of the 1980s and retired in 1998 as manager of Radio Cumbria.
He was always the keen sportsman. It was he who set up a great goal when Cleveland took on Radio 1 at Ayresome Park all those years ago.
He never really gave up working. The first thing he did on leaving the BBC was to get to work on the epic Century Speaks project for Cumbria. His recordings are now there for all to hear in the British Library sound archive. Then he became the Cumbria area manager for the 2001 Census and was back on the radio in that role.
He leaves a wife, Pam, and two grown-up children.

Title: Re: John Watson
Post by Bob_Eggington on Feb 27^th, 2004, 6:07pm

John was a smashing bloke.
I don't know if he went straight from the Hartlepool Mail to Ortons of Leicester, but he was certainly there when Roly Orton's agency had the contract to supply the news for Radio Leicester. This was in those very early days before local radio stations had their own newsroom staff.
Radio Leicester hired him from Ortons as one of their original newsroom team, in 1970 I think it would be.
I believe he became News Editor of Radio Newcastle and Programme Organiser of Radio Derby before going on to the management jobs Andy has mentioned.

Title: Re: John Watson
Post by Joe_Paley on Mar 3^rd, 2004, 9:32pm

John was my news editor at Radio Newcastle in the mid seventies - he was a very kind bloke and steady as a rock. It seems so long ago now, but I'm very sorry to learn of John's death.