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.

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.