The sudden passing of radio guru John Myers has left the radio industry in shock. His funeral took place on Saturday in his birthplace of Carlisle at the magnificent cathedral.

The 60-year-old former Century Radio MD and morning breakfast host John Morgan (as he was known on air) died while playing golf at Gleneagles in Scotland.

Myers and his lifelong friend John Simons launched their first radio project together in the North-East on September 1, 1994 from studios in Gateshead and Middlesbrough.

The heavily speech-based regional station proved a massive hit across the North East. The mix of fun speech, local presenters and local gossip made Century Radio the first choice station for many. The link with Middlesbrough with Alastair Brownlee as the main commentator during the Bryan Robson era proved a success.

The station, owned by Border TV, was eventually bought out by Capital Radio in 2000 in a multi-million pound group deal.

Century Radio (North-East) helped launch the careers of Mike ‘The Mouth’ Elliott and current BBC Tees pair Gary Philipson and Paul Gough.

Myers quickly changed the latter’s radio name to Goffy and 25 years on he has established himself as one of the best-known radio hosts in the country.

And he puts his success down to the many years of coaching under the two Johns.

Goffy, the BBC Tees weekend presenter, said: “I am truly devastated that John has left us, at such a very young age, it has caught us all by a huge surprise – I am still reeling.

“John spent hours and hours coaching me from a radio novice to eventually take over from his own successful show – he convinced me that I could do it despite the total lack of experience. He had hosted breakfast shows for stations around the country and his ratings and heritage were truly fantastic.

“Even when he left Century to join the Guardian Media Group he would always keep in touch.

“We shared many hours at his home in Darras Hall in Newcastle as he would analyse my shows and critique everything that was going out on air – he was incredibly giving of his time to me personally and so many others in the radio industry.

“It was lovely to see the radio legends like Steve Wright, Tony Blackburn and Jeremy Vine from BBC Radio 2 all paying tribute to the life of John in recent days – he was a stunning broadcaster as John Morgan and John Myers was a brilliantly gifted MD.’’

Goffy added: “He was great with the man on the street and could switch interviewing at the highest level – a total peoples person in every respect.

“He called the staff ‘Team’ as he was forever getting names mixed up, but for me he was simply the greatest boss ever.

“The fact that he was so well established as a radio host meant that he fully understood the pressures of being live on air meant that he had firsthand experience of what went on and the difficult situations that live radio can bring.

“I went on the road with John when he released his book ‘Team ..It’s Only Radio’ in 2001 and we had the greatest of fun together on the media tour to promote it. He even included a page re discovering me as a novice and how he guided me to a new career and direction in life.

“He went on to employ some of the best known radio presenters – including Tony Blackburn – but he never forgot his roots – he was always John!

“I will always be so very grateful that I was so lucky to meet John …in fact I was truly blessed when we met for the first time 25 years ago!’’