RADIO Oxford broadcaster Roger Clark has died aged 73 following a long battle with cancer.

Mr Clark, the station’s expert on trade unions and council affairs, passed away at home in Jericho last Tuesday.

Close friend Nicholas Utechin said he was “a great bloke, who was very much an old style journalist”.

He said: “Roger was always rock solid dependable and never short of a word of advice to younger colleagues.”

Mr Clark began his career on the Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph in the 1960s and was soon working for national newspapers.

One of his favourite memories was travelling for four weeks with The Beatles as they were rising to stardom.

When BBC Radio Birmingham opened in 1970, Mr Clark moved to broadcast journalism and took over as its news editor.

He later moved into freelance work at the UK’s first commercial radio station – LBC in London – alongside colleagues including Jon Snow and Hugh Sykes.

It was here that he met Mr Utechin, who also worked alongside him later at Radio Oxford.

Mr Utechin said: “I bumped into Roger again at a pub in Summertown and he told me to go ask for work at the radio station as they were looking for freelancers.

“So I did and that was the beginning of my time with Radio Oxford.”

He said Mr Clark was an “old style journalist who enjoyed a smoke and a drink, and could turn a piece of copy round in a minute”.

He had also been a keen horse racing enthusiast, and a prized possession was a signed and limited edition print of Lester Piggott.

His long-time companion was Ailish Hurley, bar manager at the Randolph Hotel, who died in 2005.

Mr Utechin said: “Her death from cancer was a serious blow to Roger.”

Mr Clark became the first ‘Honorary Girl’ to be allowed to join a group of female former Radio Oxford members – a measure of the esteem in which he was held.

Mr Utechin said: “He was a font of humorous, often self-deprecating, stories provided with an infectious laugh and a genuine delight in the pleasure he was able to bring to others.”

Mr Clark was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer a year ago.

Mr Utechin said: “Roger was such good fun right until the end.

“I saw him six or seven weeks ago and he was chatting away.

“He was just a fixed point in lots of lives and in the world of journalism – everyone knows the name Roger Clark and many glasses were raised to him.”

Mr Clark’s funeral takes place today at 4pm at Oxford Crematorium.