His father said that his time at Radio Sheffield was the most “exciting period” of his BBC career at a time when the local network we know today was being established.
Reminiscing in 2007, he said: “The city council under Ron Ironmonger couldn’t have been more supportive – they had to pay for our first two years! And the freedom to “get on with it” given to us by the BBC meant that we could experiment, make mistakes and not feel under central pressure.”
Sue Murdoch, 72, was Mr Barton’s secretary in Sheffield. She described her former boss as a “stunning fella”.
“He knew everyone in local radio. Everyone respected him. He was a great man.”
Katrina Bunker, the head of BBC Local for Yorkshire and Lincolnshire and also a former editor of Radio Sheffield, described her predecessor as a “pioneer”.
“We wouldn’t be here without Michael Barton. We now have 39 local stations but he and his peers were the ones that took all the risks and experimented. He put on education programmes, folk shows and drama. Before him, all we heard were posh Londoners.”
After retirement, Mr Barton played tennis, sang in choirs and set up a play reading class with friends. His wife, Jill, died in 2022.