James Whale: My tribute to a Radio Aire friend who was a warrior of the airwaves - Christa Ackroyd

If he isn’t then it will seem strange to have written it at all, but then, as his wife pointed out as hundred nay thousands, some of them famous, others not, have shared their love and admiration for him in his last few days it is bringing him so much joy, so much peace to know he will be missed.

And why wait until he is gone to know that? If that is what has helped them get through the end of his life, it is good enough for me.

Last weekend James Whale shared his last podcast from a hospice. He knew he was dying.

It was a difficult listen for those who know him, even only from the radio or the television, but his message is important. For so many reasons.

Firstly, this warrior of the airwaves was determined to show he was as strong and articulate to the end. Still fighting.

Still bringing to our attention things that matter to him, and he believes should matter to us. In his own inimitable way, with passion, straight talking and humour.

His voice was weak and strained. But still his. His defiance, his individuality, his unique ability to cut to the chase still shining through. He tells us he only has days to live.

Yet he says he has come to terms with that. He is at peace. But knows that for those left behind it will, as always, be truly awful. And for that he is sad.

He hated the fact during his cancer journey, which he battled for many years and which he has campaigned, raised funds and received an MBE for, people keep telling him he is so young. His message at 75 – he has lived a good long life. And there are others who didn’t or won’t get that same privilege.

He may sound weak but he is and always has been as strong as a lion with plenty to say. Say one thing about James, he always made you think during his broadcasts.

And so he still found the time and the energy to describe the tremendous work of the hospice, where he was, he said, calm, supported and his pain and side effects of his medication have been managed so well that he even quips that his swelling has gone down to the point where he looks in the mirror and sees his face as handsome.

That again is so James.

Above all he reminds us, as I have often done, that hospices are often funded by you and me and that they are incredible safe environs for which he is truly grateful, even sharing a story with a joke that they had run him a bath with bubbles and oils dimmed the lights saying his wife could join him, leading him to quip ‘I began to wonder what kind of establishment they were running.’

Pure James.

But you can listen for yourselves. It was, he said, his last message. And it brought me to tears.

I first met James Whale in the early ’80s when Radio Aire was launched. I was later, in name only, his boss.

I say that not because we clashed horns as all fellow Taureans are want to do, but because despite his persona on air he was the easiest of people to ‘manage’.

His controversial ‘shock jock’ method of broadcasting was an instant hit among listeners. After the watershed he was a master of debate, put- downs but above all assimilating knowledge by sheer hard work.

His shift started at 10pm but he would be in the office hours earlier going through the papers, no notes needed, once read he never forgot a fact. And quite frankly I just let him get on with it.

A trusted seasoned broadcaster it may have sounded like off-the-cuff radio and it was in the way his quick witted brain responded to callers, but it was backed up by research, hard work and the quickest of minds.

But boy did he put the work in to stay top of his game for decades.

He gave me, as his programme controller, and his listeners, pure gold. He achieved the impossible in local radio, with as many tuning in late at night as they did at breakfast.

I once transferred the whole programme to the breakfast slot but chickened out at the strong reaction. My mistake. I should have stuck with it.

After all Chris Moyles, whom adored him and worked with him was later to do exactly that same show a mix of music and speech to phenomenal success on Radio One in what is known in the States as the zoo format, which sounds chaotic (often is) but is a discipline only the cleverest can hope to conquer.

They say you should never talk about money but I paid James Whale more than I did myself. And he was worth every penny.

He brought me and the station, that most elusive of listener, young males as well as every other demographic.

Advertisers queued up to be in his show. His broadcasting during the miners strike was incredible. He gave the toughest of interviews but on more than one occasion talked people away from suicide.

And of course he broke every broadcasting rule in the book. He didn’t play records. Instead he played the audience like a virtuoso.

The James Whale Radio show broadcast on TV by our neighbour from over the wall Yorkshire Television from our studios on Burley Road was a first.

It seems commonplace now, but James was never that. A one off who taught me so much. To be brave, individual and above all, compelling.

And I wanted him to know that. I think he did. Filming in London where he was still working until a few weeks ago, we arranged to meet up.

His suggestion was that he wanted to make amends for giving me a headache so often.

Sadly, he was too ill and we never did. But there was nothing to make amends for. We were very similar. Strident, opinionated and crazy about radio.

I listened as a listener as well as a manager and during the decade we worked together only had to call him once to remind him to use his seven second delay button to cut off a listener’s swearing.

Even then it was no big deal. Apart from that I had nothing to reproach him for and everything to learn from him.

Go peacefully my friend. You know how good you have been. Nobody without supreme confidence in their abilities could have dared to broadcast as you did, locally and nationally.

A trailblazer, a work colleague but yes a genius. And a complete one off. I just wanted you to know that.

And for those you leave behind, understand how devastated all your Radio Aire colleagues will be, but how proud we are of the journey we took together.