John joined Radio 1 when it was launched in 1967, establishing himself with the late night programme Top Gear.
The DJ - full name was John Robert Parker Ravenscroft - regularly topped music paper Best DJ polls and won the 1993 Sony Award for Broadcaster of the Year, and in 1994 was named Godlike Genius by the NME.
His first regular programme on Radio 4 was Offspring, between 1995 and 1997, which won the Sony Gold Award. In 1998 he became the presenter of Radio 4's Home Truths, which won four Sony Radio awards the following year.
He was awarded an OBE in 2001, and was inducted into the Radio Academy's Hall of Fame in December 2003.
He had also received an honorary degree from Liverpool University and a Fellowship from Liverpool John Moores.
In 2001 the DJ, who lived with his family in Stowmarket, Suffolk, revealed that he had been diagnosed with diabetes after years of feeling run down.
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