FORMER 3AW drive-time host Paul Barber died in Melbourne on Friday night after a battle with cancer.

Derryn Hinch had fond memories of his former producer, who, he said, had a great attitude to life right to the end.

Paul Barber.

''He had esophageal cancer and it spread to his pancreas and liver. He and I had a lot of talks about it because I came so close to carking it a few times in the last couple of years.

''I just admired the way he handled it, very pragmatically.''

Mr Barber, 67, trained to be a priest in New Zealand in his 20s before switching to journalism. He became Hinch's producer at 3AW in the late 1970s.

Mr Barber went on to become 3AW's drive-time host before being sacked in 1996, later saying that his last months there were darkened by some vicious listener reaction to him outing himself as homosexual.

In later years he helped develop broadcasting in Vietnam.