Among Newton’s career highlights was Essex’s back-to-back county championship titles in 2016 and 2017 – despite predictions they would get related – and he said the Essex Eagles’ T20 Blast triumph in 2019 was “absolutely thrilling”.
BBC Essex sport editor Victoria Polley said Newton had “brought us all the amazing highs and standout performances”.
A special hour-long edition of Around the Wicket will be broadcast at 18:00 GMT on Wednesday on BBC Essex.
The show will look back on his life as a broadcaster, his career as a Latin teacher and learn about his other passion in life – music.
He has written about 9,000 songs over the past 60 years – and one of them – about Geoffrey Boycott, was used in a BBC documentary documenting the England legend in the 1980s.