Remembering Pat Barry
• Pat Barry, a fixture on Cincinnati radio and television for more than five decades, died on Saturday, Feb. 20 after a tough battle with COVID-19. Barry, who 69 years old, had been on a ventilator since the beginning of the month.
As longtime Cincy media journalist John Kiesewetter reports for WVXU, Barry got his first radio break at WIZE-AM (1340)/Springfield, OH while in high school. He liked to joke that he started his career in his hometown “at a really big station — it had 12 pumps!” Barry made his entry into Cincinnati radio as a Top 40 jock on WKRQ (Q102) in 1974, “and became one of the best known TV/radio personalities in town, thanks to his welcoming smile, loyalty to friends and self-deprecating humor.” Barry is pictured below in the Q102 control room in the early ’80s. In 1984, after 10 years at Q102, Barry made the move to TV, becoming the primary weatherman on WLWT-TV, alongside anchors Jerry Springer and Norma Rashid.
Over the course of his lengthy Cincinnati media career, Barry also worked for WXIX-TV, Fox Sports Ohio, WLW-AM, WKRC-AM, WMOJ-FM, WSAI-AM, WDJO-FM, WNKR-FM/WNKN-FM and WOKV-FM. Among Barry’s closest friends were Cincinnati Reds’ Hall of Fame catcher Johnny Bench; radio executive (and former Q102 colleague) Randy Michaels; retired sports anchor Dennis Janson; Nexstar Media executive and former Channel 5 reporter Bina Roy; and former Q102 Morning Zoo co-host Jim Fox, who died last May.
Shortly before his death, Kiesewetter says Barry was planning to parlay his local popularity into his first political campaign. He had taken out petitions at the Hamilton County Board of Elections to run for Cincinnati mayor, his friends say. Barry’s Facebook page has additional information and remembrances from his many friends and colleagues. [Photos courtesy of John Kiesewetter and Brinke Guthrie]
