R.I.P.: Pat Barry, Longtime Cincinnati Radio-TV Personality

Pat Barry

Pat Barry, who parlayed his Q102 popularity into a Greater Cincinnati radio and TV career spanning five decades, died of COVID-19 Saturday afternoon, Feb. 20, writes  John Kiesewetter at wvxu.org.  He was 69-years-of-age.

The Springfield, Ohio, native burst upon WKRQ-FM’s airwaves in 1974, playing Top 40 hits, 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, who had been on a ventilator at Christ Hospital all February, also worked for WLWT-TV, WXIX-TV, Fox Sports Ohio, WLW-AM, WKRC-AM, WMOJ-FM, WSAI-FM, WDJO-FM, WNKR-FM/WNKN-FM and Hamilton's old WOKV-FM. He started in radio at Springfield's WIZE 1340 AM while in high school.

Pat Barry circa early 80s

In 1984, after 10 years at Q102 with Jim Fox, Chris O’Brien, Mark Sebastian, Randy Michaels and other raucous rockers, he put on a suit and tie to become WLWT-TV’s primary weatherman at a time when many TV stations used "personalities" instead of meteorologists. Anchors Jerry Springer and Norma Rashid were on the rise for Channel 5, and by 1987 the Springer-Rashid-Barry team was Cincinnati’s top-rated 11 p.m. newscast. 

Among his closest friends were Reds Hall of Fame catcher Johnny Bench; radio executive 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.

"His concern for you was always genuine," says Gary Burbank, who met Barry when radio executive Michaels was trying to hire Burbank for a Tampa station before he came to Cincinnati's WLW-AM in 1981.

Barry also did afternoons on WKRC-AM, and fill-in shifts on sister WLW-AM, when Michaels was a Clear Channel corporate executive. In 2011, he joined Radio One’s "Mojo" (WMOJ-FM), followed by a stint at oldies WDJO-AM in 2014. He later quit to play classic country tunes on WNKR-FM in Dry Ridge and sister WNKN-FM in Middletown.

He left the country music airwaves to do sales for the station.