If you’ve ever turned on a radio in Alaska, there’s a good chance you’ve heard Jay Barrett’s unflinchingly upbeat voice. For decades, that voice played on local airwaves across Alaska, from Kodiak to Bethel to Kenai and, most recently, Homer.
He was later pulled out of state by art of a visual kind, earning a degree in photography from the Art Institute in Seattle in 1988. He started pursuing a career in commercial photography.
Jay — known affectionately to friends as JayBob — found home all across rural Alaska, as a public radio and newspaper reporter for a myriad of outlets and as the decade-long voice of the statewide Alaska Fisheries Report. At KYUK, she said Jay was known as the “red-haired Native.” His mom was half Yup’ik, from the Kuskokwim area.In all his news gigs, Jay was a dogged follower of AP style. He never shied away from emailing a reporter — including this one — when there was an error or typo in their copy.
“He was the first person I worked with in journalism who embodied the old saying — ‘Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable,’” he said. “I still think about that saying because he would say it all the time.” Jay was a superfan of many stripes. He loved sports — namely, his Chicago Cubs. In Kodiak, he was part of a show called Jock of the Rock that ran for 10 years.
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