Welcome to JJ-365 Salutes. Over 2018, we pay tribute daily to one of “The Good Ones”. Today we are shining the light on Jason Barr.

Yesterday we saluted Bingo Bob Willette who came out of the Humble and Fred camp at the Edge. Jason Barr is another one of the H & F grads as it were. Another one I was impressed with upon arriving to lead CORUS Radio Toronto. Great sense of humour, fearless, solid work ethic, and a very creative content generator and producer, and performer. He was one of the few at this young age at the station who already had a family and it reminded me of us who also had kids very early. His family ia always right at the top of his list and I admire him for it.

Hard to believe but Jason has been in radio for almost 25 years. Now this is rare in this business: During that time, he has actually worked at only 2 radio stations (102.1 The Edge CFNY, 97.7 HTZFM).

Jason started off doing a "radio show" over the lunch hour in his last couple of years of high school in Brampton, ON. Just playing some songs he liked and joking around with people he knew were listening while eating lunch. He's basically been doing that ever since he says.

While attending the Radio and Television Arts program (1993) he was encouraged to seek out an internship. When The Humble and Fred Show (CFNY) brought their Campus Tour to Ryerson, Jason saw that as an opportunity. He brought the guys and their Producer Dan Duran a bunch of bananas (somewhat of a long story) and offered his services. They seemed weirded out as any of us in radio would, but they said thanks and that they would be in touch. 

A couple of weeks later, Dan Duran called and asked Jason to come in and try out as an intern. Once there Jason basically refused to leave and worked for free with any time he had to spare. Coming in early, staying late, missing school, saying "yes" to any job he was asked to do...even if he didn't know how to do it yet. 

Jason says: “If you stick around a radio station long enough and you don't annoy too many people, you will eventually be offered a job. That's what happened with me. I started doing overnight Board Operator shifts and then would stay for the Humble & Fred Show. I joined the Promotions department and would do that as well as working for the Humble & Fred Show for free. After a couple of years had passed I had done pretty much every shift at the station, produced promos, slept there, painted the walls and made a lot of coffee.”

During those two years or so, Jason also became the stunt guy for The Humble and Fred Show. Humble Howard Glassman dubbed him "Danger Boy". Because Jason's parents were Scottish, Howard encouraged Jason to speak with a Scottish accent...for 7 years. Jason did everything from yell at other radio stations through a megaphone, to trying to feed groundhog meat on a cracker to people in the street, to having people stick money to his double-sided tape covered body in the dead of winter...all for charity of course.

During that time Jason lots of things happened. He became the Producer of the Humble & Fred Show, got married (Elizabeth), and they had 2 kids (Jameson & Everett). They are still happily together. Elizabeth is a successful realtor and their two kids are now grown men with a recording studio, and a glass art studio respectively.

In 2001 Humble & Fred moved over to Mojo Radio AM640. It was at this time that Jason decided to stick with CFNY and the new guy coming in Dean Blundell. He dropped the Danger Boy tag and just went with Jason Barr. That show with Dean, Jason & Todd Shapiro was on CFNY (102.1 The Edge by that time) for 10 years. That show was revered by the fans of the station and was one of the most successful Rock morning shows in recent history.

It’s inevitable in this business that changes will happen and in August of 2010 Jason was let go from The Edge (CFNY). He found himself without employment after being at CFNY for 17 years. Jason's free time was soon cut short. Chris Biggs (Z103.5, 104.5 Chum FM, 99.9 Virgin Radio) contacted him within a week or two. Chris had also been let go from his job at Virgin in Toronto and suggested they go for lunch. They did. After a delicious and sumptuous quarter chicken dinner at Swiss Chalet, these two men that had previously never met each other, decided that they would market themselves as a morning show and go and get a job.

They started to do a weekly podcast, something that was very new and fairly unexplored at the time. They called themselves The Biggs & Barr Show. They made a logo for themselves. They created a website. and they brought in a third person to be their producer (Pastey) Jamie Alton. They basically created a living resume for themselves. Word spread quickly that there was a new and pretty decent show available. Program Directors and General Managers were intrigued.

As part of my beat as the VP Programming of Standard Radio, one of my favourite places to go was “The White House” in St. Catharines. 97.7 HTZFM has always been the renegade of Canadian radio. Greg Slaight, one of the smartest and coolest guys I know was the General Manager and encouraged all to be the craziest and wildest radio station in North America. I still love the spirit of that station and it truly is a place where you never know what is going to happen next. I call it “predictable unpredictability.”

I was thrilled when in January of 2011 The Biggs & Barr Show debuted on 97.7 HTZFM. It is still going strong today. You can hear it Monday to Friday mornings. Expect consistent fun and craziness. That station has a huge signal and can be heard from well past Oshawa and the other way all the way down to the Pennsylvania border. The Biggs and Barr Show has fans all over the GTA and Southern Ontario. They have won Morning Show of The Year the last 3 years consecutively at the Canadian Music Week Industry Awards and are approaching their 8th year together. Not too bad for a group of guys who got together on a whim.

Jason says "I have been fortunate to work with and around some great people over the years (long list): Howard Glassman, Fred Patterson, Stewart Meyers, Earle Veale, Brother Bill (Neil Morrison), Martin Streek, Pete Fowler, John Jones, Rob Baird, Karen Fisher, Jim Jim Mccourtie, Craig Venn, Rob Johnston (365'er), Derek Welsman, John Davies, Mike Rice, Cliff Cohen, Chris Van Allen, Darryl Bradt, Visnja Vukojevic, Alan Cross, Pina Crispo, Ryan Parker, John Garbutt, Ross MacLeod, Hal Blackadar, JJ Johnston, Joe Aguinaldo, Chris Sisam, Todd Shapiro, Sandra Plagakis, Tina Trigiani, Dani Stover, Lana Gay, Jeff Marek, Adwoa Nsiah-Yeboah, Josie Joscelyne Dye, Fred Kennedy, Darren Wasylyk (365'er), Dave Bookman, Kim Hughes, George Stroumboulopoulos, Paul Dhingra, Chris Pack, Jonathan Jon Sinden(365'er), Tara DiGuiseppe, Don Mitchell, Ross Winters, Maie Pauts,(365'er) Mary Ellen Beninnger, Carlos Benevides, Darryl Spring (365'er) , Barry Taylor, Blair Bartrem, Mike Stafford, Darrin Pfeiffer, Chris Santos, Adam Ricard, Melani Mariani, Jason Hughes, Enzo Maraventano, Chris Biggs, Jamie Alton, Jeff Winskell, Sarah Cummings, Jesse Modz, TJ Connors, Lisa Vinc, Lori Love, Rick Hodge, Paul Morris, Grant Plata, Phil Evans (365'er), Jamie Watson (365'er), Bruce Gilbert (365'er), and many many more that my brain won't let me remember right now, sorry."

Radio isn't the only thing Jason Barr has done over the last 25 years or so. He is also a successful voice actor. He has been in hundreds of Radio & TV commercials and cartoons. You can check out new and historic samples of his stuff at www.jasonbarrvoices.com.

In summing up Jason has been a soccer coach, a hockey coach, a volunteer firefighter, likes a nice single malt scotch and is currently learning to Scuba Dive. Jason's motto is to always “Be Yourself and to Never Stop Learning.”

Danger Boy has become the man and doing very well thank you very much! He’s worked for it all and no doubt that will ever stop. Atta be Jason!

Thank you, Jason Barr, one of the “The Good Ones”. Feel free to like and share Jason’s positive story. Who is the subject of tomorrow’s JJ-365 Salutes? As they say, stay tuned.

Jim JJ Johnston is the CEO, President and Chief Talent Coach for JJIMS INC. and works with talent in many different industries worldwide. He can be reached at JJ-IMS.COM.