Joe Barr
Director of News and Information
Joe Barr oversees Capital Public Radio's multimedia news and information format including regional news coverage and the daily public affairs program Insight. Barr developed Capital Public Radio's statewide news service, California Capitol Network. It's one of the largest networks in the public radio system, reaching about two-million listeners a week on more than 50 public radio stations in California, Oregon and Nevada. Barr has overseen significant growth of Capital Public Radio's news operation, including creation of Health Care, Environment and Food beats as well as developing a multimedia documentary production unit - one of only a handful in the country. Barr has led his department to numerous awards, including a national Edward R. Murrow Award for Investigative Reporting. In 2010 he was named one of the Sacramento Region's "100 Most Interesting and Influential People" by the Sacramento News and Review.
Before joining Capital Public Radio, Barr was a Senior Producer for the news division of the Westwood One radio network. Barr managed news coverage used by more than a thousand radio stations around the country as part of the Metro Source News service. He coordinated coverage from dozens of reporters and bureaus around the country. Barr also wrote stories on everything from the impeachment of President Clinton and the massacre at Colorado's Columbine High School to the tumultuous 2000 Presidential election.
Barr was an award winning reporter at NPR affiliate station KJZZ in Phoenix and he's also worked at commercial radio news stations in Western Pennsylvania. Barr's stories have aired on NPR, Marketplace, ABC Radio, Monitor Radio, Voice of America and others.
Barr lives in Sacramento with his wife, Nicole.