Joe Barr has been a journalist for nearly two decades and he’s always had a passion for radio. He got his start at Clarion University of Pennsylvania on two campus radio stations while also working at a local commercial radio station on weekends.
Barr joined Capital Public Radio in 2001 as the local host of All Things Considered. He later became the station's first Deputy News Director and then News Director in 2004.
Before joining Capital Public Radio Barr was a Senior Producer for the second largest radio network in the U.S., Westwood One's Metro Source, based in Phoenix, AZ. While there, Barr managed news coverage used by more than a thousand radio stations around the country. He coordinated coverage and 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.
Today, Barr oversees CPR's growing and award winning news department. He developed CPR's statewide news service, California Capitol Network which now reaches about two million listeners on more than two-dozen public radio stations in California and Oregon.
Barr lives in Sacramento with his wife, Nicole