Laurence Jay Barrett
Radio, print and TV journalist Laurence Jay Barrett died March 17 at his home in Homer. He was 60.
Jay, or JayBob, worked in print, radio and TV across Alaska, from KDLG and the Bristol Bay Times in Dillingham to the Tundra Drums and KYUK AM/TV in Bethel. On the Kenai Peninsula, he was the KDLL central peninsula reporter for KBBI, a reporter and photographer at the Peninsula Clarion, the museum coordinator at the Kenai Visitors and Cultural Center and filled in as a reporter and host at KSRM Radio.
He spent a dozen years as news director at KMXT in Kodiak, where he hosted the award-winning Alaska Fisheries Report, which was broadcast statewide, for 10 years. He returned to Kenai as a reporter and Morning Edition host on KDLL from 2017 to 2020.
He was born and raised in Dillingham, proud to be the convergence of his mother’s Yup’ik heritage and his father’s flaming red hair. He started in public radio in junior high when the school district there founded KDLG-AM. He got a degree in photography from the Art Institute in Seattle in 1988 and started pursuing a career in commercial photography but couldn’t resist the pull back to reporting and Alaska.
Barrett’s art photography was recognized in numerous statewide exhibits and is included in the Alaska State Museum’s permanent collection. He had an eye for the offbeat, a heart for the little guy and could tell the hell out of a quirky Alaska story. He was a tech geek, Sci-Fi nerd and sports junky, and remained eternally optimistic that his beloved Chicago Cubs would win another World Series.
He leaves behind his brother, Jean Barrett, of Dillingham, and many colleagues and fans over the airwaves across Alaska.
