{"id":9967,"date":"2016-01-04T18:30:08","date_gmt":"2016-01-05T00:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=9967"},"modified":"2016-01-05T08:11:20","modified_gmt":"2016-01-05T14:11:20","slug":"barry-keefe-1953-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2016\/01\/04\/barry-keefe-1953-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"Barry Keefe 1953-2016"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Barry<\/a>

<\/a> Barry Keefe<\/p><\/div>\n

Longtime Chicago radio newsman Barry Keefe is being remembered as a consummate broadcaster whose booming voice conveyed warmth and authority to morning-drive listeners for decades.<\/p>\n

Keefe, who stepped down in 2008 after 30 years as director of news and public affairs at WTMX FM 101.9,<\/a> died Sunday at his home in west suburban Wheaton. He was 62.<\/p>\n

He\u2019d been fighting pancreatic cancer for about a year, according to his son, Alex Keefe, a former reporter for Chicago Public Media WBEZ FM 91.5 <\/a>who now works for Vermont Public Radio.<\/p>\n

Keefe was best known for his long run as news anchor on Eric Ferguson and Kathy Hart\u2019s top-rated morning show on The Mix. He joined the hot adult-contemporary station in 1978 when it was still known as WCLR under previous owner Bonneville International.<\/p>\n

\u201cBarry was the consummate broadcaster,\u201d Ferguson said Monday. \u201cThere's never been a news delivery like his. I still can hear his booming bass voice in my headphones, reading headlines with authority, but putting his own personal touch on each story as he shared it. He will be greatly missed.\u201d<\/p>\n

By Keefe\u2019s own count, \"Eric & Kathy\" was the 14th morning show he\u2019d worked with at the station.\u00a0\u201cI just know I\u2019m a perfect fit for a radio station,\u201d he said in a 1999 interview. \u201cI\u2019m very restless and have a lot of excess energy. Being in a newsroom setting \u2014 even at an FM music station \u2014 is one of the things I\u2019m ideally suit for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Born on Chicago\u2019s North Side, Keefe grew up in Niles, Michigan, where he began his career as a weekend disc jockey at WNIL while still in high school. He continued in radio at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan, and later worked for stations in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Cedar Rapids, Iowa.<\/p>\n

At WCLR (and later WTMX), he headed what at one time was a five-person news department. By the time he left, (\u201cthe curtain came down unexpectedly,\u201d was the way he phrased it), Keefe was<\/em> the news department. He also hosted numerous public-affairs programs, including the weekly \u201cInsight.\u201d<\/p>\n

He went on to teach sound engineering at Illinois Institute of Art from 2010 to 2014.<\/p>\n

Keefe is survived by his wife, Kathy, and sons Alex and Aidan. In lieu of flowers, donations to support Aidan\u2019s education at Boston\u2019s Berklee College of Music will be accepted by Taylor Schlichter at Charles Schwab & Co. at (847) 441-1908 or at www.ugift529.com.<\/a><\/p>\n

Visitation will begin at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Williams-Kampp Funeral Home, 430 East Roosevelt Road in Wheaton. A brief service will be held there at 3 p.m. Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Longtime Chicago radio newsman Barry Keefe is being remembered as a consummate broadcaster whose booming voice conveyed warmth and authority to morning-drive listeners for decades. Keefe, who stepped down in 2008 after 30 years as director of news and public affairs at WTMX FM 101.9, died Sunday at his home in west suburban Wheaton. He... Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9967"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9967"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9975,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9967\/revisions\/9975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}