Barry Stigers (1940-2023)

By Jerry Henry on September 7, 2023.

THE PASSING OF A RADIO LEGEND

Barry Stigers, Morning NEWS Host on KAHI Radio, passed away peacefully in his sleep yesterday morning.

KAHI General Manager, Jerry Henry stated aOur listeners will forever miss the professionalism and that familiar low voice Barry provided to the foothills for so many years.a

Stigers started on-air at KAHI as a volunteer reading news in 2000. In 2003 he was officially hired and took over hosting the KAHI Afternoon News. He was promoted to News Director and KAHI Morning News Anchor in 2005. After being a regular on-air presence for fourteen years he officially retired from KAHI in March of 2014. Frustrated with a series of short-lived replacements KAHI GM, Jerry Henry, asked Barry to return as a fill-in for two weeks in 2018 while another replacement was located and trained. As Henry puts it athat two weeks turned into five and a half years.a

Stigers started his radio career in 1957, the same year KAHI went on the air. His first job was a morning news reporter for his hometown station in Kane, Pennsylvania, WADP. Barry moved his career to New York State working for a group of stations as the Morning Host at WMNS, Olean; WRNY, Rome; and stations in Ticonderoga and Glens Falls, New York. Stigers moved to Pittsfield, Massachusetts as a Program Manager and started one of the earliest call-in aTalka shows in 1960. Stigers also worked in the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia markets.

Barry left the daily on air part of radio and joined the Cable Television Industry in 1964. He pioneered what in those days was called aLocal Originationa or local TV broadcasting on the local Cable TV system. He pioneered and built many local cable stations. His career took him to the level of Vice President of Operations for Warner Cable in New York City.

Stigers came to California in 1985 as an executive for CableData, a major service computer company serving the Cable and Telephone industries. He also served as a Senior Manager at MCI, the Long Distance Phone Company.

KAHI will provide any details of a service for Barry Stigers as they become available.