Courtesy of Gord Lansdells NW Broadcasters
6/15/21 – Legendary Vancouver news reporter/director Warren Barker passed away at 10 a.m. today at age 92. His daughter Karen says he had been in generally good health until recent weeks, when he was not eating properly. Barker was on air at CKNW from 1952 until retirement in 1991. He served as News Director at ‘NW from 1959 until retirement, setting the standard for newsroom operation in British Columbia.
One of my radio heroes.
One of the all time greats, for sure !
Toronto had Dick Smythe, Vancouver had Warren Barker. We’ll not see their like again. RIP Sir.
Warren Barker built a fine radio news organization at CKNW, an organization that strongly influenced the news department at CHAN television. Staff from CKNW moved over to CHAN with the result that CHAN/BCTV/GLOBAL became the television news leader in Vancouver.
Mr Barker had an odd way of pronouncing the letter W; to me it sounded as if he were pronouncing it “dubyhuh” as in N “dubyhuh” news. It was only after I moved to Montreal and was able to listen to eastern US radio stations that I heard the letter pronounced properly as in “Double U” CBS or “Double U” JR. For years, growing up with CKNW and listening to Warren Barker, I thought that he was pronouncing it correctly.