Claudia Barr discusses the importance of Journalism

By C.  Nicole

Claudia Barr, native Memphian, and WREG-TV Channel anchorwoman, has been in the media business for more than 24 years.  Her experiences reflect any up- and coming journalists’ aspirations.

In all those years, she said that the best advice she could ever give to an aspiring journalist is to be a writer.

 “Writing is the basics for any good journalist. Can you tell a story? That’s the question.”

Meeting in the News Channel 3 studios, Barr automatically smiled and asked, “What questions do you have for me?”

She grew up with a family of news watchers. All of the current events were talked about between family members, as their topics. That’s what she grew up on, but never knew that was direction she was headed.

She attended Booker T. Washington High School, and as part of the 1967 senior class. She automatically had the drive, passion, competiveness that has given her the hunger to go so far. Later, she went on to college, and attended the University of Memphis.

Attending Memphis State, her major was Audiology and Speech Pathology, but with different current events circulating around her, she then realized that journalists were the ones to report all of the details. Journalists were reporting everything from the frontlines.  At that moment, that’s when her thirst for journalism began.

“There was so much going on at that particular time,” she stated “Vietnam, Civil Rights, and the thing of it was, was that journalist were all at the frontline. They were getting heard and they were bringing the stories home to us, and had they not been there America wouldn’t have made the changes that impacted the world. Journalist bringing it home, telling the story, and affecting change. It just inspired me.”

Before Barr put her entire foot in the journalism door, she began her career in radio, starting out at WDIA with Chuck Scruggs.

“Yeah, it was great. I loved it. I couldn’t believe I was getting paid for what I was doing. The funny thing was that I applied one year and they kind of brushed me off and said that they would call. A year later, I get a call and they wanted me to fill in for someone who was on my maternity leave. I took it and then I moved to WREC. From there I became assistant news director, and assignment editor. Best job ever.”

 

She hated to leave WREC, but TV came calling her name and that is when she ventured to WHBQ- TV News Channel 13 in 1983 for 24 years, and in 2006 moved to WREG-TV News Channel 3.

In 2007, with WMC-TV Channel 5 usually in the lead  for the 10 p.m. night lineup   , WREG-TV News Channel 3 leaped over all the local news stations in the ratings for that year. Mrs. Barr knows she’s not the sole reason.

“It is all a team effort, everything we do, and how we all work together. It is a point of hard work—teamwork.”