KBHR – Big Bear News Staff

Rick  Herrick – (Richard Tieman Herrick, Jr.) was born in Denver, Colorado on June 24, 1957, son of Richard and Regina Herrick, owners of a Buick car dealership. The family moved to La Habra, California in 1958 where Rick attended elementary school. His family moved to the Brentwood area of Los Angeles while Rick was still in elementary school. There, he attended Saint Martin of Tours then Saint Monica’s High School. Staying in the LA area during his college years, Rick attended Loyola Marymount University, graduating with a Bachelors Degree in International Business and Economics in 1979.

Rick has been a Big Bear Valley resident since 1995 when he and his wife moved, to build Big Bear’s radio station, KBHR-FM 93.3. While attending college, Rick was Program Director and Sales Manager of KXLU-AM/FM broadcasting from Loyola Marymount University.

From there, he became a sales intern at KLOS-FM in Los Angeles. Throughout his extensive radio career he worked as a sales account executive for KIKF-FM in Orange County for four years before returning to Los Angeles to accept a similar position at KABC-AM for another six years before moving on to KBIG-FM, also in LA, in 1989 until 1994.

———————————————————————————————————————————————–

Cathy Herrick grew up in the town of Medford, located 4 miles north of Boston, MA.  After graduating from Tufts University in 1982 with a degree in Art History, she worked at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. With family living in California since she was a young girl, she had visited the west coast many times over the years before moving to Los Angeles in 1986.  She got her start in advertising at keye/donna/pearlstein and J. Walter Thompson in the media buying departments.  For seven years prior to moving to Big Bear, Cathy worked at Focus Media in Studio City working her way up to Broadcast Buying Supervisor.

She met her husband, Rick, on a blind date in 1991 after her friends told Rick what an outdoorsy girl she was. At the time, Rick had already purchased a construction permit to build KBHR-FM, so a future in Big Bear was on the horizon. After marrying in 1994, Rick and Cathy moved to Big Bear in March of 1995 making this their new home. Their daughter, Elizabeth, was born in 1996.

Cathy firmly believes that as parents we need to be involved in our children’s education and has been heavily involved in each of the parent support groups at Elizabeth’s schools serving as Board President at both Big Bear Elementary and Big Bear Middle School.  She enjoys gourmet cooking, is a Girl Scout leader and attempts to live up the expectations of being an outdoorsy girl with skiing, boating and camping.

———————————————————————————————————————————————–

Jay Tunnell was born in Springfield, Illinois. The fourth son of Clifford & Audra Tunnell, he lived on the family farm until the age of three. Jay lived in Springfield until 1967 when his family moved to Big Bear where he has lived full time ever since. He met his wife Deborah in the 8th grade, they were married in 1975 and are the proud parents of one son, Justin, of Lake Havasu City.

Jay’s interest in broadcasting began at Big Bear High school where he became involved with the school’s Radio / TV program. He served in every position from camera operator to director and on screen talent.

Following his mother & brother’s lead into advertising, Jay started his professional broadcasting career in 1975 as advertising manager of then local radio station KTOT where he worked for 15 years. Jay joined the KBHR family as the first employee during the fall of 1995 and assisted the Herricks during the final preparations prior to KBHR’s first broadcast in December of that same year.

———————————————————————————————————————————————–

Cliff Fowler created “Fowlers Fish Tales” at the request of KBHR the first year on the air, and 15 years later still loves the “lingo” used to keep listeners informed and entertained.  Cliff Fowler was born in Glendale, Ca and went to R.D. White Elementary, Woodrow Wilson Junior High, and then graduated from Glendale High School.  He then attended Glendale Junior College for two years and transferred to California State University, Los Angeles where he completed his Bachelors Degree in Biology. The sciences, nature and the outdoors have always been his passion.
Cliff fell in love with Big Bear in 1965 when his parents built their first vacation home in Moonridge.  He started working at Big Bear Sporting Goods in 1971, managed it from 1976 to 1984, bought it in 1985 and sold the store in 2004.
After selling the valleys best-known fishing shop, he teamed up with John Cantrell, owner of Cantrell’s Fishing Guide Service, which has been the longest running charter service since 1991.  John and Cliff have over 80 years combined fishing experience on Big Bear Lake.

———————————————————————————————————————————————–

Ben Brissey is KBHR’s exclusive weather forecaster for the Big Bear Valley, specializing in mountain weather. With 7 years of on air TV experience Ben has been with KBHR 93.3 for 3 years. With over 10 years of professional forecasting, Ben continues to provide our listening audience with some of the most accurate weather forecasts tailored for the San Bernardino Mountains.

A native of Southern California Ben grew up in Huntington Beach, California, loving and studying the weather as he grew up & progressed. Now transplanted as 14 year resident of the Big Bear Valley he continues to provide his advisement as well as clear and concise weather forecasts to our listening audience. His dedication to weather remains very dedicated and unprecedented for the mountains, in addition to working for Big Bear Mountain Resorts & KBHR.

You can hear Ben’s forecast daily about every :15 past the hour.

———————————————————————————————————————————————

Kat Sawyer is the Talk Host of “Tuned In on the Bear”.  She was born in Concord Massachusetts, third in a family of 13.  Her favorite and only son is Jeremy, who enjoys the outdoors and was the catalyst for relocating to Big Bear in 1997. Kat‘s interests are Civil Air Patrol, Mountain Mutual Aid, CERTS Training, Amateurs radio operator, the Old Miners Association, Healthy Start, Big Bear Lions Club, the Bear Valley Electric Citizens Advisory Committee,Big Bear Chamber of Commerce and the Big Bear Valley Fire Safe Council.

Kat has received several awards, which she is sincerely blessed and grateful for: Civil Air Patrol’s Public Affairs Officer of the Year for the western United States, Honorary Member of Big Bear Lions Club, Kiwanis Community Service recognition, City Council of Big Bear Lake Appreciation/ Recognition and “Above and Beyond” in recognition of valuable and devoted services rendered during the Old Fire and Evacuation October 2003.

Kat’s most recent memorable occasion was the birth of her first grandchild, Caitlyn Brianne, on June 30, 2004. Jeremy and his delightful wife Tabatha live in the Big Bear Valley. Kat’s life philosophy: People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

———————————————————————————————————————————————–

Mike Evans returned to Parallel Broadcasting KBHR 93.3 FM in October of 2010 after a two-year departure from the station.  Evans who previously worked at the KBHR studios from June of 2005, to August of 2008 as the Music Director and Morning Show Host, spent two years at Ruby Radio Corporation in Elko, Nevada where he acted as Program Director for three radio stations there.  Evans came back to KBHR to takeover the role of Program Director, Music Director, and Production Director. “We are very excited to have Mike back at the station” said Cathy Herrick, Operations Director and Vice President of KBHR, “His extensive experience and enthusiasm for radio, and the broadcast media will be a tremendous asset for KBHR’ s future.”  Evans has been working in radio since 1976, and worked at radio stations in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Miami, Florida, Albany & Saratoga, New York, and San Francisco, California.

———————————————————————————————————————————————–

Rick Bates has been the director of The Events Resource Office of Big Bear Valley since the fall of 2007. Along with his wife Nancy Meyer he is co-owner of Bates Meyer Inc. an artist management and music publishing firm that represents Jazz and Blues greats such as Otis Rush, Lurrie Bell and Ernie Watts as well as the publishing catalogs of classic artists such as Memphis Slim, T-Bone Walker and Lonnie Johnson. Bates and Meyer are also the principals of the Open Sky Music Foundation that produced Big Bear’s Open Sky Music Festival.
Bates has worked in the field of music for over 30 years, with a majority of that time spent in Artist Management. He formed Rick Bates Management in 1993 and handled the careers of Blues greats John Lee Hooker, Ike Turner, and Joe Louis Walker. Prior to forming his own business, Bates was a principle in Linda Clark & Associates where he was a partner in the management of Los Lobos, Husker Du, Bob Mould and Violent Femmes. Before that Bates was previously a booking agent at The Rosebud Agency where he coordinated national tours for John Hiatt, the Neville Brothers, Willie Dixon, John Lee Hooker, Robert Cray and Mose Allison among others.

———————————————————————————————————————————————–

Vanessa Finney first moved to Big Bear at age 13. As a teenager, she produced the “Big Bear High School News Report” for KTOT/KBBV and after studying at UCLA and Antioch University, she started DJing at KBHR in 2003 and writing freelance magazine articles. She later became the station’s first full-time News Writer before serving as the drive-time News Anchor for Inland Empire News Radio. In addition to now being the Weekend DJ at KBHR, she does freelance voiceovers for companies around the world. Her volunteer work includes being on the Board of Directors for the Big Bear Lake International Film Festival.