About the Staff

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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.

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Cathy Herrick is an East Coast girl at heart growing up in a small town outside 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. Having visited California many times over the years, she finally moved to Los Angeles in 1986 getting her start in advertising at keye/donna/pearlstein and J. Walter Thompson. For seven years prior to moving to Big Bear, Cathy worked at Focus Media 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, March of 1995 making this their new home. Daughter Elizabeth was born in 1996.

Cathy enjoys working at Elizabeth’s school, Big Bear Elementary, with the Bobcat Booster Club as well as volunteering in the classroom. She enjoys cooking, is a Girl Scout leader and attempts to be an outdoorsy girl with skiing, boating and camping.

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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, age 31, 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.

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Catherine Sandstrom joined the KBHR Team as the station’s News Director in April 2007. She got her start in journalism as a reporter for the Cub Country Chronicle, when she was a 5th grade student at Big Bear Middle School. Catherine, the oldest of six children, grew up on a farm in Big Bear Lake, just down the road from the ski slopes.

After graduating from Big Bear High School, she went on to receive a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. From there, she embarked on an extensive media career, including publishing, marketing, and public relations, as well as on-air hosting duties for E! Entertainment Television and Big Bear’s Channel 6. Her radio background, like that of KBHR station owner Rick Herrick, includes Los Angeles radio stations KXLU and KLOS. After 20 years off the mountain, and living at the beach, Catherine is grateful to be home in Big Bear and honored to be bringing the news to her hometown.

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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.

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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.

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Sabrina M. Gewecke was born May 29th in Panorama City, California, the youngest of two girls.  Sabrina grew up in Saugus, California and graduated from Saugus High in 1988.

Sabrina attended College of Canyons in Valencia, California where she received her AA Degree in Communications. After spending close to 8 years in Ventura, California, she and Brandon moved here to Big Bear Lake in 2003, hoping to live again in a nice small town for her son to grow up in — like Saugus was when she was growing up. Brandon just graduated from Big Bear High and was a member of Rotary’s Interact program, and is an avid skateboarder and music enthusiast. They live in Big Bear Lake with their two dogs, Dirk (a black lab) and Tasha (rescued Rotweiler). They all enjoy swimming in the lake and long walks.

Sabrina has extensive experience in all areas of radio. She comes to KBHR from a cluster of radio stations in the Ventura and Santa Barbara areas. There she started in administration and continued to develop her radio knowledge for over 6 years, working in areas of production, promotion, on-air announcing and discovered her best talents in marketing and advertising. She is excited and feels fortunate to have found her family’s new home here in the Big Bear Valley!

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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.