Barb Richards was not only a radio personality. She is a personality.

When speaking with Richards, program director at 95.1-FM WAJI, aka Majic 95.1, from 1984-2013, she was chilling poolside in the Dominican Republic while her children and grandchildren enjoyed the non-northeast Indiana weather.

Luckily, she had time to discuss her role at Majic, as well as her time as marketing director at Embassy Theatre. The Homestead graduate was also chief engagement officer at The Embassy as well as station manager at the local CW television station.

All of this has led to her being a recipient of the H. Stanley Liddell Award, given by Whatzup to those who have made contributions to the arts and culture scene of northeast Indiana.

Through all her endeavors, she’s not only been a proponent of the arts in the region, but also a trailblazer.

“I wouldn’t change a thing,” Richards said. “I got some of the best years in radio, especially for women. My first three radio stations, I was the first woman they put on the air. The nice thing about being first is, you have nothing to compare it to. So, that was cool. I felt like I broke through some glass ceilings.”

Leading the way

Prior to getting into radio, Richards was busy in stage productions around town.

Her parents, Raymond and Maryamber Bosk, were very active in the local theater scene, and their love trickled down to their daughter, who started out as many young actors in town do, with Fort Wayne Youtheatre.

“I wanted to go to New York and be a big Broadway star,” Richards said.

Admitting the idea of going to New York on her own was a bit daunting, Richards instead stayed closer to home, getting her first shot at radio with Columbia City’s 106.3-FM.

From there, Richards’ radio career took her to Illinois, Wyoming, South Bend, and Cleveland, before returning home to join WAJI.

“Just a great place to raise a family and put down roots,” she said about Fort Wayne.

However, after accepting the position, the new mother had a thought: She would have pump while at the office to have milk for her 7-week-old child. 

“I said (to my husband), ‘I think I’m going to have to call (WAJI General Manager Geoff Vargo) to tell him this.’ Pretty much uncharted territory back then,” Richards said. “So, I called him and told, ‘I just want to let you know I had a baby seven weeks ago and I am nursing him. When I’m at the radio station, I’m probably going to pump.’ And, oh, I still remember this to this day and I just love him for it, but he just got all nervous: ‘O-O-OK. Whatever you need, you just ask. We’ll clear out space for you.’ It was just so cute.

“Again, in an atmosphere when there may not have been women in the station before, other than maybe sales or administration, these things were new. They were things that we kind of had to deal with.”

It was that kind of support that Richards said she received at all her stops.

“I was lucky enough to get with some stations that really wanted to see women succeed,” she said. “That wasn’t always true back then. So, I was grateful for that. When the whole #MeToo movement came out, I went back thinking, ‘Was I taken advantage of?’ And I really wasn’t. I’m very grateful for that. I had some very wonderful radio opportunities.”

Making a difference

Those opportunities also allowed Richards to support causes she believed in.

“If it was a female-targeted event, Majic was there,” Richards said. “That was our audience. We were there for Vera Bradley. We were there for Riley, for the kids. Three Rivers Festival would come around, and we did 10 events over Three Rivers Festival week. That’s when we had a staff with live people who had to be there.”

On top of bringing attention to causes and events, Richards and her team were also there for the listeners, be it reporting on the death of Michael Jackson or offering support during times of crisis.

One of those tragedies came on April 20, 1999, when two teens walked into Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, and killed 12 of their classmates and a teacher before turning their guns on themselves.

“We were stunned. We were devastated,” Richards said. “We got on the phone as a morning station the night before and called our consultant, and said, ‘What should we do? The president is calling for prayers.’ He said, ‘OK, just say that. We’re not a Christian station, but we’re OK to say prayers.’

“We brainstormed, and I came up with this idea: ‘What if we did a construction paper chain? We hand out strips of construction paper and people could write a message to Columbine?’ They didn’t need water. They didn’t need clothes. They weren’t tornado or hurricane victims. What did they need? They needed our prayers.

“We put it on the radio, and by the end of the week, we couldn’t get into my office because businesses were doing it, schools were doing it.”

With a mile-long prayer chain on their hands, the next course of action was getting it to Colorado. That’s when Richards stepped up again asking in favors, which led to a trip to Colorado via Consolidate Airways along with city officials, as well as the chain being shipped free through the United States Postal Service.

In Littleton, they were greeted warmly, with The Denver Post reporting the chain was hung from tree to tree in Clement Park.

“It was quite the emotional experience and something I’m proud of that we reacted that way,” Richards said. “And also that it was so well-received.”

Cheerleader for arts

Along with receiving a Liddell Award, Richards is also a recent recipient of the Linda & Jerry Vandeveer Impact Award thanks to her work with nonprofits such as the YWCA, Fort Wayne Children’s Choir, Fort Wayne Youtheatre, and Riley Hospital for Children.

“I didn’t do this by myself,” she said. “I had the power of a radio station behind me. When it really counted, when it really made a difference.

“It just felt good to help people with the power of a radio station. I mean, why wouldn’t you want to do that?”

That power also helped her celebrate her first love, too — theater.

“I had such an arts focus, I could reach out to the Civic Theatre, ‘Can I hand out some free tickets?’ Arena Dinner Theatre? ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, we’ll give you some free publicity. Give me some tickets,’ ” she said. “I could bring that to the radio station — my love of the arts and my love of the community. It allowed me to be a cheerleader. We have a great community, and it’s grown so beautifully over the years.

“I feel very blessed and very grateful that I had the bosses I had, I had the leadership I had.”

That leadership extends to her early years, when a nun was able to see into her future, telling her something she recalls with a laugh.

“I went to St. Therese grade school,” she said. “When I was in about fourth grade, on the millionth time I had been called to office because I had gotten in trouble for talking, a nun said to me — God bless our nuns — she said to me, ‘I don’t know what you’re going to grow up to be, but I hope that whatever you do, you can figure out a way to make a living from your mouth!’ 

“I used to say, ‘Sister Esther is just spinning in her grave after seeing what kind of career I ended up having.’”

A career that came natural to her.

“I was in that day and age when ‘shock radio’ was coming into being,” she said. “You had Bob & Tom and a lot of those guys that were doing that — the Power Pig down in Tampa, Florida, was really big. I thought, ‘That just really doesn’t appeal to me.’

“I had decided early on that I was going to be the kind of person that was going to be the champion: ‘I’m going to be the cheerleader.’ That fits my personality. If you’re going to go on radio, it’s an extension of your own personality. What better way to get known in the community than by supporting these nonprofits, and we have so such good, strong ones in Fort Wayne.”