Veteran broadcaster Dr Dennis Howard has described Barrington “Barry G” Gordon as “the most consequential disc jockey in Jamaican radio”.

The self-proclaimed Boogie Man died at Savanna-la-Mar Hospital in Westmoreland on October 29.

He was 70 years-old.

His death was confirmed by Michael Chambers, his friend of 50 years, who gave the cause of death as pneumonia.

Barry G made his name as an exuberant host at Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation (JBC) during the late 1970s, shortly after graduating from Kingston College (KC).

That State-owned television/radio station had several firebrand broadcasters, including John Maxwell, Errol “ET” Thompson, Winston “The Whip” Williams, and Michael “Mikey Dread” Campbell. Initially, Barry G hosted Soapbox, a daily vox pop programme. On Saturdays, he helmed the Boogie Down Show with Chambers as his technical operator. Still, it was when he hosted 2 To 6 Supermix, a daily four-hour show, during the 1980s that Barry G became a bona fide star.

Howard was then a technical operator at JBC.

“Barry had half of the country listening to him and he was working at a station that was #2. Nobody can do that again,” he said in an interview with the Jamaica Observer.

Chambers met the St Mary-born Barry G at KC, at which the latter was four years his senior. They became reacquainted at the JBC.

“Barry had a love for music and radio. Radio was his life,” said Chambers.

Barry G found a global audience through his radio clashes with British radio legend David Rodigan. Those square-offs started in 1983 and made both men stars in major dancehall-reggae markets in the United States, United Kingdom, and Japan.

Rodigan, in an interview with the Observer, hailed Barry G’s commitment to broadcasting and music.

“His unique style of presentation, his distinctive stentorian voice, his love and passion for music, endeared him to legions of devoted listeners on JBC Radio in the 1980s and onwards throughout his broadcasting career. Radio was his life; it was everything to him,” said Rodigan.

After leaving JBC in 1987, Barry G moved to the rival Radio Jamaica and also had stints a Power 106, KLAS FM and
Hot 102. He enjoyed a career revival at Mello FM in Montego Bay , completing an 11-years run before leaving in 2021.

Barrington “Barry G” Gordon was vested with the Order of Distinction — Jamaica’s sixth-highest honour — for services to broadcasting in 2010.

Sir David Rodigan (left) and Barry G.