Barry Bingham, Jr.

Who was Barry Bingham, Jr.?

George Barry Bingham, Jr. was an American newspaper publisher and television and radio executive. He was the last descendant of the Bingham family that controlled Louisville's daily newspapers, a television station, and two radio stations for much of the 20th century.

Bingham was educated at the Brooks School and Harvard University.

"Barry Jr.," as he was almost always called, was the surviving son of Barry Bingham, Sr. and the grandson of Robert Worth Bingham, who originally purchased controlling interest in The Courier-Journal and The Louisville Times in 1919. The original plan by Bingham Sr. was for Barry Jr. to control the family's broadcast properties, WHAS, WHAS-FM and WHAS-TV, as well as the Standard Gravure rotogravure print plant. Robert Worth Bingham III, the brother of Barry Jr., was slated to run the newspapers, but Worth was killed in a freak driving accident at the age of 34 that broke his neck and killed him instantly in 1966 which changed the elder Bingham's plans, and Barry Jr. took over management of the newspapers in 1971.