6PR’s news director Lisa Barnes departs

6PR’s long-serving news director, Lisa Barnes, has resigned.

Barnes is currently on maternity leave with her second child, however she got behind the microphone on Friday to say goodbye to the station and its listeners.

“I’m sad to be leaving the 6PR family and obviously all our beautiful listeners listeners, but it’s a new chapter in my life, and I’m really looking forward to what I’m doing next, which is I’m going to a highly regarded PR company here on Perth, Profile Media, and I’m very excited about that, so let’s get the record straight.”

Barnes has been with the station for 13 years, and said she felt like the listeners had listened to her growing up on the airwaves.

“When I started, I was a 22-year-old who drank [RTDs] – ready to drinks – on the weekend… And now, I’ve gone through an engagement, a marriage, two children and, yea, it’s sad to say goodbye after 13 years, but the time has come.”

New Breakfast host Gareth Parker, who this year moved across from the Mornings slot, said he was really, really sad on a personal level.

“I was so excited and looking forward to you coming back to work and rejoining the news room,” he said. “The place hasn’t been the same without you. But you’re a great journalist, you’re a fabulous leader of your team. I think you’re an inspiration to young women in this industry, and it hasn’t been easy for you to juggle all the bits and components of this very unpredictable and often unusual hours lifestyle that you lead in this game, along with the challenges of being a young mum,” he said.

“But you’ve always done brilliantly. People don’t see the pressures behind the scenes that you’ve had in trying to manage things and do rosters and all the rest of it. But they’ve always heard you come across the airwaves with that sunshine in your voice and.. they’ve seen you grow up in front of their very ears.”