Longtime eastern Idaho radio host unexpectedly dies
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IDAHO FALLS — Longtime radio personality Tara Moss unexpectedly passed away in Idaho Falls Saturday night.
Moss was half of ‘The Brad and Tara Morning Show’ on Z103 for nearly 18 years.
Brad Barlow, her co-host, posted about his friend’s death on Facebook Sunday afternoon.
“Her health very unexpectedly vanished in a matter of days. After four (days) in the hospital, doctors let her go home to feel the love of her three adorable, silly, ridiculous demanding dogs … and her beloved sweetheart, Bruce,” Barlow wrote.
Barlow and Moss began their on-air partnership in 2000. Later on, Moss spent a year or two working at a station in Boise where Barlow eventually followed. The duo later came back to work at Z103, where they remained until Barlow retired in June 2018.
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“There was no show like ours. I’m not bragging (when I say that),” Barlow tells EastIdahoNews.com. “What made our show so great was that it was like you were at a restaurant and the people at the table next to you were having an interesting conversation that you couldn’t help but listen to.”
Barlow says they had a natural on-air chemistry that complemented each other’s roles.
“I don’t think we were yin and yang,” Barlow explains. “We both loved each other so much and we loved making people laugh and entertaining people…and just loved to shine together.”
Barlow says Moss was “the more magical piece of the puzzle” and could have been as great as she was with any other talent.
“If you knew Tara from listening to the radio, you knew the real Tara,” he says.
Moss left Z103 in 2019 and spent the last year working as a tour guide at the Eastern Idaho Visitor Information Center. Though they hadn’t been working together for the last two years, Barlow says they continued to have a close friendship.
“Her influence on my life…is part of everything I do, every decision I make, every song I like. She is part of me,” says Barlow. “There’s nothing she and I couldn’t say to each other. It was such an amazing relationship.”
Barlow says Moss adored her family and talked about them all the time. She and her husband were “so silly together,” he says, and he is thankful for the influence she had in his life.
“I could never be happier or more dazzled working alongside any other host. I was only fearless in my radio career when both of our microphones were on,” Barlow wrote on Facebook. “I will always admire that she never stopped loving morning radio and I know exactly why that was: she was put on this earth to make people happier.”