Gina grew up in Roy, Utah, the daughter of famed Utah radio show host Tom Barberi and her frequent foil of a mother, "The Sainted Mary Claire." Barberi has two children, "Festus" and "Jonesie". She was re-married in February 2005 to "Joe Jones." Gina frequently expresses her fondness for celebrity news, gossip and rumor. To that end, she receives a Cosmo subscription for each Christmas from Allred.

A good deal of Gina's personal life has been made public on the air, such as her attempt to wear thong underwear, her breast enlargement surgery, her 800 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets, her Hawaiian-based wedding, and her elementary school aged son's penchant for hard rockers AC/DC. She is a fanatically picky eater, refusing to eat such common staples as cheese, tomatoes, honey, or seafood due to her dislike of their texture. When ordering a hamburger from either the Crown Burgers or Training Table restaurants, she insists on only having meat and bread. No lettuce, tomatoes, onions, pickles , or condiments. Her husband "Joe" has attempted, largely unsuccessfully, to broaden Gina's culinary horizons.

Gina possesses several phobias, including wind chimes, shower curtains, sculptures depicting children, and the wind. (The first two have been explained by Gina's childhood exposure to horror movies.) In order to avoid being assaulted, Gina says she pretends to talk on the phone while walking through a parking lot, and if Joe is not home she will keep her cellular phone under her pillow, and turns on the TV (which cannot be visible from any window or someone might want to steal it) so it sounds as if people are talking if she is home alone.

Though Jackson and Allred will admit to occasionally exaggerating their own traits and behaviors for comedic effect, they insist that Barberi does not do so; her radio persona is not an act.