Pat O'Day Celebrates 50 Years in Seattle Radio

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Re: Pat O'Day Celebrates 50 Years in Seattle Radio

Postby 42 Tall » Thu Jan 29, 2009 12:43 pm

Good Post segueking2...that's a classic moment spending time with the Legends..not one that you'll forget!!!
and yes, in it's glory days KJR was "THE BEST"!!!
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Re: Pat O'Day Celebrates 50 Years in Seattle Radio

Postby sparky » Sat Jan 31, 2009 4:39 pm

With the lineup of personalities that KJR had through the sixties, they could have played Mitch Miller records all day long between the jock bits and the jingles and they'd still have been #1.

Of all the talent that went thru that building, Pat O'Day is still #1 in my books. Glad to hear he's still keeping busy and has time to get behind the mic every now and then.

Thanks for giving the Pacific Northwest such great radio Pat.
"You get a bunch of clowns together and sooner or later you've got a circus"
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Re: Pat O'Day Celebrates 50 Years in Seattle Radio

Postby yee-haw » Sat Jan 31, 2009 5:18 pm

segueking2 wrote:I consider myself lucky to have met Mr. O'Day twice.

The greatest radio mind I have ever met.

On the second occasion, Lan Roberts was along for the visit in Friday Harbor, and so was Red Robinson - and it is one of my most treasured memories.

All thanks to a fella named Biff.

KJR, in it's glory days, was the best.

Congratulations to Mr. O'Day and his family.


Wow, Lan, Pat and Red. Three legenddary DJ's in one room. With all that DJness, did segueking2 get a word in edgewise?
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Re: Pat O'Day Celebrates 50 Years in Seattle Radio

Postby cart_machine » Sat Jan 31, 2009 8:21 pm

yee-haw wrote: Wow, Lan, Pat and Red. Three legendary DJ's in one room. With all that DJness, did segueking2 get a word in edgewise?


Who'd want to? The best thing to do is sit and listen to the stories.

cArtie.
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Re: Pat O'Day Celebrates 50 Years in Seattle Radio

Postby cart_machine » Sat Jan 31, 2009 8:32 pm

segueking2 wrote:I consider myself lucky to have met Mr. O'Day twice.

The greatest radio mind I have ever met.


King2, did you listen to the first part of the aircheck and think "Today, consultants would tell him not to do that"?

cArtie
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Re: Pat O'Day Celebrates 50 Years in Seattle Radio

Postby segueking2 » Sat Jan 31, 2009 11:25 pm

I just sat and listened.

I think the world of the man.

I wish you could have all met Lan Roberts. WOW. What a nice man, and was still funny as hell. (* God Bless him) he was THE BEST JOCK IN THE WORLD and only John Records Landecker in his days at WIBG, ever came close. Freddy Latremouille in his prime was nearly there.

Pat and Red..? What a team.

My pal Biff, and Red and I had dinner at Pat's house on one occasion and lunch there on another visit. Lan was there for the lunch....I was speechless.

Here's a Pat O' Day story.

The Colonel called KJR, while Elvis was in Seattle making "The World's Fair" film...and asked Pat if his jocks would like to be in a picture with Elvis.

Pat and the guys were stoked....they all got farpitzed and whipped over to the set, thinking that they were gonna be in the Movie with the KING.

They get there....the Colonel calls Pat and Lan and the guys over and introduces them to Elvis.

The phtog comes over and takes a picture.

"Well, fellas, now you have been in a picture with Elvis...."

I fell down laughing.

I will tell ya Pat's Led Zeppelin and Beach Boys and Hendrix stories another time.

Also Lan introducing us to Members of the LOVE family in Arlington Washington.

Pat O'Day is NO egomaniac - Lan was just the nicest guy and just hilarious....both as cordial and kind as can be, and I still can't believe I got to meet two of my personal idols.

All thanks to a guy named BIFF.
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Re: Pat O'Day Celebrates 50 Years in Seattle Radio

Postby mightymouth » Sat Jan 31, 2009 11:32 pm

How did that come to be? Amazing to be with both those guys at the same time? Amazing!
Don't count the days, make the days count.
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Re: Pat O'Day Celebrates 50 Years in Seattle Radio

Postby cart_machine » Sun Feb 01, 2009 12:02 am

The Supercar story is amazing.

It'd never happen in radio today. :(

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Re: Pat O'Day Celebrates 50 Years in Seattle Radio

Postby segueking2 » Sun Feb 01, 2009 11:12 am

How did we get all these guys together??...Believe it or not my business partner and I were planning Seattle Internet Radio.

Pat O'day would be the Manager, Lan afternoon drive and we had plans to bring in Gary Lockwood and a few other Seattle legends. Red Robinson would be mid days and PD.
We were, unfortunately, about 7 years too early.

They were keen...ahhhh...those were the days....

Again....kudos to my visionary pal, the Biffmeister....
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Re: Pat O'Day Celebrates 50 Years in Seattle Radio

Postby 42 Tall » Sun Feb 01, 2009 12:05 pm

"BEST JOCK IN THE WORLD"..opening the door on that one segueking2!!!...no doubt that Lan Roberts was a classic, and Gary Lockwood could bust your gut with laughter, but as for BEST JOCK IN THE WORLD..I tip my hat to the one and only Robert W Morgan for the title..(yes he had the mighty KHJ Boss Radio format to pump out the hits) but a 20 share of the market!!!..the man was a classic!!
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Re: Pat O'Day Celebrates 50 Years in Seattle Radio

Postby Neumann Sennheiser » Sun Feb 01, 2009 12:14 pm

One word, two syllables: Lujack
"You don't know man! I was in radio man! I've seen things you wouldn't believe!"
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Re: Pat O'Day Celebrates 50 Years in Seattle Radio

Postby Russ_Byth » Sun Feb 01, 2009 12:20 pm

You guys are throwing some pretty amazing names around here. All age jokes aside, I wish I'd been 'aware' enough to catch them in their prime. I've had the good fortune of working with Fred and Red, but was never able to 'get in tune' with the U-S greats. Its great to read your memories though! Thanks!
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Re: Pat O'Day Celebrates 50 Years in Seattle Radio

Postby 42 Tall » Sun Feb 01, 2009 12:23 pm

Lujack was gold..no doubt about it!!! Chicago was blessed to have him!!..It's an argument that could go on for days, as to who the BEST JOCK IN THE WORLD is..everyone has their favorite, mine without question Robert W Morgan,..Lujack is there and so is Gary Lockwood,..so for those of us who were lucky enough to be able to listen to these icons, keep the argument rolling!!!
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Re: Pat O'Day Celebrates 50 Years in Seattle Radio

Postby radiofan » Sun Feb 01, 2009 12:25 pm

Here's another Seattle Times article on Pat from July 30th of 2006 (a few days before that year's Seafair)

Pat O'Day
From rocking our world to on the rocks and back, he keeps rolling



BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES

FOR TWO DECADES at the height of the baby boomer youth revolution — 1954 to 1974 — Seattle's Pat O'Day was the Pied Piper of Northwest rock. As the lead DJ at "KJR Seattle, Channel 95," a singsong known to every Puget boomer, he led a domination of the airwaves never equaled before or since: as much as 37 percent of the total listening audience in the 1960s. He started a string of dance clubs up and down Puget Sound, from Sea-Tac's legendary Spanish Castle to Bremerton and Burlington. His Concerts West dominated — some say tyrannized — the local and national rock scene, and O'Day was on the road with legends ranging from Jimi Hendrix to Led Zeppelin.

Today, the 71-year-old is still Pied Piper to boomers, but this time around he's selling them real estate on San Juan Island and drying them out at Schick Shadel Hospital.

O'Day defies the adage that there are no second acts to American life.

He invented himself by dropping his birth name of Paul Berg, son of a Tacoma radio preacher. After his crazy on-air antics rocketed him to fame, he left KJR in the '70s, bought his own radio stations, declared bankruptcy when his floating $10 million loan was caught by the through-the-roof interest rates of the Jimmy Carter era, and struggled with booze, cocaine and pot.

Recovery came after a second marriage, the birth of a daughter when he was 54 (he has three sons from his earlier marriage), and sobriety after Kirkland's Schick Shadel Hospital's hard-core, drug-assisted aversion therapy in 1986. He bought the John L. Scott franchise in Friday Harbor, started several developments, and built a spectacular Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired all-concrete home overlooking Speiden Channel.

He's back on radio, now doing commercials for Schick Shadel, where he bought a 10 percent share and helped triple its patient load. He also helps broadcast the Seafair hydroplane races on KIRO, organizes celebrity golf tournaments and boats local waters. His charming autobiography, "It Was All Just Rock-N-Roll," tells only half his story.

"I will never retire," O'Day promises. Eating just one meal a day, he carries the same weight he did half a century ago.

Does rock keep you young? "I don't feel any different than when I was 32!"

Seattle Times
Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who couldn't hear the music.
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Re: Pat O'Day Celebrates 50 Years in Seattle Radio

Postby 42 Tall » Sun Feb 01, 2009 12:31 pm

For those who never had the chance to listen to Pat O Day calling the Seattle Seafair Hydroplane Races, you have missed some of the BEST radio ever...when those boats roared by the "Barge", engines full-out and Pat doing his play by play, WOW that was GOLD!!...hopefully someone will dig up the tapes because it was classic!! I've said it before, but it's worth repeating, "Thank-You Pat"!!!!
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