Charles Arnold "Arnie" Patterson (2 July 1928 – 9 March 2011) was a Canadian journalist, public relations professional and broadcaster. Born in

Dartmouth, Nova Scotia Dartmouth ( ) is an urban community and former city located in the Halifax Regional Municipality of Nova Scotia, Canada. Dartmouth is located on the eastern shore of Halifax Harbour. Dartmouth has been nicknamed the City of Lakes, after the larg ...

, Canada, Patterson began his career after university as a

reporter A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

for ''

The Chronicle Herald ''The Chronicle Herald'' is a broadsheet newspaper published in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada owned by SaltWire Network of Halifax. The paper's newsroom staff were locked out of work from January 2016 until August 2017. ''Herald'' management cont ...

'' and ''Mail-Star'' newspapers in Halifax before moving to

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, joining the ''

Toronto Telegram ''The Toronto Evening Telegram'' was a conservative, broadsheet afternoon newspaper published in Toronto from 1876 to 1971. It had a reputation for supporting the Conservative Party at the federal and the provincial levels. The paper competed wit ...

'' in 1954. Patterson was public relations director for

Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation The Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation (also DOSCO) was a Canadian coal mining and steel manufacturing company. Incorporated in 1928 and operational by 1930, DOSCO was predated by the British Empire Steel Corporation (BESCO), which was a merger o ...

Sydney, Nova Scotia Sydney is a former city and urban community on the east coast of Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada within the Cape Breton Regional Municipality. Sydney was founded in 1785 by the British, was incorporated as a city in 1904, and dissolv ...

on 23 October 1958 when a massive

bump Bump or Bumps may refer to: * A collision or impact * A raised protrusion on the skin such as a pimple, goose bump, prayer bump, lie bumps, etc. Infrastructure and industry * Coal mine bump, a seismic jolt occurring within a mine * Bump (u ...

hit Colliery #2 in the coal mining town of Springhill, trapping 174 miners and killing 75. Patterson spent a month in the town, relaying information to the miners' families and to the 150 reporters who had made their way to Springhill to cover the disaster which had garnered worldwide attention. He was named Canada's public relations man of the year for his work during the tragedy. In 1961 he applied to the

Board of Broadcast Governors The Board of Broadcast Governors (BBG) was an arms-length Government of Canada agency. It was created in 1958 by amending the ''Broadcast Act'' to regulate television and radio broadcasting, originally taking over that function from the CBC. ...

and was granted a radio station broadcasting licence. As Patterson Broadcasters, he launched easy listening CFDR at 790 on the AM dial on 5 December 1962 from the facility located at 66 Ochterloney Street. Later he was granted a broadcasting licence for CFRQ (Q104-FM), a rock radio station in 1983. Patterson was inducted into the Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame as a builder for his broadcasting/media work in 2008. He was press secretary to

Prime Minister of Canada The prime minister of Canada (french: premier ministre du Canada, link=no) is the head of government of Canada. Under the Westminster system, the prime minister governs with the Confidence and supply, confidence of a majority the elected Hou ...

Pierre Trudeau Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau ( , ; October 18, 1919 – September 28, 2000), also referred to by his initials PET, was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 15th prime minister of Canada The prime mini ...

during the 1979 federal election, and was a general manager of

Moosehead Breweries Moosehead Breweries Limited is List of Oldest Breweries of Canada, Canada's oldest independent brewery, located in Saint John, New Brunswick. The brewery was founded in 1867 and is still privately owned and operated by the Oland family. The comp ...

of Dartmouth. Patterson died on 9 March 2011 at the age of 82.

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