Paul W. Berg (September 24, 1934 – August 4, 2020), known professionally as Pat O'Day, was an American broadcaster and concert promoter in the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (PNW; ) is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common ...

. O'Day was the afternoon drive personality at Seattle's KJR 950 radio station in the 1960s; he would eventually become program director and general manager. O'Day helped to bring the Seattle music scene to national prominence.

Career

In the early 1960, O'Day worked at the Spanish Castle, where he met

Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential guitarists of all time. Inducted ...

. O'Day owned Seattle radio station KYYX (96.5 FM) from 1977 to 1984. From late 1982 the station had a

new wave music New wave is a music genre that encompasses pop music, pop-oriented styles from the 1970s through the 1980s. It is considered a lighter and more melodic "broadening of Punk subculture, punk culture". It was originally used as a catch-all fo ...

format, one of the few commercial stations in the US at the time to do so. Starting in 1967, O'Day served as race announcer and commentator for hydroplanes during

Seafair Seafair is an annual summer festival in Seattle, Washington, that encompasses a wide variety of small neighborhood events leading up to several major citywide celebrations. Its main events include the Torchlight Parade (and accompanying Torc ...

for various radio and TV stations, lastly with

KIRO-TV KIRO-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Seattle, Washington, United States, affiliated with CBS and Telemundo. Owned by Cox Media Group, the station maintains studios on Third Avenue in the Belltown, Seattle, Belltown section of Downtown ...

in 2013. In 1998, a

plaquette A plaquette (; "small plaque") is a small low relief sculpture in bronze or other materials. These were popular in the Italian Renaissance and later. They may be commemorative, but especially in the Renaissance and Mannerist periods were often ...

featuring O'Day was added to the permanent disc jockey exhibit at the

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), also simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the shore of Lake Erie. The museum documents the history of rock music and the ...

. O'Day and Jim Ojala co-authored the book ''It Was All Just Rock 'n' Roll'' , detailing his O'Day's work in radio and the concert promotion company, Concerts West. O'Day was Schick Shadel's spokesman in both radio and television advertisements. In 2007, O'Day joined more than two dozen other radio and music industry leaders as a member of the nominating committee of the Hit Parade Hall of Fame. His story was featured in a 2015 documentary about radio DJs called ''I Am What I Play'', directed by Roger King. O'Day died on August 4, 2020, at the age of 85.Lacitis, Erik (August 6, 2020)
Pat O’Day, when at KJR, ‘creator of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll radio station in the Northwest,’ dies at 85
''Seattle Times''. Retrieved August 6, 2020.

Personal life

O'Day was born in

Norfolk, Nebraska Norfolk ( or ) is a city in Madison County, Nebraska, United States, 113 miles northwest of Omaha and 76 miles southwest of Sioux City, Iowa, at the intersection of U.S. Routes 81 and 275. The population was 24,955 at the 2020 census, mak ...

. He had three sons (Garry, Jerry, and Jeff) and one daughter (Kelsey). Although a reputation for excessive drinking hurt him early in his career, he entered Schick Shadel Hospital for treatment in 1986. He lived in the

San Juan Islands The San Juan Islands is an archipelago in the Pacific Northwest of the United States between the U.S. state of Washington and Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The San Juan Islands are part of Washington state, and form the core of ...

with his wife Stephanie Johnson O'Day, where he developed and sold real estate. O'Day set a

Guinness world record ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, listi ...

for

water skiing Water skiing (also waterskiing or water-skiing) is a surface water sport in which an individual is pulled behind a boat or a cable ski installation over a body of water, skimming the surface on one or two skis. The sport requires sufficien ...

non-stop (on

Lake Washington Lake Washington () is a large freshwater lake adjacent to the city of Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the largest lake in King County, Washington, King County and the second largest natural lake in the state of Washington (state), Was ...

) for 4 hours 52 minutes, in 1959.It Was All Just Rock-'n'-Roll II: A Return to the Center of the Radio & Concert Universe, by Pat O'Day and Jim Ojala, published by Ballard Publishing, December 2003.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:ODay, Pat 1934 births 2020 deaths American radio personalities Radio personalities from Seattle