NYC Radio: Pat St. John Observes 40 Years In Gotham

Pat. St. John

Today marks radio personality Pat St.John's 40th Anniversary on the airwaves of New York City.

Pat St.John has been referred to as “The Dee-Jay’s DJ” and has been on the air in New York since 1973. Born in Detroit, Pat literally grew up on the music of Motown (read the liner-notes he wrote for the CD “The Motown Story, Volume 1, The 60’s”, which he also narrated).

In fact, check the box-sets of Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, and The Supremes, and CDs by Marvin Gaye and Jr. Walker and The All-Stars, and you’ll see Pat thanked for his input, as his Motown association continues to this day. Pat has also known Bob Seger since he was a teen, and in fact, introduced Bob on-stage when Bob played a local Michigan Jr. High School!

According to Reelradio, it was Pat's love of Top40 radio that led to his first real gig in 1969 on 50,000 watt powerhouse CKLW in The Motor City. This was right after his 18th birthday, making him one of the youngest jocks to ever work at such a giant radio station. When first hired, Pat pulled down three DJ shifts a week, drove the "CK Camaro" getting actualities for the news department two days a week, and pulled a 20/20 news shift one day a week, as well as doing booth announcing on CKLW TV. While great experience, doing the news was not what he really wanted to do, and he eventually got the full time overnight shift.

In late 1970 he moved cross-town to WKNR, where he wound up in the afternoon shift. Two of the most notable things about Pat's "Keener" gig were the summer of 1971 when he did both morning AND afternoon drive for almost three months — and The ALSAC Radiothon, which Pat hosted for 17.5 hours. In 1972, Pat joined ABC's Detroit album rock outlet WRIF (his first 101.1 frequency) and in 1973 he moved to sister station WPLJ in New York, where he remained for almost 15 years.

While hugely successful as an AOR station, 'PLJ switched to Top 40 in 1983, and during those CHR years Pat was rated "the most listened to afternoon drive jock in America" according to Arbitron. In 1987 Pat moved over to 102.7 WNEW-FM "Where Rock Lives" for an 11 year run, including becoming the station's program director in 1992.

When 'NEW went "talk" in 1998, Pat concentrated on his voiceover career including his yearly gig as the announcer on "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve" and doing spots for clients like Chevrolet and Pepsi.

During his nearly 15 year run at WPLJ, his 11 year stint at WNEW-FM on the air and as Program Director, and his first tour of duty on WCBS- FM, Pat has interviewed all the heavy-hitters of Rock’n’Roll. From The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Who… to Little Richard, Bo Diddley, and Dion, who calls Pat the “King of The New York Streets”.

An avid record collector all his life, Pat enjoys sharing some of his rarest sides during his weekend show, along with providing many of them for WCBS-FM’s “Collectible Cuts” segments.

During the week, Pat is busy with shows on Sirius, as well as doing commercial voiceover work from his home recording studio.  Pat can also be heard Sunday 10 to 2pm on WCBS-FM.

Rewound Radio will repeat the DJ Hall of Fame Show from Saturday where we highlighted Pat St. John. It includes airchecks from CKLW, WKNR, WPLJ, WNEW-FM, Q 104 and WCBS-FM. Plus, you’ll hear several audio contributions from Pat himself as well as the WPLJ Big Montage.  Listen Tuesday evening at 7pm eastern, ClickHere.