Triad Radio: Smith Patterson Signs-Off After 45-Years

Smith Patterson

After more than 40 years providing the news Winston-Salem needs to know, Smith Patterson is signing off the air.

Patterson, 67, will provide his last newscasts Friday morning on WEGO 980 AM "the Eagle", where for the past 31/2 he has reported the morning news on weekdays and chatted with morning host Bill Flynn. Before that, he worked at a variety of radio stations in the Triad, including a nearly-30-year stint at WSJS 600 AM.

His first plan in retirement: “Sleep in until at least 5:30 every morning,” he told The Winston-Salem Journal. “Usually by that time of morning, either the cats are calling or the coffee pot is, one or the other.

Though for 42 of Patterson’s 45 years on the air he has reported the news, he got his start in the radio industry because of his love of music.

When Patterson was about 10 years old, he said, he began listening to music on radio station WAAA — which was at 980 AM in Winston-Salem, the current location on the dial of The Eagle — as well as often choosing to use his lunch money on the jukebox rather than on food.

Patterson also began thinking about a career in radio. When he was 15, he recalled, he visited the WTOB studio while his mother was shopping for groceries at Thruway Shopping Center. Legendary disc jockey George Lee let him into the studio, and they chatted.

After serving in the Navy from 1968 to 1970, he landed his first radio job at a small Mocksville the very day that the morning host had quit.

That job payed $80 for a 40-hour workweek, “but I was doing what I wanted to do,” he said.
From Mocksville, he went to Statesville, then moved into the Winston-Salem market, where he has worked at various stations, including a lengthy stint at WSJS.

He was laid off from WSJS in 2012, but soon landed at WEGO, where he was paired with Bill Flynn.