R.I.P.: Legendary Raleigh Personality Pat Patterson

Pat Patterson

Pat Patterson, a longtime presence on Triangle airwaves as a radio deejay, passed away Sunday.

He was 81 years old, and his death followed a long period of declining health, according to newsobserver.com.

Patterson was on the air for six decades, most of them at various stations in the Triangle, including WQDR and WDNC. But he remains best-known for his time at top-40 station WKIX 850 AM, which brought him to Raleigh in 1969.

With the early-morning “Patterson Program,” he became as renowned for his skits as the music he played.

Along with reading the daily local school menu (punctuated by a recorded “Yum yum!”), Patterson and his cohorts would spin tales set in a universe that sounded like a cross between “Hee Haw” and “A Prairie Home Companion.” Recurrent favorites included “Johnny Dollar” reading Shakespeare; “Two Flags Over Fuquay,” an imaginary amusement park; and the perpetually grounded “Fundermontz Airlines” (“You think you’re flying, but you’re not”).



In recent years, Patterson was semi-retired but still doing weekend shifts on WKIX-AM, playing oldies as well as his trademark skits.