Norm Pattiz, Founder of Westwood One and Podcast One, Dies at 79.
Story by Inside Radio
Norm Pattiz (photo above), the media entrepreneur who founded Westwood One and Podcast One in a career that spanned half a century, has died. Inside Radio confirmed his passing late Monday afternoon. The cause of death was not immediately known. Pattiz was 79.
One of the leaders in the modern era of syndicated radio programming, Pattiz formed Westwood One in 1976, which grew into one of radio’s largest programming syndicators.
Pattiz surprised broadcasters in 2012 when, after working in network radio for more than three decades, he launched a company in the new medium of podcasting. Podcast One grew into a network of more than 200 shows. “Radio should be embracing podcasting and digital and make them part of radio so that radio, which has a decades-long history of growing, will be able to keep doing that,” he told the annual Radio Show conference in 2018.
In 2010, he created Courtside Entertainment Group, which produces and finances multi-platform programming for broadcast and online distribution. The name was inspired by the founder’s love for the Los Angeles Lakers, for which he was a season ticket holder for decades.
In 2020 Pattiz sold PodcastOne to LiveXLive Media, the live concert video streaming service, in an all-stock deal valued at $18.1 million. Pattiz joined LiveXLive as a significant shareholder and remained Executive Chairman of PodcastOne.
“Norm was a great innovator in the world of broadcast and his contributions to the genre are immeasurable,” Kit Gray, President of PodcastOne, said in a statement. “He left an indelible impact on everyone that he met, and he will be deeply missed.”
A National Radio Hall of Fame inductee, Pattiz was a member of the University of California Board of Regents and was appointed by both Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush to sit on the board of the Broadcasting Board of Governors which oversees all United States nonmilitary broadcasting services, including The Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, Middle East Broadcasting and others.
“I’ve been a cheerleader for radio ever since I’ve been in it,” he told Inside Radio in a 2015 interview. “I view podcasting as being the next incarnation of radio. I view it as ‘a savior – I didn’t say I view it as ‘the savior – it’s part of an overall switch from the broadcasting medium to the digital medium. Radio isn’t going away, it will always exist. But the growth of radio is going to come in different areas. The radio business should embrace digital rather than trying to compete with it or fight against it. That’s a fool’s errand.”
posted by Kirk Tanter at
12/06/2022 11:37:00 am
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