You may not necessarily know the name Norm Pattiz, but you probably have heard programs created or distributed by the company he founded. (Or seen the Lakers super-fan at the team’s games.)
Indeed, Pattiz is considered by many as the father of modern radio syndication via his Westwood One company. Pattiz passed away on Dec. 4th at the age of 79.
A graduate of Hamilton High School in Los Angeles, he worked in sales for KCOP-TV Channel 13 from 1970 to 1974. He launched Westwood One in 1976, which grew to be a dominant player in syndicated radio programming by the 1980s, featuring concerts and programming including “Off the Record,” the national edition of Dr. Demento’s show.
Eventually, the company acquired other syndicators including Mutual Broadcasting and the NBC Radio Network, and even lured Casey Kasem away from Watermark to host a new countdown show … then later got the rights to the American Top-40 program name under its umbrella.
In the late 1980s, Westwood One started buying its own stations, including the former KIQQ (now KKLQ, 100.3 FM) and launched Pirate Radio under the program direction of Scott Shannon. Those purchases started to undermine the finances of the company, which soon found itself having to deal with an industry in decline brought on, ironically, by large companies buying radio stations at inflated prices, leading to an over-leveraged financial situation.
Infinity Broadcasting purchased Westwood One in 1994; Pattiz stayed on until 2010 when Cumulus Media took control.
Pattiz didn’t retire, though, Instead, he started Launchpad in 2012, changing the name to PodcastOne in 2013, once again putting him at the forefront of technology. PodcastOne.Com is a clearinghouse of hundreds of professionally produced podcasts covering all interests, with such shows as “Cold Case Files,” “Reasonable Doubt,” and one of the company’s first featured programs, “The Adam Carolla Show.”
In addition to commercial radio projects, Pattiz was on the Board of Regents for the University of California before resigning following sexually inappropriate comments Pattiz made during the recording of a bra commercial at the PodcastOne in 2016. He apologized and took sexual harassment prevention training.
Pattiz served under two presidents on the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees non-military U. S. Broadcasting services such as the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe; and helped fund many radio charity events.
Pattiz was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2009 and was a recipient of the Giants of Broadcasting Award from the Liberty of American Broadcasting. His other big claim to fame: he was married to former KMET (now KTWV, 94.7 FM) air personality Mary Turner, original host of “Off the Record” and who serves as Chairman of the Board of the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage.
FTC going after Google and iHeartMedia
The Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general are suing iHeart radio stations and Google. The companies are accused of skirting truth in advertising rules by airing 29,000 ads on stations across the country featuring on-air personalities talking up their use of Pixel 4 mobile phones. The FTC argues the personalities never used — or even had — the phones.
As stated on ftc.gov (https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2022/11/ftc-states-sue-google-iheartmedia-deceptive-ads-promoting-pixel-4-smartphone ), Google hired iHeartMedia and 11 other radio networks to have on-air talent record and broadcast endorsements about using the Pixel 4 phone, saying things like “I’ve been taking studio-like photos of everything.” The FTC argues “the on-air personalities were not provided with Pixel 4s before recording and airing the majority of the ads and therefore did not own or regularly use the phones.”
This is said to have occurred in 2019-2020. One of the reasons the phones were not available for the endorsements?
They were not even available for sale at the time.
A proposed settlement puts iHeart under “probation” for 10 years, Google for three. Attorneys General from six states including California joined in the action.
