Media Roundtable: Honoring a Podcast Legend - December 7

American broadcasting entrepreneur who founded both the radio network Westwood One and the podcast network PodcastOne, Norm Pattiz, passed away on Sunday at the age of 79.

The Influencer is honoring him in two ways.

First, we have produced a special podcast episode of the Media Roundtable discussing the man and his legacy with Oxford Road Founder Dan Granger, Kit Gray, President of PodcastOne, and one of the network’s biggest names, Jordan Harbinger. This introductory conversation is followed by a resharing of Dan’s interview with Norm from May of 2020, early into the Pandemic, and talks about his life, career, and state of the world at that time. It’s a fascinating time capsule as well as a character study.

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Second, we are sharing a tribute to Norm written by Dan about the Norm he knew and what he meant to the industry and as a friend; an excerpt from that tribute begins below.

On Sunday night, Podcast lost a Founding Father.

Norm Pattiz, the architect of modern Network Radio who launched Westwood One in 1976 and pivoted to create Podcast One in 2013, passed away at 79. 

Like most Founding Fathers, Pattiz’s career was marked by the complexity of great deeds while daring greatly, enjoying the spoils, and of stories of a high-flying media mogul from a bygone era colliding with the values and expectations of our modern world. 

Tributes this week describe Norm as a “Pioneer,” “Innovator,” “Charismatic,” “Imaginative,” “Showman,” “Unstoppable,” “Always trying new things,” “Could see around corners,” “Crazy about his wife, Mary,” “Revolutionary.” 

Beyond his defining contributions to the radio and later podcast industries, Norm was chairman of the board of Lawrence Livermore and on the board of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. He was appointed by President Clinton to the United States Broadcasting Board of Governors and reappointed by President Bush in 2002. In 2009 he was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame. 

Norm was a staple at Laker Games, always sitting Courtside across from Nicholson wearing something audacious, often attracting nearly as much attention as the players. 

At the time of publication, the author remembers Norm Pattiz as a friend. 

But it didn’t start that way…

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