Podcast Loses A Friend

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. 

It was 2012, and after six years of poking at the budding universe of on-demand audio, I was looking for a way in. I served as a foot soldier in Clear Channel’s army (now iHeartMedia), selling and managing local radio campaigns. I knew the field was ripe for disruption and believed to my core that Podcast would be the answer, and I couldn’t find a way to make a living at it. 

Then I met Adam Carolla. He was doing a hit on a local radio broadcast to plug his new podcast venture in a studio a stone’s throw away from my desk. He was the first household name to leave traditional media behind and go all in on the new platform. And he was right down the hall at Clear Channel. So I waited until he finished and pitched to get permission to sell sponsors into his show as he walked to his car.

We ran a few tests, and the ads worked like magic for our clients. 

Along with my trusted associates Gary Brown and Miranda Romano (still key leaders at Oxford Road), we began a cold outreach campaign to any podcasters with enough published reviews on apple to suggest a marketable audience. Then I saw the headline that former radio colleague Kit Gray had teamed up with Radio Industry Titan, Norm Pattiz, to launch a new venture organizing an independent network to turn this fledgling forum for audio hobbyists into an entire industry. 

When Norm Pattiz entered the podcast arena, it was a shot across the bow. He locked up Adam Carolla in a representation contract as the cornerstone of his new network. Despite our efforts, there was no getting around Norm Pattiz and PodcastOne.

I had heard stories about Norm, the radio legend, and I instantly believed they were all true the moment we met. He was intimidating. Like the legends of old Hollywood powerbrokers who might say, “You’ll never work in this town again” if you crossed them. His assistant would call you and say she had Norm Pattiz on the line. But when we spoke about the business, he was focused, measured, and saw imaginative paths to a win-win. 

I accepted the new reality without any alternative options, and we started conducting business in good faith. 

Norm always delivered. He and his team worked with us to ensure client objectives were met while adding a pinch of old-fashioned Hollywood razzle-dazzle. The guy had first-class taste and the resources to create experiences that caused bonds to form between Network, Talent, Agency, and Client. The consummate showman, he taught me how we could do serious business and still have some fun. He had a bit of PT Barnum in him and modeled ways to stand out in an industry I’m still trying to digest. He was also funny and enough of a rascal that age wasn’t a burier to the relationship. 

Norm was not for everybody, but he was definitely for me. He has his fingerprints on the success of our agency and supported us as we rose from a struggling startup to the leading independently owned audio agency in the world. Over time, I got to know Norm better. I respected what he was able to achieve in our industry and found him very accessible in giving me advice on what it meant to run a business. 

He made his way into my heart most deeply as a true friend to Oxford Road and me in a time of need. After a few years of meteoric growth at Oxford Road, we entered a season of growing pains that introduced new challenges I had never experienced. Norm ended up on my business 911 list and graciously guided me out of some jams, for which I’ll be eternally grateful. 

Norm Pattiz believed in me. He would invite me to guest on shows and panels. When the pandemic hit, I started a new podcast for marketers to help guide them through uncharted waters. Lke many partners, Norm came on the show as an early guest when we didn’t have the audience to justify his time. Not only did he come on, he also contacted me after and invited us to join his network, knowing full well our niche focus would never be a real money maker. That’s why today Media Roundtable is part of the PodcastOne network. 

Norm was a visionary. Like Cornelius Vanderbilt moving from shipping to rail at 70, he left the industry where he had made his fortune because could see change was in the air. Podcast would disrupt Radio and become the digital beachhead to revitalize the industry, and he saw that years before his radio peers.

Pioneers are generally complex people, and Norm Pattiz was no exception. But if you want a revolution, you need to accept complex people as friends. Hopefully, they’ll accept your complexities too. 

If you work in the podcast industry or even listen to podcasts, you should know that Norm Pattiz was the first true Captain of Industry to step onto the field. In his final act, he rolled up his sleeves and poured the concrete for the roads we’re now walking on.  

Norm positively impacted millions of people, and I will raise my hand and say he made my life better through his generosity, wisdom, and friendship. 

Farewell, my friend. May your voice forever echo.

Dan