Pat St. John
Pat St. John is one of the U.S.'s preeminent and longest serving radio personalities and voice artists. Known as The Dee-Jay’s DJ, he began his radio career on Windsor, Canada's CKLW in 1969, but is best known for his work in the New York City market on WPLJ, WNEW-FM, WCBS-FM and WAXQ. He also can also be heard on several Sirius XM Radio channels, and has done extensive television voiceover work, including announcing for Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve since 2000.
St. John is known for his conversational on-air style with interspersed bits of music trivia, along with "Collectible Cuts" from his extensive record library.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early years in Detroit
St. John was born in Detroit and was raised on the music of Motown. In 1969, at the age of 18, he landed his first gig as a radio personality on Windsor's CKLW, and the following year he moved across the border to WKNR. His last Detroit job was at the ABC-owned album-oriented rock (AOR) station WRIF from 1971 until 1973.
[edit] WPLJ and WNEW years
In 1973, St. John began a 15-year stint at New York's WPLJ. He survived the station's transition from AOR to top 40 in 1983, and during that era, he was rated by Arbitron as the city's top-rated afternoon disc jockey.
He left WPLJ in 1987, and returned to his rock roots on WNEW-FM, which had been WPLJ's rival during its AOR years. He became the station's program director for a short period in the early 1990s, and remained with the station until it switched to a hot talk format in 1999.
[edit] Recent career
After the demise of WNEW's rock format, St. John decided to focus primarily on his voiceover career. He has been the announcer for Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve in 2000, and continues to do voiceovers for commercials. He was the voice of WXYZ-TV in Detroit for years.
St. John began his involvement with Sirius Satellite Radio in 1998. Following the service's launch in 2002, he was heard on such channels as '60s Vibrations, The Vault, and SIRIUS Blues, where he has served as format manager. Since Sirius' merger with former rival XM in 2008, he can be heard on The 50s on 5, Deep Tracks, and Bluesville.
He returned to New York radio in 2002 on WNEW's sister oldies station WCBS-FM. In 2004, he moved to WAXQ where he stayed until 2006. In July 2007, he returned to the reincarnated WCBS-FM, where his regular airshift is on Sundays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. EST. In February 2008, St. John replaced Howard Cogan as the pre-recorded voice of the Jack character on WCBS-FM-HD2 and its web stream at ilikejack.com.
