Pat St. John
Pat St. John is an American radio personality and voice-over artist. He began his radio career on Windsor, Ontario's CKLW in 1969 and 1970, followed by WKNR in late 1970 to early 1972, followed by WRIF FM to April 1973. St. John is best known for the 42 years he spent in the New York City radio market working for WPLJ, WNEW-FM, WAXQ and WCBS FM. He can now be heard on XM Radio">XM Satellite Radio">XM Radio '60s Gold Weekdays 3PM to 7 PM ET and Saturdays from 8-11PM ET. St. John has done television voiceover work, including announcing for Dick Clark's [New Year's Rockin' Eve] from 2000 to 2010.
St. John is known for his conversational on-air style interspersed with bits of music trivia, along with "Collectible Cuts" from his extensive record library. He has been called a "walking encyclopedia" when it comes to his knowledge of music. St. John has interviewed many musicians. In 2023, St. John was inducted into the national Radio Hall of Fame. In 2025, the CD Johnnie Johnson: I'm Just Johnnie was released, which includes a second CD of interviews that Pat did with Johnnie Johnson.
Early years in Detroit
St. John was born in Detroit and was raised on the music of Motown. In early 1969, at the age of 18, he landed his first gig as a radio personality on Windsor's CKLW, where he also worked for CKLW's 20/20 news doing newscasts one day a week, and part-time booth announcing on CKLW-TV Channel 9. In late 1970 he moved across the border to WKNR and was then hired in early 1972 at the ABC-owned album-oriented rock station WRIF until 1973.WPLJ and WNEW years
In April 1973, St. John began an almost 15-year stint at New York's WPLJ. For most of his years at WPLJ he was rated by Arbitron as the most-listened-to afternoon radio personality in America. He survived the station's transition from AOR to top 40 in 1983, and during that era, continued his Arbitron ratings success with that same ranking.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 in the early 1990s while continuing his mid-day show until being asked to do morning-drive. St. John remained with the station until it switched to a hot talk format in 1998.
Post WNEW career
After the demise of WNEW's rock format, St. John was one of the first programmers hired by CD Radio in October 1998 as the Director of classic Rock Programming). CD Radio would later change its name to Sirius Satellite Radio, and then after acquiring XM Satellite Radio become known as SiriusXM, where he remains today as one of their most popular personalities. He also joined WCBS-FM in 2002, followed by moving to WAXQ in 2004 where he stayed until late 2006. In July 2007, he returned to the re-incarnated WCBS-FM following the station's short-lived detour to "Jack FM". In February 2008, St. John actually replaced Howard Cogan as the pre-recorded voice of the Jack character on WCBS-FM-HD2 and its web stream at until it became ToNY. In 2023, he can be heard regularly on '60s Gold classic rock.He has also been the voice of Metropolitan Opera Radio on the service, further showing his versatility. St. John was also chosen to announce system-wide that Howard Stern would be joining Sirius.
St. John's association with classic rock has continued throughout the years as he has been asked for his input on several classic rock projects. He was thanked in the liner notes of albums by Marvin Gaye and Jr. Walker and The All-Stars, as well as the box-sets of Stevie Wonder and The Temptations. St. John is the narrator of the two-CD set "The classic rock Story Volume 1: The 1960s". He can also be heard on classic rock's web site narrating several classic rock stories.
St. John was recognized by Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland by being added to their permanent display of America's Greatest Classic Rock Air Personalities.