Pat Martin is a retired professional broadcaster formerly on KRXQ. As of July 6, 2021, he did the morning show on sister station KSEG The Eagle, the classic rock station in

Sacramento, California Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat, seat of Sacramento County, California, Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento Rive ...

Early life

Martin grew up in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...

. He attended

Lynwood High School Lynwood High School is one of three high schools in Lynwood, California Lynwood is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the city had a total population of 67,265, down from ...

after which he attended Magnolia High School in

Anaheim Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, United States, part of the Greater Los Angeles area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orange County, the tenth-most ...

. He then attended

Cypress College Cypress College is a public community college in Cypress, California. It is part of the California Community Colleges System and belongs to the North Orange County Community College District. It offers a variety of general education (55 associat ...

before transferring to

San Diego State University San Diego State University (SDSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Diego, California, United States. Founded in 1897, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CS ...

, where he began working at campus radio station KCR-FM. Martin's first experience in the entertainment industry was in 1968 on the

Art Linkletter Arthur Gordon Linkletter (born Gordon Arthur Kelly or Arthur Gordon Kelly; sources differ; July 17, 1912 – May 26, 2010) was a Canadian-born American radio and television personality. He was the host of '' House Party'', which ran on CBS radio ...

Show, on the segment known as "Kids Say The Darndest Things".

Career

Upon graduating from college, Martin was hired by

KGB-FM KGB-FM (101.5 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to San Diego, California. It is owned and operated by iHeartMedia and broadcasts in a classic rock music format. KGB-FM's studios are located in San Diego's Kearny Mesa neighborhood o ...

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

, where he worked from 1978 to 1988 with a one-year break in between to work at KMET-FM in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

in 1986–1987. In 1988, Martin accepted a job at KRXQ-FM. He has run the midday shift (10 am to 3 pm) since August 8, 1988 and has the longest running consecutive show in Sacramento radio history. In 2010, radio historian and author Alex Cosper wrote about Martin in his article "Sacramento Radio History" from the web site "playlistresearch.com": In 2010, Pat Martin revealed that he loved his job, stating that "the listeners consider ima friend". In a 2013 interview with music website All Access, Martin stated, “In Sacramento, I am generally known as the guy who put Tesla back together. It happened in 2000. The guys had been fighting for years and I somehow convinced them to resurrect their career with a comeback show at The Arco Arena.” On August 8, 2018, Martin celebrated his 30th anniversary on KRXQ (98 Rock), with guest appearances on his show from

Ben Fong-Torres Benjamin Fong-Torres ( 方振豪; Cantonese: Fong Chan Ho; born January 7, 1945) is an American rock journalist best known for his association with ''Rolling Stone'' magazine (until 1981) and the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' (from around 1982) ...

of Rolling Stone magazine fame, Sacramento Mayor

Darrell Steinberg Darrell Steven Steinberg (born October 15, 1959) is an American politician and attorney who was the 56th mayor of Sacramento, California from 2016 to 2024. He was elected to be mayor on June 7, 2016 (avoiding a runoff). Before that, he was Calif ...

, and Frank Hannon from the Sacramento band Tesla. On September 29, 2023, Pat Martin wrapped up his radio broadcasting career. His final broadcast on KSEG 96.9 FM (The Eagle), put an end to a remarkable 46 year career, 35 of them on Sacramento airwaves. After four decades of wearing headphones for several hours a day, in addition to attending well over 1000 concerts, Pat developed tinnitus (ringing in the ears), which he cited as the reason he chose to retire.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Pat Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Lynwood High School alumni San Diego State University alumni