You mention that Norm Pattiz worked at KCOP-TV from 1970 to 1974, where I also worked. What you neglected to mention was the reason Norm stopped working at KCOP in 1974, which was: because he was FIRED FOR EMBEZZLEMENT!
Norm's accounts were mostly the "low-rent" variety — guys who paid bottom dollar for their ads — the Cal Worthington car dealerships being the most prominent among them — which ads mainly ran between midnight and 6 a.m. Somehow, Norm was able to skim off a few dollars from every ad placed. Eventually, he got caught and got fired.
The talk around the station at that time was that Norm would have trouble getting another job, to which I would respond: "Are you kidding? He'll be able to find another job in a heartbeat, from a company that says to itself, 'If this guy was clever enough to steal from a company as big as Chris-Craft (the station's owner), then that's the kind of cleverness I want on my team! I just hope he makes me more money than he steals!"
And sure enough, Norm got picked up almost immediately, after which he founded Westwood One, whose main draw (read "money maker") was Larry King.
One more anecdote about Norm, so you understand more fully the type of person we're talking about here: One day he and I were walking back from the catering truck in KCOP's parking lot. Norm had bought a bottle of orange juice. About halfway back to the station, he removed the bottle cap and cavalierly tossed it on the parking lot surface — approximately five feet from a bona fide trash can, placed there to keep people from doing exactly what Norm had just done.
So, yes, Mr. Pattiz may have done some wonderful, charitable things in the years since those incidents. However, before we nominate him for sainthood, I thought the world should be aware of some of the not-so-saintly things he'd done in his life. 2603:8090:D05:3E00:B130:DDFC:B398:76FA (talk) 22:31, 29 September 2022 (UTC)Reply
