{"id":21601,"date":"2019-08-02T14:30:47","date_gmt":"2019-08-02T20:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/?page_id=21601"},"modified":"2019-08-06T11:40:33","modified_gmt":"2019-08-06T17:40:33","slug":"patti-wheeler","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/patti-wheeler\/","title":{"rendered":"Patti Wheeler"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Patti Wheeler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The amount of space allocated here for Patti Wheeler\u2019s biography, is, quite honestly, not nearly enough. Although no one\u2019s bio includes everything of interest about a person\u2019s life, when it comes to Patti, this one isn\u2019t going to even come close. Which is the very reason why the ABA is inducting Patti Wheeler into the Alabama Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame \u2026 because we may never again experience the larger-than-life, force-of-nature impact that Patti made on the broadcasting industry and on everyone she knew.<\/p>\n

\u201cPatti was a copywriter at Martin and McQueen,\u201d says Bill Lawson, who would become her second morning show partner. \u201cThey called her \u2018pound \u2018em out Patti\u2019 because you could give her an idea and she could pound out a 60 and a 30 second spot, and they were beautifully and creatively written. She could do it all day long and wouldn’t be repetitive.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Patti & Doc WZZK 1981<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cYes, I knew Patti because she did voice work at my studio,\u201d says Ed Boutwell of Boutwell Studio. \u201cAccount executives would call her after making a sale and tell her the ad had to go on the next day. They would tell her what should be in the spot and she would sit there on the phone and type out perfect copy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patti\u2019s cousin, Roger Wheeler, remembers how creative she was even as a little girl. \u201cEven in like the sixth grade, she could just draw up anything,\u201d he says. \u201cShe could also read a book and tell you exactly what it said on any page and any paragraph. She was smart and I was always amazed by her.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1979, Ed Boutwell had the epic idea of pairing Patti with Tom Atkinson, another voiceover talent who recorded at the studio. \u201cWZZK was looking for a duo to take over a morning show,\u201d explains Bill, \u201cand Ed suggested that they should use Patti and Tom until they found permanent hosts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, there were no better hosts for the show, so Patti and Tom, who took the nickname \u201cDoc\u201d, became the most highly rated show in Birmingham. After enjoying 14 years in the top spot, Doc sadly succumbed to heart disease in 1993. It was not unreasonable to assume the magic was gone. But \u201cDollar\u201d Bill Lawson was already filling in for Doc so, he became Patti\u2019s next morning show partner. The new pairing continued to enjoy the same\u00a0level of success. Patti\u2019s candid nature, along with her raspy voice and sense of humor, helped her connect with listeners. She was a larger-than-life character both on the air and off, and listeners identified with her.<\/p>\n

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Patti & “Dollar” Bill<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 2002, Patti and \u201cDollar Bill\u201d moved their top rated show to WDXB where they continued together until Patti retired in 2008. \u201cShe was such a dichotomy,\u201d Bill says of his former partner of 16 years. \u201cShe was brilliant – she graduated Alabama with honors. She was very, very smart. She was the smartest\/dumbest person I’ve ever known in my life. She would turn around and do something that you would just make your jaw drop!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPatti had a soft side, too, though,\u201d remembers Roger. \u201cShe liked to help people, so she did lots of things through the station, but she also just gave things to people. Whenever she did something for the station at a McDonald\u2019s or something, people just lined up to see her.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"It must have been Patti\u2019s soft side that led to seven marriages. \u201cYeah, she always said that she didn\u2019t want to hurt anyone\u2019s feelings,\u201d her cousin continues. \u201cSo, when anybody asked her to get married, she said \u2018yes!\u2019 She was something.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Patti died in 2012, a spokesperson for the radio station said, “Patti Wheeler was as unique as they come. She truly marched to her own drummer,” adding “it just got a little crazy in heaven!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The amount of space allocated here for Patti Wheeler\u2019s biography, is, quite honestly, not nearly enough. Although no one\u2019s bio includes everything of interest about a person\u2019s life, when it comes to Patti, this one isn\u2019t going to even come close. Which is the very reason why the ABA is inducting Patti Wheeler into the … Continue reading Patti Wheeler<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-21601","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21601"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21665,"href":"https:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21601\/revisions\/21665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}