Famed Seattle DJ Pat O’Day dies at 85

SEATTLE (AP) - Longtime disc jockey, concert promoter and Seafair race announcer Pat O’Day has died. He was 85 years old.

KOMO reports that his family announced that O’Day died Tuesday at his home in the San Juan Islands.

As Seattle’s highest-profile DJ of the 1960s and the region’s dominant dance promoter, O’Day ran Northwest rock ‘n’ roll for nearly a decade and is credited with helpiong bring the Seattle music scene to national prominence.

He was the afternoon drive personality at Seattle’s KJR, where he would eventually become program director and general manager. He owned KYYX in the mid-1970s and early 1980s.

Starting in 1967, O’Day served as the long-time hydroplane race announcer and commentator during Seafair for various radio and TV stations, most recently KIRO TV.

In a Facebook post, his son Jeff O’Day said that his father had managed to beat lung cancer it weakened his lungs.

“He knew the gifts he had been given and how spectacular his life had been, Dad was ready,” his son wrote.