Pat's Peeps Podcast

Ep. 343 Today's Peep Presents Great News! Number One at Night, Chasing a Talk Radio Dream, Built Trust with Listeners, Beat the Odds, and Became #1 by Staying Human

• Pat Walsh

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We celebrate a rainy October Friday, reflect on the long road to a nightly talk show, and share the data that proves listener loyalty. From a near-syndication in 2020 to today’s #1 TSL rating at night, we lay out what trust, timing, and community have built together.

• walking update and fresh momentum
• thanks to listeners and small businesses
• podcast–radio synergy and growth path
• early career drive and delayed talk opportunity
• the elevator conversation that led to the show
• audience pushback when a Thursday hour was replaced
• switching from humor to crisis coverage on demand
• syndication attempt halted by 2020 layoffs
• Nielsen ratings explained: cume vs time spent listening
• being #1 in TSL among adults 35–64
• producing the show without an editorial producer
• twelve-year milestone in the evening slot
• clear ask to share and help grow the pod

If you could tell a friend, recommend us—help us keep growing Pat’s Peeps and bring Sacramento charm to more ears


SPEAKER_01:

Hey, today is the 3rd of October 2025. My name is Pat Wall. I am the host of the Pat Wall Show. KFBK News Radio 93.1 FM 1530 a.m. Heard Monday through Friday, 7 to 10 p.m. I'm starting with that today. And telling you that as I look out my studio window, well, I'm not doing that. I'm out walking, as you can probably tell already. Oh my goodness, happy Friday! Happy Friday! I'm loving it. I'm gonna start just real quick with the update of my workouts. I am now finding myself going faster and further with less effort every single time I go out. It is fantastic. I'm so glad I started doing this. The aerobic exercise, the cardiovascular. Wow, awesome, man. Today it's beautiful out, it's cloudy. Of course, we're coming off what three days, three or four days of rain, which has been just awesome, if I may say. Happy October. My two favorite months, October and May. May because spring and the sun finally comes out after a long winter. October, because everything is beautiful like this, with everything turning orange as I walk down this beautiful road up in my neighborhood. So today I just kind of want to thank you again. I definitely want to thank you. I want to thank you for your support and supporting small business. I hope you'll do that. Uh we're trying to build the pod and get more listeners, and we're accomplishing that every day. So I started out by telling you that I'm the host of the Pat Walsh radio show, Terrestrial Radio. And I got off the phone today with someone who I I adore and I trust. And she is a confidant, she is a professional, and she's someone I can turn to at times to you know talk behind-the-scenes radio kind of stuff and sales and promotions and things like that. So, Michelle, hello. Shout out to you, Michelle. So during this conversation, we have more opportunities with businesses that we can support through radio. My radio station is now asking me, and they have now for the last year, if I would be okay if they mentioned Pat's Peeps podcast when they are trying to get sales for radio. That is absolutely huge because this was just an idea to support local business and to be in that unique position to have a not only the podcast of this podcast, Pat's Peeps, that you're listening to, but have a radio show where I can promote it. Beautiful. So if we can recruit small business local mom and pops and help them just like we're trying to do on Pat's Peeps, that's wonderful. Because now that opens up new doors for KFBK businesses to associate and align themselves with my radio show and with my Pat's Peeps. So that's how we're growing. But I don't want to spend the whole time today on Pat's Peeps 343. You know, I'm coming up to almost a year's worth of these podcasts. I've been doing this coming up on two years, but you know, I don't do it on the weekends or holidays, so we are booming. We're on fire. Here's the thing: I want to talk about radio. I want to talk about my show and how blessed I am to have my radio show, The Pat Wall Show. Sometimes I think you caught on to my podcast due to my radio show, but perhaps that's not correct. Perhaps you caught up to my perhaps you caught on to my podcast and are now just discovering that I have a radio show. Whichever way that works, I am so blessed and thankful, like I said. I appreciate you checking out both of them. So I it was my dream to do radio, to do talk radio ever since I was in radio. I got in radio in 1990, but I always wanted my own talk show. I felt like I was ready for it right away. I mean, I know that might sound crazy, I certainly don't mean for it to sound egotistical in any way. I just knew what I wanted to do, and I was ready to do it. I was ready to make mistakes, I was ready to evolve and to begin that evolution as a talk show host. However, having looked back on it, A, I wish to hell the radio stations would have believed in me a long, long time ago and saved me some years of my age. So I could have been doing this a long time ago at the same time. B, I'm so glad that at least one person, Ken Charles, said to me at one point, Pat, he called me in his office one day, and he said, Hey Pat, let me talk to you real quick. I always hear you walking around here, you're always talking about how you think you could do a talk show. Uh-huh. Now, no other general manager, or no, he was a uh program director. No other general manager or program director said that to me before. Those are the words I always wanted to hear. The words I really wanted to hear was you have your own talk show. But the second best thing that I would want to hear is, hey, I understand you've always wanted a talk show. So that because that could lead to something, right? So, of course I said, Yeah, yes I do. You got a CD? I understand you used to fill in for Armstrong and Getty. Yep, I gave my CD, I gave him like two or three CDs, air checks, me filling in for A and G. You know, he kept those. I I've never seen them again. I don't believe I've ever seen them again. Well, he never listened to him. Later on, I asked him, he never even listened to him. But what he did say that when he called me in the office that day, he said, uh, well, here's the thing. Maybe that'll happen. You never know. Uh what? Basically, I'll believe that when I see it, but hey, you sir, are the first person to ever say that to me. Wow, okay. And this was in March, which I was celebrating my anniversary at that station at that time. I came to work for these stations in March. And so he says, Well, if it does happen, we're probably looking at maybe September or October. And I thought, oh, okay, well, that gives me a little time to think about it, and it gives you a whole lot of time to change your mind and put in some syndicated radio show. They were actually already doing that, to be honest. They had Sean Hannity running reruns of Sean Hannity 7 to 10 p.m. And they couldn't sell it. They were getting like$15 for a minute spot. I swear someone told me that one time. Can you imagine for a heritage radio station, 50,000 watt flamethrower like KFPK? Unbelievable. You ain't doing that now, 7 to 10 p.m. Oh no. So I thought about that ever since that day, and he told me that. I thought, okay, well, we'll see. We'll see. So one day in September, I'm sitting at my desk as the sports guy. K FBK. That was my signature lockout as the sports guy for all those many years. And Ken Charles comes up to my desk. Now, when the boss comes to your desk and you're working, that's either good or bad. Right, so in this case, he says to me, hey, follow me to the elevator. Let's let's walk downstairs. And I thought, oh god, here it is. It is the walk of, you know, uh, what would you call it? The the final walk where they walk you out of the building, your time has come, blah blah blah, negative thoughts, whatever. I didn't really feel that way, but you know, hey, could be that's what he's gonna tell you in a gentle way, in a human way, because you've been there so long, he needs to take you aside. But it was quite the opposite. We got down the elevator, and he tells me, Patrick, your dream's gonna come true. I'm giving you your own show. What? 7 to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday. Then I gave him the biggest heterosexual bear hug that you could possibly imagine, and thanked him profusely for that. Okay, so at one point, I wasn't even gonna bring this up, I didn't even think about it till just now. A couple of years into my show, they tried to sabotage my show. Someone in sales. To this day, I don't know who it was. I don't want to be accusatory, but I saw it as trying to sabotage someone trying to sabotage my show in a certain way. I'm sorry to say that, but if you if anyone thinks back to Thursday nights, 7 o'clock hour, during one year of my show, some of you might remember the Sacramento Business Exchange for one hour before I came on. Now, trust me, people don't do that. You don't do that. What other show would be an established show and management would come to them and say, hey, during your highest rated hours, we have done our research, we're gonna put another show on in that hour, now that you've established that, to try to sell advertising for the station. I don't know what the what their goal was, but it was short-lived. To my audience's credit, no one bought into that. Their phone lines lit up, people were angry, and they were saying, Where's the Pat Wall show? We don't want to hear that. We don't want to hear this. Now, having said all of that, this is no reflection on the host who I like. Uh, I don't know who the management was at that time, so I can't say, and I wouldn't even say it anyhow, because I'm not trying to place blame. It's not anyone to blame. Sometimes you just let the product do the talking, and that's what I did, and that's what they did, and it failed in that regard. And and I'm proud of that, to be honest with you. You know, you took an hour away from me. They saw their mistake, they've never done it again, and since then, they have never stood in my way, they have always, to their credit, allowed me this management, Bill White, and this management has allowed me, Steve and my GM, Sarah, former GM, they've allowed me to do my show. The way I see it, the way I see fit, whatever I feel like doing. They put their trust in me. And they have put their trust in me in extremely important times, not just at the end of the day when I'm trying to make people laugh and all of that, but in times of um national stories. The attempted assassination of our president, the murderer by a coward by Charlie Kirk. They call me in because they have the confidence, they know my flexibility from making people laugh, hopefully, entertaining, what have you. And I certainly not saying that from an egotistical standpoint. I'm simply talking about the facts of radio and what we are doing. For them to put that trust in me, I am extremely grateful. Okay, which brings me to this. I was talking, like I said, to Michelle, this confidant, this colleague, sweetheart, someone I can trust. You know, I was almost syndicated at one time, and she said, Well, what on earth happened to that? Because you should be, you should be syndicated on nighttime on iHeartRadio. They're looking for a show, it should be yours. I agree. So I am gonna go ahead and continue to pursue that and keep the show the way it is, and just add to it, make it even better. Bring the Sacramento charm to the rest of the world, show them what Sacramento is, what our attitude is. You know, and I want to say this because I am getting close now to a Friday train trestle shout out on Pat's Peeps 343. And when I say this, I say this with the ut with the utmost pride. Alright? Here's the news I received today. Here we go. Train trestle shout out for a Friday.

SPEAKER_00:

The Pat Wolf Show! Number one! With adults in the ratings, time spent listening.

SPEAKER_01:

How about that? Number one. My show, as revealed to me today, is the number one rated show in Sacramento, ages adults 35-64, on one of the biggest stations, most popular radio stations in the United States, and for that matter in America, KFEK, where Rush Limbach came from, and Morton Downey Jr., Tom Sullivan, and who knows, a couple of years ago would have been the Pat Wall syndication. Here's what happened on that, by the way. That happened to be 2020. For about two months, Kitty O'Neill, my colleague and the afternoon news host, we do the handoff to my show with Kitty. And we'd get to freewheel it as long as we want, two, three, four, five minutes, whatever we're talking about. We have that luxury. But at this point, we had to be out at two minutes and 50 seconds so that all the other radio stations would know when to start the program, the syndicated program. But as with many things that happened in 2020, there was a huge layoff. And the management team portion of that that was in place at that time and making that happen for me and for us, they were a gone, they were laid off. So it hasn't been brought up since. So for Michelle, who represents the station, to say to me, Patrick, you need to go revisit that. Because she says, We all know in this building how strong your following is on your show. And that's all because of you guys. Thank you. I mean, honestly, thank you so much. From the bottom of my right now, very heavy pounding heart from running. Every beat of that not just sustains my life, but thanks you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Unbelievable, you guys. We are number one in the ratings. She told me, she shared with me that going all the way back, that's not just the latest book. We are number one in adults 3564. We are number one in time spent listening. This is from the Nielsen ratings. Is it Nielsen, I think she said? Uh and we have been since January, which is far back as she looked. She said, going back to January, probably before that, you have by far the biggest TSL. There's two things you want to look out for in ratings. Because I'm number two in Kume. And I said, okay. She goes, but we don't really look at Kume. We look at TSL. Now, what's the difference? I'll I'm happy to explain that real quick. She goes, and by the way, do you want to know who beat you out? I said, Well, of course I do. It was the mix, it's like adult contemporary music. I mean, probably like Lionel Ritchie or Steely Dan or maybe like yacht rock kind of stuff. They're number one. Ready to go, mix. They're number one in Kume. So Kume means more people listening at that time. There's more people listening to the station at that time. So nighttime, you know, sometimes it's the eagle that can be number one in Kume. Because it's music. And I think that a lot of people have the perception that if they tune in to talk radio at night, they're probably gonna get more politics, whatever, which is not what we focus on. We get into it, you bet, but that's not our focus. So they want to listen to music. So, but in terms of TSL, that stands for Time Spent Listening. What that means is you have a large audience and they listen for long periods of time. Some of you folks listen for an hour, two hours, some of you listen for three hours. I'm astonished. It's unbelievable. So TSL is what they pay attention to, according to Michelle. And I've known that. And the TSL is through the roof. So I've always felt like this. I'm gonna slow down. I hope I'm not breathing too hard into this podcast. But I always felt like this. I had that dream years ago. I knew exactly how I wanted to do my show. I didn't want to make it all serious, I didn't want to make it all funny, I wanted a mix. And the honest truth is the only other member of my radio show, direct member, is Solo Orr. Very nice young man. Solo Orr is the technical producer, which means he runs the board, helps play the music, he you know plays the commercials, he gives me my cues, he takes the phone calls, he deals with situations as they arise, technical issues and things. He's saved our butt on numerous occasions. A producer, a radio producer, is someone who says, hey, to the host, I have this guest available, or we I have this idea. What do you think about this? I think we could have a lot of fun with this idea, or would you like me to line up a guest so they try to help you directly with your show in that way in that way? That's a difference. I don't have that. I have always been my own radio producer, and so I and I'm the host. So I feel this way. If it works, I'm gonna take responsibility for that. If it doesn't work, I'm gonna take responsibility for that. Because it's all on my shoulders. But here's the thing I'm the most proud of, and I'll finish with this because I'm tired and I want to keep breathing hard. We're coming up on 12 years of doing this show. October 14th will be one dozen years, 12 years of the Pat Walsh show. That is longer as I as I understand it, as long as I've been keeping track, because I've known the previous hosts, all fine fellows. That's the longest that this that that nighttime spot and if someone has other information wants to correct that, let me know. But that is the longest running evening show on KFPK that I am aware of. We are coming up on 12 years. I started my show October 14th, 2013. So we're 11 days away from that milestone of 12 years. Thank you so much. Okay, this is just my Friday way of reaching out to you, thanking you. And you know, I hope we can continue to grow my podcast audience. You know, uh, if you guys would look keep listening, if you could tell a friend, recommend us some of those of you who caught on the other day when we had so many downloads. I hope I can retain some of you folks, you know, because it's such an honor for you to listen. So with that in mind, I reckon we'll go back in the studio with Pat. Alright, back to you, buddy. Well, thank you. Now that you mention it, Pat, that is that's pretty remarkable. Wow. Congratulations.

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Pat walsh

Host