He may have the record for the longest run on Lexington radio at one station. Jack Pattie took the microphone on weekday mornings at News Talk 590 WVLK in 1975. Except for one year, the now 70-year-old has spent all that time at WVLK. But Pattie maybe even better known as Santa Claus.
His first opportunity to wear the white beard came in the fourth grade. “They had a Christmas program at school, and I got to be Santa because I was the teacher’s pet. And my mom stuck that beard on, and it smelled to high heaven, but I thought that’s the neatest thing I’ve done in my life. And that impressed me, that someday, I’m gonna be Santa Claus.”
In 2006 he grabbed the chance to try Santa Claus as an adult. “I got cast as Kris Kringle in the Miracle on 48th Street in Woodford County. And so that was a great learning experience.” Pattie went to a Santa Claus convention, grew a white beard, and began booking Christmas events around Central Kentucky. He admits to spending thousands of dollars on Santa costumes. “It gets to be a little bit of an obsession, I’ll admit it. And I probably have three times more wardrobe than I need, but I have a great wife who turns the other way, and never asks me what that cost.”
