A longtime national music formats leader who joined Local Radio Networks (LRN) in 2019 after a tenure at Cumulus Media-owned Westwood One died on Tuesday night of a heart attack. He was engaged in his second favorite passion — ice hockey.
Pat Crocker served as an Executive VP at LRN, and enjoyed a career that spanned nearly 40 years, stretching rom radio sales and management to the growth of 24/7 music formats at companies such as Jones Radio Networks (circa 2003), Dial Global and WWOne. He was also Eastern Regional Manager at Unistar Radio Networks.
“Pat’s first passion was radio,” said Chad Seng, Chief Financial Officer at LRN. “Pat helped countless radio stations find the right 24/7 music format solution to yield success in their market. To me, Pat was a personal friend and a colleague. Everyone at LRN and its affiliates will miss him. Our sincere heartfelt loss and prayers go out to his wife Teri and the entire Crocker family.”
Crocker began his career in St. Louis as a national ad sales representative and moved into local and national sales management at WIL-FM and KSHE-FM, where he would rise from LSM to GSM under Emmis Communications ownership in summer 1986.
He arrived at KSHE in 1984 following sales stints at not only WIL, but at KWK and at KDNL-TV.
Crocker would later work at KALC-FM and KIMN-FM in Denver before focusing solely on national radio formats.
