Patrick Dix

13 fascinating facts about Pat Dix:
• I’m the youngest of 32 grandchildren… on my Dad’s side.
• My wife’s given name is Sarah Elizabeth… my parents were convinced I was going to be a girl and had only picked out a girl’s name for me… Sarah Elizabeth.
• I got into radio/TV after my basketball career stalled in High School.
• I can no longer stand to eat bananas, pudding, applesauce and jello because I ate too much of it as a kid, but I can eat the same thing for breakfast every day as an adult and not get tired of it.
• I graduated 437th of 673 people in my high school class and do not make a list of notable alumni. That list includes: President Obama’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel; actors Adam Baldwin, Ann-Margret, Charlton Heston, Rock Hudson, Virginia Madsen, Charlotte Ross and Rainn Wilson; Fall Out Boy guitarist Joe Trohman and bassist Pete Wentz; and former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
• I grew up where John Hughes shot most of his best movies… Ferris Buehler, Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Risky Business, Sixteen Candles, Home Alone, Uncle Buck.
• I have taken several dream vacations but one of the most memorable was to Scotland with my Dad and Uncle to play some of the greatest golf courses on the planet.
• I played Harold Hill in my high school production of “The Music Man” and never thought I would actually live in Iowa, and yes… I can still do the “Trouble” monologue.
• I was the second best triple jumper on my high school track team.
• I invented a drink called… “The Flaming A” by mistake.
• I’ve boarded a US Navy Destroyer from a rope ladder while the ship was moving.
• My favorite interview I’ve ever conducted was actor Hal Holbrook. I asked one question and an hour later he ended a diatribe about society with “Get real Geel!” I said thank you and turned the camera off and I still don’t know what that means.
• My sons are Sons of the American Revolution (on my wife’s side!), with papers and all to prove it.
________________________________________

You can see Patrick Dix weekday mornings on Channel 13’s Today in Iowa morning show.

After attending the University of Missouri School of Journalism, he started his career reporting in chilly Duluth, Minnesota. His second job brought Patrick back south to his home state of Illinois where he anchored and reported for NBC affiliate WEEK-TV in Peoria. Patrick has been recognized for outstanding reporting with awards from The Society of Professional Journalists and the William Randolph Hearst Foundation. Patrick Dix joined Channel 13 News in February of 1999.

The TV news bug runs in the family. Patrick’s oldest brother is the director of Chicago’s WGN-TV morning news, and his grandfather spent his career in radio and television in Minneapolis and Chicago.

When he’s not in the newsroom, Patrick is usually swinging a golf club. He also enjoys reading, listening to Frank Sinatra and fly-fishing. Patrick married his wife Sally in 1999 and lives in Des Moines.

Recent Articles

  • MORNING BUZZ: Silver Lining, Theatre and Spring Cleaning

    Good Morning! I know it’s been a while.  Sorry for that. Lets get right to it. Silver Lining I am not a native Iowan but I still appreciate the connection people have to the Younkers building.  I spent some time in the Downtown Younkers when I first moved here. They used to pay for our haircuts and the downtown location had a salon.  I got lost more than once trying to find the place and wandering the back hallways of […]

  • MORNING BUZZ: Budget, Potholes and Theatre

    Good Morning! Right to it… Budget Back-off The West Des Moines School Board heard from dozens of teachers and parents and staff who asked that elementary school and special education positions didn’t get cut in the budget for next year.  The Board decided not to cut those jobs.  It’s an understandable choice given the emotion surrounding the situation. The District can’t raise taxes and is land locked so revenue isn’t going up.  You have to feel for everyone involved. That […]

  • MORNING BUZZ: Franchise, Embarrassing and Really…LET IT GO!

    Good Morning! So I was sitting at my desk yesterday and a colleague stopped by my desk to talk for a second.  He and I don’t see each other on a day-to-day basis…he looked at me and said “are you high?”.  Obviously I answered  no at 10:30 in the morning (or anytime really).  He said my eyes looked red and glassy.  No no, that’s just the benefits of 15 years of a morning schedule.  I’m 10 days away from a […]

  • Morning Buzz: Defending Lolo

    Look, I am NOT a Lolo Jones defender.  I think she is a remarkable athlete…I think at times, her “star power” outpaces her accomplishments, and I think at times her headaches are of her own making.  Not so today.  I actually find myself mad about some of the cheap criticism coming Lolo’s way.  It’s as if the petty critics couldn’t wait for Lolo’s team to fall behind on its first runs so they could jump up and down on her. […]

  • MORNING BUZZ: Fend for Yourself, Fallon and Five

    Good Morning! I decided I should write something after getting this email: So I’ve been waiting and waiting and neither of you have posted anything this month…. I knew Soundoff was taking a break… I didn’t know the blogs were too!!! Just in case you didn’t think anyone noticed…. J Thanks for the reminder…just a combination of busy and not having a lot to say about the news. Not the case this morning. Fend for Yourself I almost went through […]

  • MORNING BUZZ: Cold Open, Euro Robot and Hustled

    Good Morning! Cold Open We’ll start with the Weather. Anyone else sick of it? It’s not so much the temperature as it is the wind that seems to come along with all of our cold snaps. I’m also not fond of the wind after our Saturday morning at Wal-Mart. We parked out farther away from the store to avoid some of the tight parking spaces so as not to ding our new car. As I was opening the door, I […]

  • MORNING BUZZ: Fill in the Blank

    Good Morning. I’m going to need some help this morning…seriously I have some questions. See if you can help. -What do the people who testified at the Statehouse say about the allegations of abuse against teens at the Iowa Juvenile Home? I didn’t hear any of that. I’m sure the Home helped many young women move in a positive direction in their lives. I am sure that many of the staff members really cared about those girls. Here’s the bottom […]

  • MORNING BUZZ: Wealth, Health and Wise?

    Good Morning! Wealth NBC’s Today show will feature the Des Moines Metro area as one of, if not THE “wealthiest” city in America. Now at first blush that statement is ridiculous. I think the idea came from all of the lists that Des Moines finds itself on. Best City for this, Best City for that….Kiplingers, Forbes, Parenting,Business Journal… on and on and on… The question from the outside then comes, what’s so special about Des Moines? After spending some time […]

  • MORNING BUZZ: This One’s for you TP

    Good Morning! Proving that the reach of Morning Buzz crosses state lines, I got a text message from one of our readers in Boston suggesting my “not that hard working backside” had enough of a Winter’s rest and that I should get back to work… So be it. Gov’s Race The Governor’s race is officially set between State Sen Jack Hatch and Gov Terry Branstad. I say this knowing there’s another democrat jumping into the race. I still think it’s […]

  • MORNING BUZZ: Appeal, Approval, and AP?

    Good Morning To the news: Appeal The appeal of some state workers for their jobs at the State’s Juvenile Home in Toledo is probably not going to work. The Governor is recommending closure of the home after accusation staff had mistreated young women who lived there in the past. I am not judging what happened or didn’t happen there./ I wasn’t there and I do not know the circumstances. That said, the behavior that’s come out violates the rules set […]

  • MORNING BUZZ: Christmas Time is Here

    Good Morning. After a long five day weekend I was refreshed and ready to come back this morning. Megan will be with us on the desk for Today in Iowa all week and Brooke takes some well deserved time off. I actually volunteered to do our Christmas shopping for the boys on SATURDAY of all days. Now, we did most of the boys shopping, to this point, online. I always thought the depiction of parents shopping a crowded toy store […]

  • MORNING BUZZ: Closed Doors, Agreement and 400 million

    Good Morning… Hopefully some quick hits… Closed Doors Tapes of a closed session of the Des Moines School Board revealed there was, in fact, a conversation about how to handle the resignation of Dr Nancy Sebring in the Media. There was also an effort to come up with a story that, at best, didn’t reveal the whole truth and, at worst, was an outright lie. You can decide which you think it is. I don’t think there was any nefarious […]