Patrick Dix

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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.
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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

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  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 […]

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  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. […]

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  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 […]

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  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 […]

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  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 […]

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  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 […]

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  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 […]

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  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 […]

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  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 […]

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  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 […]

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  MORNING BUZZ: Quiet, Bowling for Dollars and Regrets

  Good Morning! Some talkers…including a few that didn’t get into the news. Quiet Neighbors on the South Side say they don’t like the idea of spending $275,000 to create a “quiet” street and creat a connection from Gray’s Lake to the Zoo. Neighbors call it a waste and say if you want to slow traffic on Southwest 14th…put a patrol car out. Of course it’s not that simple. I’m sure the people who were at the meeting heard from the […]

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  MORNING BUZZ: On the Rocks, Going Nuclear and JFK

  Good Morning On the Rocks Your Thursday night and your Friday morning looked pretty messy. Sally and I were out last night and she said, “I’m finding myself surprised to see snow on the ground…but then you think about it and it’s late November!” Not the end of the world but certainly worth paying a lot of attention when you get ice, then snow. Be safe out there this weekend if you have travel plans, and remember to keep that […]