KTRH radio host was a ‘Texan by choice’

Michael “Matt” Patrick Ryan took the stage at an event with Houston Republicans just fourand-a-half months into his new gig at KTRH in 2011.

“If I’ve learned one thing in Houston, ” he began, “I have learned, ‘Son, you better keep your mouth shut, your eyes open and listen, because Houstonians will let you know when you have become –”

A woman interjected: “A Texan.”

He laughed. “I thank you for letting me come into your city.”

The conservative radio host, known as Matt Patrick, died Sunday at age 58 after fighting aggressive mucosal melanoma for two years.

Patrick was known for his positive attitude and spirited debates on air in Houston, weighing in on issues that ranged from President Donald Trump’s campaign to how the Super Bowl affected homelessness in the Bayou City.

He wasn’t afraid to talk about his personal life, discussing his recovery from alcoholism, his 2015 cancer diagnosis and, last week, telling listeners that he would stop treatment at MD Anderson Cancer Center.

‘True passion’

Before he was a staple of morning commutes on KTRH, however, Patrick was once new to the Lone Star State, acknowledging at that 2011 event that he was a “Texan by choice.”

He spent nearly three decades at WKDD, a morning radio show in Akron, Ohio, after starting as a DJ at age 22 in 1980. He launched The Matt Patrick Show in 2008 on a different Akron station, and he took the program to Cincinnati and Cleveland stations before moving to Houston six years ago with his family.

Here, he debated on the “Fox Face-Off ” segment on KRIV with activist Quanell X and appeared on “Lou Dobbs Tonight” as a guest commentator.

In a statement, family members called quiet moments at home his “true passion” in life. He took his son on annual cabin trips and watched football on Sundays. Almost every morning, they said, he started the day in the hot tub with prayer.

Patrick is survived by his wife Paula, son Jake, daughters Alexandra and Alanna, mother, stepfather and other family members.

“My goodness, if everybody loved their family like Matt Patrick loved his, the world would be a better place,” colleague Michael Berry said Sunday.

Over the past six years, Houston listeners welcomed his voice into their cars, offices and homes. His cancer weakened his broadcast boom to just above a whisper at times, and his fans sent their support in letters to the station.

“We have never met, never spoke, but I feel I know you so well,” one wrote.

“I sometimes feel you are the only reason I get up early in the morning,” said another.

James Simpson, who worked with Patrick since 2013 as a KPRC afternoon producer, said the host came to work in a tie every day – even though his listeners would never see it — to show professionalism.

“He was a workhorse,” Simpson said. “He got in early, ready to go, and everybody had to be on his level.”

‘No more fighting’

He was diagnosed with cancer in September 2015, and in an interview with Fox 26 news the following January, he said his outlook was improving.

“The hair doesn’t look as good as I would like,” he quipped.

He acknowledged then that he and his wife struggled initially with the diagnosis but took recovery one day at a time with support from friends.

His final broadcast was last week, when he told listeners that he would stop treatment.

“There will be no more fighting. There will be no more going back to the hospital. It will be up to God,” he said.

Berry said he knew the end was near that day. “It made me happy that he was getting to say goodbye in his way doing what he loved to do,” he wrote.

His KTRH colleagues called him “a true conservative” in a statement on Sunday.

“As a veteran of radio, he delivered award-winning broadcasts year after year that embody the very foundation on which our country was founded: God, guns, country,” KTRH said in a statement. “Matt deeply believed in protecting and defending the Constitution and all that it stands for just as our Founding Fathers would have wanted and expected.”