Pat Shingleton grew up in the small western Pennsylvania town of Ellwood City, about an hour outside of Pittsburgh. Life was always lively being the third of the four older brothers. His father was a hardworking butcher, and his mother a loving homemaker who became the grounding force of the family.

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Some of Pat’s favorite childhood memories centered around Saturday night “Party Time,” when the family gathered together to watch a movie. His mother would make her famous “party dip” for the chips, and each child was given “a small glass full of ice cubes and a shot of Pepsi” to enjoy during the show. To this day, Pat still talks about those special nights and his mother’s homemade bread.

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Pat’s mother, Shirley, constantly reminded her children to “do a good deed daily,” a lesson that stayed with him throughout his life. Growing up, Pat balanced school, sports, piano lessons, chores, and family responsibilities — usually with one or two brothers right beside him doing the very same thing.

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Pat packed up his 1976 gold Camaro with all his belongings and headed to Louisiana in May 1977. With limited broadcast experience, he was hired as weekday weathercaster at WAFB TV. His weather segments were full of life. He was working with magnetic numbers on his weatherboard. Once, when temperatures were falling, he banged the board hard and all the numbers fell to the floor. He always entertained his audience with his antics as long as the weather was good and informed them, without scaring them, when it was bad. "I think what I do is comic relief, with the weather tied in."

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PRAYER. WORK. STUDY. EXERCISE. EATING. SLEEPING.

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Pat learned life through these principles and still lives by them through his faith, regular workouts, golf games with friends, swimming, and his love of cooking and gardening. Ask him about his new goggles that count the number of laps he swims. 

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As a child, Pat walked a couple of miles to his piano lesson every week.

It paid off. He can play generally any song by ear. This video was

taken at his mom's retirement home. If you play the video, you'll

see Shirley behind the lady in the wheelchair at her own table.

It was her first day there. 

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​​​​Pat returned to Baton Rouge to work at the competing station WBRZ TV but he did not start out in weather. His news director sent him to cover the St. Patrick's Day Parade in downtown Baton Rouge. When he got there he asked, "When does the parade start?"  He was told that the block long group of Shriners in their miniature cars "was the parade." The following year he started the Wearin' of the Green Parade which became part of the fabric of the city to this day.

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Along the way he created "We Don't Knock" where he and a cameraman would "barge" into a local celebrity's home for an impromptu visit on-air. Then, he created WePlay Baton Rouge which was a local gameshow. This was before life became computerized. There was a person behind the category board spinning it and trying to make it stop perfectly. People behind the scenes made this show work. When the bell (the ding) got stuck his wife who was running it, had to sit on it to quiet it (ding ding ding ding). Many of those 200 segments are still on the internet.  He produced the LSU Coaches and Santa Tracks.​

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​​​As he evolved back into weather as Chief Forecaster, he gained enormous respect from the community. He teamed with Frank Kean of Kean's The Cleaner to introduce ​Pat's Coats for Kids which has brought in thousands of new coats over the years.​

 

​Weather may be behind him now but encouraging and forward thinking are not. He has spoken at many events for different types of crowds. His family grew and now includes "my first wife, Mabyn", and two kids, their spouses and four grandchildren. He never forgot those brothers and swaps digs with them often.

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​So, who do you get when you engage Pat Shingleton? You get all of the above. You get a spontaneous experienced entertainer.

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