Born on October 26 in the year 1946, to his mother Joyce Brandecki and a father of Polish ancestry, Leonard Anthony Sajak, a factory worker. Patrick Leonard Sajak was born in Chicago, Illinois USA and spent most of his childhood there. Patrick has a younger brother by the name of David and a step-Father by the name of Walter Backal from whom he has his stepbrother William Backal.

At an early age, Patrick would run around pretending to broadcast on a wooden spoon. In the 60’s Patrick found himself airing in his hometown on a Spanish radio station despite not knowing a single word in the foreign language. Thankfully, his job was to offer English news briefing hourly from midnight until six.

Graduating from the Farragut High School in the year 1964, Patrick then went on to college at Columbia College Chicago while working as a desk Clerk at the hotel Palmer House. All Patrick thought of was becoming a DJ, his career as a host honestly started when he won a contest on WLS radio’s Dick Biondi Show to be a guest teen DJ for a day. While still a student at Columbia College Chicago, Al Parker, his broadcasting instructor, informed him that Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) was looking for a reporter and Patrick took the job working from midnight to six am.

During the Vietnam War, in 1968 following his enlistment, he served as a disk Jockey (DJ) while in uniform for the American Forces Vietnam Network, never actually having fought on the battlefield. Hosting the same radio show as Adrian Cronauer, a United States Air Force Sergeant and radio talk show host, for 14 months he too started up every morning with the coined “Good Morning Vietnam!”

After being in Saigon for 18 months, he as then assigned to a military base in Texas. Patrick found himself in the Pentagon running slide projectors for military officials. He admits he probably heard high-level secrets but most of what he did hear had to do was over the pending postal strike.

Following this, in the early 1970’s Patrick DJ’d for Murray, Kentucky radio station for a year and 50,000 watts WSM in Nashville. During this time WSM was playing pop music during the morning hours, and his slot was from 3-5 pm just shortly after. WSM-TV brought Patrick on screen for the first time as a voiceover by making station identification and anchoring five minute newscasts during NBC’s Today Show as well as a substitute and weekend slot weatherman. It was here that he first became acquainted with anchor Dan Miller.

In 1977 Patrick was working in Nashville and was then approached by Los Angeles’ KNBC-TV. Offering him the position of weatherman for their station, Patrick all too gladly accepted. A few years later after being offered his position, in 1981, Patrick was then again offered a position at a better job. This time it was a media tycoon, Merv Griffin wanted him to take over the hosting of his popular game show to replace departing Chuck Woolery.

Despite his willingness to captain The Wheel of Fortune, Patrick was resisted by Fred Silverman who was the President and CEO of NBC at the time. Silverman believed Patrick wasn’t the right man for the job. Griffin was resorting to harsh methods threatening to shut down the show if they did not comply with his request and not all too surprising, they listened.