Tom Roche’s documentary “Alley Pat: The Music is Recorded” will have its final broadcast premiere Tuesday Oct. 20 on PBA30 at 11:30 p.m.
“It was done for zero dollars (other than 6 years of my time) to give back to Atlanta music history,” Roche said.
This documentary, which won 1st place at the Atlanta Film Festival, tells the story of James “Alley Pat” Patrick, a former Atlanta disc jockey who played records for the first black-owned radio station in the country. The film revels in Alley Pat’s on-air anarchy during broadcasting’s pre-corporate era and also chronicles his role in the civil rights movement. The story is told through archival footage and “air checks” as well as interviews with friends, colleagues and Alley Pat himself. The film ends with a demonstration of why Alley Pat was so popular as he provides a side-splitting eulogy at the funeral of Hosea Williams.
