Neil Rogers

Neil Rogers (November 5, 1942 – December 24, 2010) was an American

Over the next decade, Rogers worked at several stations in several states, including New York, Michigan, and Florida. Rogers served as Program Director at WSTR in Sturgis, Michigan from 1966-1967.^[9] In 1968, Rogers was program director for WTPS, which had a Hot 100 format serving Kalamazoo, Michigan.^[10] Later he ended up at WJNO AM in West Palm Beach starting in 1975, moving from WSPB 1450 AM in Sarasota where he started in Florida in 1973.^[11] Rogers subsequently lost his job in West Palm Beach and was headed to Yuma, Arizona when he called his mother from the road and learned that Miami-Ft. Lauderdale's WKAT (AM 1360) had offered him a job without application or audition. Rogers turned his car around and headed for Miami, debuting on WKAT on March 1, 1976. Rogers worked the 3 PM - 6 PM at WKAT for $225 a week.^[12] Prior to working for WKAT, Rogers worked two weekend shifts at WIOD, which was playing music at that time.^[13] By the end of 1976, he was one of the top-rated radio personalities in the market. Also while at WKAT, Neil owned a health food store in the San Souci area.^[14]

Nine months later, when singer

Starting on October 31, 1980, Neil Rogers did the 7-10 PM shift for WLAC in Nashville. He referred to the segment of his show with live calls as "Dialing for Neanderthals". He left WLAC after just one month. Neil accepted a job at WWDB in Philadelphia and had sent his furniture up there before Dick Casper convinced Rogers into coming back to WNWS.^[17]

Rogers returned to Miami radio on December 1, 1980,^[18] on WNWS 790 AM. By that time Rogers was unrivaled as the highest-rated talk-show host in Miami, dominating both the 18-24 and 25-54 demographics (the most coveted age ranges in the business). His style – unabashed liberal, scatological, and funny but acutely mean when dealing with callers (especially elderly callers), a schtick that may best be described as caustically comic – was firmly established, making Rogers something of an icon in the market.

Rogers moved to Miami's

ESPN reporter Shannon Spake served briefly as an intern for The Neil Rogers Show in 1999.^[25]

Rogers also had a devoted audience in Europe and around the world who listened via the Internet.

He has been targeted from time to time by local activists who find him offensive; one,

Starting in 2002, Rogers began broadcasting The Neil Rogers Show eight months a year from his Toronto apartment.[28]

It was announced on April 14, 2008, that Rogers had agreed to a new 5-year contract on WQAM, which would have kept "Uncle Neil", as he was called by his fans, firmly on the air until 2013.

On the May 13, 2009, show it was announced but not confirmed that Rogers' longtime show producer and fill-in host Jorge Rodriguez was being fired by WQAM in a cost-cutting measure. Rogers' contract included the ability for him to choose his producer and no resolution was found by the end of the program even after Rogers called his agent on the air. Rodriguez's future with the show was a topic of interest in the South Florida media, including the

It was announced on June 22, 2009, that Rogers and Beasley Broadcast Miami reached an agreement where Rogers would no longer be featured on-air at WQAM but would consult for the station under a new agreement. Rogers' last show was on Friday, June 12, 2009. Neil Rogers then retired from on-air radio.[30]

Death

Rogers, at age 68, had been suffering from several health ailments in the last months of his life. His friend and attorney Norm Kent said the radio host suffered a stroke and heart attack in October and his condition had been declining since Thanksgiving.^[31] He died on December 24, 2010, at the age of 68.

In a