Posted on 01/31/2013 8:24:36 PM PST by CounterCounterCulture
Lee Rodgers, Rest in Peace
Written by Melanie Morgan
I really don't want to write about this, I don't want to think about this, and I don't want it to be true.
Lee Rodgers, friend and mentor, is dead.
I owe everything that I have in my professional life to Lee Rodgers, who took me under his wing back in 1988 in the halycon days of KGO Radio.
Lee was a nighttime talk show host, a former rock and roll DJ, hired by my husband Jack Swanson. He hired him twice, in fact.
"Lee Rodgers was a real radio guy. He was remarkable. He worked very hard, didn't always play well with other children, but always made our industry proud," Swanson said.
Lee and I worked together at KSFO radio on the "Lee Rodgers and Melanie Morgan Show, with Officer Vic" (and Sheri Yee) for 14 years, but it was always the Lee Rodgers show, and we got to go along for the ride. Lee was demanding, brilliant, perfectionistic, generous, very very loyal and HUGELY entertaining. I learned my conservative principles from him. He helped mold and shape my politics and you can sometimes hear Lee speaking through me on the radio. I learned to capitalize entire words on paper from Lee, like HUGELY.
Lee Rodgers first and foremost was a devoted husband to Susan, his 'bride' as he called her. They were married for over 30 years, and were inescapably in love and twinned forever. I talked to Susie and she wants Lee's fans to know that he was completely dramatic until the very end.
"Lee had 110 people in the operating room, which he loved. He told the nurse before he went under that since he was naked, everyone else should be too."
Lee underwent a 13 hour operation for a heart by-pass, and Susie said he just couldn't pull through.
Lee used to say "when I leave this vale of tears, I want elephants, dancing women and marching bands." Instead, Lee's ashes will be spread among his favorite hills of Arizona, where he and Susie have lived for the past decade.
This is the part where I am supposed to write my final thoughts about Lee but there will always be a million unfinished thoughts about him. He will be with me and millions of radio fans forever. All I can do is cry and mourn the passing of a genius, a total professional and the damned funniest man I have ever known.
Lee would like the last comment the best.
Although the genius part is a close second.
Really close.
They BOTH went downhill. :-)
Damn. He was a GREAT talk show host.
RIP Lee. My morning drive buddies for many years. Was never the same without him.
RIP Lee...you ALWAYS made my drive into work every morning well worth it. You will be sorely missed my friend.
Prayers and condolences to wife Susan and everyone else that’s been affected.
My favorite grumpy old man. He told it like it was and took no prisoners.
Um, he was on KGO before he was on KSFO.
Yes, I know he was on KGO. I listened to him on both stations, but my initial comment I meant to say KSFO.
Sorry, I didn’t realize you were yelling at yourself. :p
Lee Rodgers, Dan Sorkin, Coyle and Sharpe.
Great radio in SF.
When KGO wouldn't renew Lee Rodgers' contract, I haven't listened to the pompous idiot who replaced him since. Not once.
" On Thursday morning, February 18th, with one minute left of his popular San Francisco Bay Area early morning talk show on KSFO 560-AM, veteran radio host and dedicated conservative, Lee Rodgers, received his pink slip without warning for refusing to. “…say nice things about Muslims.”
Over the 15 years that Rodgers was morning host, he was famous for not suffering fools gladly and holding firmly to conservative principles. He repeatedly stated that the last, true President of the United States concerned with the actual welfare of America was Ronald Reagan and that the Islamic nation building conducted under President Bush II was a disastrous waste of American manpower and money. Rodgers advocated secure borders, reported on Islamic terrorism, cultural jihad and creeping sharia within the USA, and repeatedly hammered on the Obama Administration over its gross incompetence, corruption, conflicts of interest, bailouts and willful shredding of the Constitution.
ANother good one.....May the angels sing him home. He will be sorely missed
back in the 90s and early 2000s i listened to Lee, Melanie and Officer Vic every morning on my way to work...
ping
May God rest your cranky old soul... we've all missed you and now you've really left without us!!!
I am so sorry to hear this.
Our Republic needs people like Mr. Rodgers, more than at any time in our history.
Please don’t let his message be lost.
Prayers offered up for Lee Rodgers and his family.
Thank you CCC for posting this tribute.
He was one of the few things I missed leaving California.
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