Bruce Rogerson funeral today

This morning, Thursday April 4, 10 am, St Andrews Anglican Church, Rocky Point Rd Sans Souci.  

Light refreshments after in the church hall.
 

Bruce Rogerson passed away last weekend. With his funeral on this morning, Ian Holland has paid tribute to a man who was an inspirational leader in the Australian radio industry.

Nobody did more for my 45 plus years career in broadcasting than Bruce Rogerson.  And he didn’t only benefit my career, he benefitted many others and the industry as a whole.  Bruce was an innovative and clever sales executive, a visionary programmer, a manager who understood all about being an entrepreneur.

He wasn’t afraid to take risks in terms of both management initiatives and the people he employed.
 
Perhaps the biggest risk Bruce ever took was leaving a stellar and very successful career at 2UE, then Sydneys’ top rating station, and moving to 2CH, the lowest rating station in the Sydney market.
 
Ultimately 2CH Good Music, under Bruce’s stewardship, became the market leader.  I was Program Manager at the time and I’ll never forget Bruce’s irritation at the fact it happened on the same day as ‘the dismissal’.  We got the front page on the first edition of the Daily Mirror and The Sun and Gough got the rest of them!  Nevertheless during BR’s further tenure at 2CH, the station remained consistently in the top three, often as the number one station in the market.
 
Bruce was inspirational, presenting numerous phenomenally successful concerts at the Sydney Opera House and a number of studio produced music albums including two of which I was lucky enough to produce and one I co-produced in Chicago with Vic Damone.  He was uncanny when it came to marketing and promotions
 
Further to all of this, Bruce managed a network of hugely profitable radio stations up and down the East Coast of Australia.  I will always remember the day 7LA knocked of the seemingly insurmountable 7EX in Launceston, much to the chagrin of the late Edmund Rouse!!
 
Bruce played an enormously significant role in the development of modern day commercial radio.  He was extremely highly regarded by so many in the Australian Broadcasting and advertising industries and by a great many successful overseas broadcasters.
 
In a note to Bruce’s family Les Heil said: 

“Bruce was well known to me over a couple of decades — mainly through our interest in, contributions to and involvement with FARB – Federation of Australian Radio Broadcasters.  Whether at Federal Council, a FARB Committee meeting or on the floor of Convention – I always listened when Bruce spoke.  So did others.  We did so because we knew Bruce had always ‘thought things though’.  He thought laterally, outside the square and was a great contributor to any debate in Committee and at Convention.
 
“Even more importantly he was just a great guy.  We have much to celebrate in remembering Bruce’s life – his contribution to family, to his craft, to the Industry.”

 

 
 
 

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