I want to start with a happy memory, literally, of sharing a workplace with legendary radio announcer Bob Rogers, who died on May 29 at age 97.
Bob was seven decades into his radio career by the time we met, and on-air at classic hits station 2CH.
Do you remember, radio enthusiasts, when you discovered that the announcers weren’t able to willy-nilly pick and choose the songs they played?
Bob had discovered the recently released Pharrell Williams’ song Happy and decided that it did indeed make him so. He would play it almost every morning, on this glorious and sadly now lost radio station that generally didn’t feature anything past 1989. I smile and think of Bob anytime I hear it.
Bob Rogers’ influence on what became popular music on radio cannot be understated. He was the first to introduce and feature the Top 40 concept. That had come about because in the 1940s, when he was little more than a teenager himself, he’d got himself a show on Sundays where he was playing American music that had been gifted to him by travelling sailors. Sundays up until that point were for religious messaging, or no music at all.
By the time his Top 40 show on 2UE was established he was creating careers for the likes of Slim Dusty, getting to interview Frank Sinatra, Doris Day and Louis Armstrong and, in 1964, packing his bag to tour Europe, Hong Kong and Australia with The Beatles as an honorary fifth member.
You can savour some of those interviews here in the NFSA archives: https://www.collection.nfsa.gov.au/search/credits.id=3711401&credits.role=Interviewer
By the time I discovered Rogers he was Reminiscing on 2CH, keeping alive the old music, stories and artist’s legacies. He would also invite guests, and even listeners, to create their own music specials, which was my own first interaction with him. He encouraged me to talk about why I liked this song, and gave a background story to others. It led to a lifetime of musical discovery. What I loved about him was that he wasn’t a slave to any one genre, decade, format or theme. If he liked it, you’d hear it, and the story behind it, on his show.
I don’t think an AI DJ, or a Spotify curated playlist can come close to what Bob Rogers offered, well before a word like ‘influencer’ was coined. A great many singers owe their Australian success to Rogers somehow getting access to their music and then playing it on the wireless. I think there’s still a place for music announcers, on both new and oldies stations, to still do the same. Someone, somewhere, is hearing that song for the very first time.
I include the back cover track listing of my Reminiscing CD which I’ve had for 25 years and am pretty sure I won from 2CH. Almost every song is one he introduced me to. I Can’t Get Started, by Bunny Berigan, might have been Bob Rogers’ theme song, but playing and being happy is how I’ll remember him.
Jen Seyderhelm is a writer, editor and podcaster for Radioinfo
Thank you Jen for your excellent and smile provoking reflections on Bob Rogers.
Bob was exceptional, he was unique, influential, controversial at times, remarkably aware and he was outspoken. Bob devoured music and showbusiness in general with a passion, and he thrived on industry gossip. He had the remarkable ability to be totally disrespectful yet immensely loyal to those he respected, be they in management , on the air, entertainers or listeners. I think he had more respect for his audience than anything or anyone else.
I first worked with Bob at 2UE in in 1972. He was on mornings and I did drive. Even then he was a legend. Totally professional, incredibly committed, and constantly striving to be better today than he was yesterday. I can remember him rummaging through the studio rubbish bin while I was on the air, looking for notes on something he'd said that morning because someone's lawyers had been on the 'phone threatening legal action. Bob really didn't care what he said as long as he knew it would get a reaction. Good or bad, it didn't matter.
I remember him telling Toni Collette once that she would be more successful if she had some work done on her teeth!!! And consequently, that's exactly what she did. Her success continued to grow.
I was very lucky. I worked with Bob twice at 2UE, for a time at 2GB and for many years as his Program Director at 2CH. In that final role he was constantly disrespectful, often critical and yet immensely supportive. He would ring me during weekends to talk about music, formats, and even to ask advice. He would later, with a smile on his face, deny having done that. He was furious when I programmed the radio serial 'Castlereagh Line' into his 2CH morning show. 'I run a music show, I don't play radio serials. They're old hat.' ( I've felt it best not to include the expletives). Nevertheless he went along with it and after three books that eventually took him to number 2 in the market just behind Ray Hadley, he admitted to me that he was wrong. "And" he said "don't expect to hear that from me ever again."
I remember, in the 80's, our monthly long lunches at Johnnie Walkers Bistro in Sydney. They were arranged by Bob and always attended by music publisher Jack Argent, Rugby League immortal Johnny Raper, a Qantas flight attendant named Art Thurston who brought Bob material from the United States and Europe, along with other invited guests. I'm ashamed to say I rarely remembered leaving the lunch later that evening!!
Every really successful radio personality, no matter the format, knows that preparation along with a dash of irreverence, is critical to long term success. Bobs prep was beyond that of anyone I ever worked with. He would, as mentioned by others, arrive at work in his clapped out old Holden Commodore with reams of notes, reels of taped interviews that he wanted digitized so they could be played out on Selector, and articles he had clipped out of newspapers. He also depended on knowledgeable listeners for information he could use as content. Each year, for his birthday, I would take him and a group these special listeners to lunch. It was an event he always looked forward to and would start to remind me about a few month prior.
I've been incredibly lucky to have worked with many of the greatest of all radio personalities. John Laws, Alan Jones, John Pearce, Brian White, Ray Hadley, Howard Craven, Steve Price to name few. None was, is or probably will be greater than Bob Rogers.
I was MC at a regional ARN radio function in The Southern Highlands on Wednesday night when I received the news of Bobs passing. I was devastated and had to leave the event. I will miss Bob terribly, but remember him fondly. I know many others will too.