Bay Area Radio Personality Lee Rodgers Remembered

Bay Area blogs and online forums have been taking a moment to remember Lee Rogers, a conservative talk show host who worked at KGO and KSFO in San Francisco.

Rodgers died on Jan. 31 after 13 hours of heart surgery, his wife Susan Rodgers reported on his website, RadioRodgers.com. He was 75.

His bio on the site sums up his distinctive style:

Certainly Rodgers show was spirited. With lines like "A conservative is a liberal who got mugged last night," and "it's my mission in my life to educate the heathen," he took pot shots of government, liberalism and all aspects of American culture while championing rampant free enterprise. No one was safe from critical review as long as Lee Rodgers was on KSFO!

On forums including All Access, listeners posted messages of admiration, like this one from L. Toan:

Lee always answered an email,could get a laugh out of most anybody,and was a true conservative who believed in capitalism. Sometimes, he didn't play well with others, but he was a firm believer in the truth. RIP...you were a man among men.

KGO talk show host Melanie Morgan, who co-hosted a show with Rodgers, writes that he shaped her political beliefs.

Born in Memphis, Tenn., Rodgers worked at radio stations in Miami, Chicago, St. Louis and Seattle in addition to San Francisco.

He left KFSO unwillingly in 2010, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

The company owning the station “decided that I was making too much money after 25 years with ABC and fifteen as morning host on KSFO, taking no note of the fact that I’ve generated large sums of money for the company,” he told the Chronicle.

Jack Swanson, vice president for programming for KSFO and KGO — and a friend of Rodgers for 30 years who has hired him twice — told us that the station “spent several months trying to negotiate a new contract” but it didn’t happen. Our goal was to retain Lee.”

Rodgers continued offering his opinions on his website until a few days before his death.