Lee Rodgers was born to sharecropping parents across the Arkansas border near Memphis, TN. He started picking cotton at the age of 3, and fell in love with radio during a lengthy hospital stay after a farming accident cost him his foot as a young teenager.
Rodgers left the family farm with a bus ticket and two $20 bills, headed for Memphis. At a school for would-be taxi dispatchers, he was told he had a voice for radio.
His broadcasting career included many stops as a rock-and-roll disc jockey across the South and Midwest before KGO program director Jack Swanson hired him to host a talk show in 1982. Rodgers’ approach leaned toward conservatism.
After 11 years at KGO, Rodgers departed for a brief stay in Seattle, then returned to San Francisco to join KSFO in 2010. He was known for his dung his broadcasts with the sign off “And now, if you’ll excuse me…”.
Lee Rodgers died in 2013 at the age of 75.
Thank you for this tribute to my brother.