Radio icon pushed the envelope for three decades on South Florida radio.

By DMITRY RASHNITSOV

Radio personality Neil Rogers once called South Florida, “an outdoor funeral home.” He is now one of the many people to pass through it. Rogers died from congestive heart failure Dec. 24 at the age of 68. He had recently suffered two heart attacks and a stroke and was fighting dementia in his final days.

“When you think of Miami radio, you think of Neil Rogers. That’s impressive when you remember this is the market Larry King came from,” said Tom Taylor, publisher of Radio-info.com. “It’s not only for his longevity but for his listenership among the other media. Everyone listened to Neil.”

Rogers began his Florida radio career in 1976 at WKAT, where he covered serious topics. He shocked listeners and colleagues alike when he came out on the air as being gay in 1976, right in the middle of the Anita Bryant, anti-homosexual uproar that was taking over Florida.

“Anita Bryant had the political winds blowing at hurricane force against gay rights and there was no appreciable gay political movement to support him. It turned out to be a non-issue in his career,” said Tom Jicha, the Radio/TV writer for the Sun Sentinel.

Rogers was born Nelson Roger Behelfer on Nov. 5, 1942 in Rochester, New York. He worked for several Florida radio stations including: WNWS, WINZ, WZTA and WIOD. He was forced into retirement from WQAM in 2009, even though he had the highest rated radio show locally and, as a host, was pulling in nearly $1 million a year, the most for any local radio personality.

“His disdain for what he called ‘mincing queens’ might’ve had something to do with his appeal to the mostly young, male, heterosexual audience that he amazingly carried with him from station to station to daypart to day-part, as they followed him up and down the radio dial – from AM to FM and back – an unprecedented and singular feat in the industry,” said Miami Herald book reviewer Richard Pachter. “Rogers was the undisputed King Of Talk Radio in South Florida. Or queen, if you ask him.” Before Howard Stern reached popularity, Rogers was willing to push the envelope and elicit harsh opinions from his listeners and critics. Above the controversy, Rogers was not afraid to be an entertainer, and tackle the mundane problems that we all faced everyday.

“His show sparkled brightest when he was just being a typical South Florida curmudgeon, complaining about the traffic, the weather, the ‘yentas’ at his late mother’s Hollywood condo or talking about the cute bag boy he spotted at Publix,” Jicha said. Besides his on air quarrels with police and local government, Rogers had to deal with a 1992 arrest for public indecency at a Miami Beach adult theater. Police said he was seen masturbating, but Rogers denied the accusations and the charges were eventually dropped.

Rogers’ show was never syndicated nationally or even regionally, but Talkers magazine, the trade publication of talk radio, ranked Rogers at No. 15 on its 2006 list of the 100 most important personalities in the business.

“Neil is, after all, every workingman’s hero, whose voice spoke volumes for the average person railing against mediocrity, apathy or stupidity,” said Norm Kent, Rogers’ close friend and attorney. “No one cared about whether he was gay or straight. Everyone was just glad to have their voice heard on the airwaves. Neil Rogers would hate me for saying this, but he is a gay man who has become a straight hero.”