blog lassiter

It would have been about 1981, maybe ’82, when I first heard Neil Rogers.  I was absolutely blown away – I had never heard anything like it.  The guy was smart, funny, and compelling.  He talked about the things that were important to me – and he said them so much better than I could.  I was hooked – rare was the night that I was not glued to the radio, hanging on his every word.

I was working at WKQS at the time – I was Bobby Clifford, the afternoon drive country jock.  But I dreamed of being a talk show host – it was an impossible dream.  Impossible because no matter how hard I tried, no one took me seriously.

Skip ahead a couple years.  My life had been turned upside down.  Divorced, no longer “Bobby Clifford”, and through a bizarre set of circumstances, I found myself almost living my dream – if working at a pig of a station on weekend nights counts.  WGBS in Miami was the third of three talk stations in the market, and out of desperation, hired me to work in a time slot no one listened to.

But as fate would have it, the man I idolized heard me, and thought that maybe, just maybe I had something to offer.  One night, after his regular shift, Neil sat in with the overnight guy – Bill Calder – and at some point a caller asked Neil who, among the couple dozen people who did talk shows in Miami, he’d like to have dinner with.  I just happened to be listening, when he said: “Bob Lassiter.”

I could not believe my ears.  Not only did he know that I existed, but he said that he thought I was worth sitting down with!

It was the golden age of “talk” in Miami – there were a slew of really good people on the air – and here was the best of the best, uttering my name – I was floored.  But it got better.  Over the coming months, Neil waged an on air campaign urging his station – WINZ – to hire me!  Holy shit!

To make a long story short, they eventually did.  I eventually got to meet and work with my Radio God.  I continued to work weekend evenings, but several nights a week I would go to the station, and sit in the control room just watching him work – learning from, studying at the feet of the man I considered to be the master.

The day came when I finally got the chance to work full time – but the job was in Tampa.  So I took all that I had learned – in particular the ability to speak from the gut, and the monologue – and set off on my own.  I became the Neil Rogers of Tampa, I became a Radio God.  I’ve said it before, and do not hesitate in saying it now, I owe my success to Neil.  He stuck his neck out for me, and allowed me to learn from him.

My good fortune in Tampa brought the opportunity to go to Chicago – but that turned into a two and a half year nightmare.  And this is where things between Neil and I turn dicey.

By then Neil had moved on to WIOD in Miami.  The station was owned by Cox Broadcasting, who also owned WSUN in Tampa.  Cox decided to simulcast IOD’s lineup on SUN.  IOD kicked ass in Miami, but the simulcast just wasn’t working in Tampa.  So Neil suggested that Cox hire me to do mornings at SUN, thinking that I could help the rest of the day in Tampa.

First and foremost, I ain’t no morning man, but I did OK – the problem is that I wasn’t able to transfer my audience to the other day parts – in particular the show that followed mine – Neil’s time slot.

Anyone who has ever listened to Neil knows that a major part of his act is to rag on other shows – it’s his trademark.  Being a student, I also had adopted the technique.  The problem is that no one in Miami ever really gave Neil any shit on the air in return.  Neil would say the most God-awful things about his colleagues, and almost never had anyone retaliate.  That is until I came along.  At first the snipping was relatively low level, but slowly it intensified.  He was pissing me off, and I was getting to him – he had taught me well.

It culminated during an on air campaign Neil conducted every year for a Miami area homeless shelter – that year he was selling a “Best of Neil” CD, and sales were lagging behind previous years.  While the CD was not being sold in Tampa, and my show was not carried in Miami, Neil blamed me for not pushing it on my show.  This infuriated me, it was absurd.  He would rag on me during his show, and I returned the favor on mine.  It just escalated and escalated, until I blurted out something that hurt and embarrassed him – hurt and embarrassed my mentor, and idol.

It would serve no purpose to repeat it here – we are probably the only two people who would remember it anyway.  But things between us have never been the same.

Do I regret it?  Would I take it back if I could?  Of course I would.  It was only shtick, nothing personal – but it caused a rift that lasts to this day.

So now I have a new reader here on the blog – the man who I owe my success to, the man who I admired and idolized.  The man I had a very public falling-out with.  For whatever it’s worth, thank you Neil, and I am truly sorry that things turned out as they did….