Over? Did You Say OVER?

I was twisting the knob on my boom box sometime in the summer of 1988 when I first heard him. Streams of causticism that delighted my still-ansgty teenaged self. This guy was ripping on everybody-celebrities, politicians, waiters, the elderly, even the management at his radio station?! Who does this guy think he is? Eventually, I began listening to his morning show on Zeta 4, a rock station out of Miami, every weekday. Neil Rogers was a pungent alternative to all the nimrods who hosted morning drivetimes with their unfunny prank calls and crass "humor." Oh, Neil was crass, VERY crass, but his show was so hilarious and even intelligent. Not exactly like, say, Howard Stern, but he's the closest to whom I can compare. Neil was also a marked counterpoint to a then up-and-coming windbag named Rush Limbaugh (who Neil often ridiculed).

One day, Neil and his sidekick, "The Bird" (Glenn Hill) announced they were leaving Zeta. It took me a few months to discover quite by accident that they were now on AM, 610 WIOD, in all its crackling glory. The sports station. Not a totally ill fit, as Neil was an inveterate sports buff, particularly of baseball and hockey, my 2 faves. Still, "The Neil Rogers Show" in its 10-2 slot stood out quite distinctively from the comparative family fare of "The Mike Ranieri Show" in the morning and "Sports Talk" in the evenings. Neil continued his 4 hour marathons of put-downs of callers and just about everyone else. It was addictive. Obsessive fans were called "Nealies", and I became one of 'em. Not sure why, because the show also drove me crazy. Neil was everything I was not: ultra liberal, homosexual, atheist. His lampoons of conservatism and religion were relentless, and often, yes, right on target. Drove me nuts.

"You can't shut it off" he would mock when callers spewed hatred. He was right. Until I discovered Neil, I was only listening to talk radio that reflected my values. Now, I was being challenged, unnerved. What a concept! Oh, and his on-target lambasting of the behavior of many of S. FL's elderly was hysterical, often prompting agitated calls that were even funnier. Neil is also Jewish (far from orthodox) and often infused Yiddishisms for effect.

I was a regular listener (and occasional caller myself, some of which I have on cassette in the archives) for a number of years. But by the mid-90s I began to lose interest. The show never seemed to change. It was the same silly sound effects and overuse of the no-longer-shocking "douchebag". Neil cussed as much as the FCC would tolerate, until this past week when his use of the F-word got him tossed off the air. He was reading listener mail and thought that the 7 second delay "dump" button was working. Guess what happened next.

Depending on the source, Neil has either been temporarily suspended or fired. One report states that he is fine with being done with radio after well over 40 years. Decades that began with what was considered serious, "issue" talk that eventually became a wildly silly show about nothing at all. Controversy always dogged the host but perhaps this truly is the Waterloo. Neil seemed to be grooming himself for his retirement, what with moving to Toronto a few years back and remotely doing the show. Now there is perhaps enough distance that a point of no return has been passed. Not that Neil cares, boychik.