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Mosman’s Bob Rogers, Australia’s longest serving radio announcer, dies aged 97.

Published On: May 30, 2024

Bob Rogers OAM died at home in Mosman this week, aged 97.

By ANNA USHER

Veteran broadcaster Bob Rogers, whose career spanned nearly 80 years, died at his Balmoral home surrounded by family on Wednesday afternoon.

He was 97.

Born in 1926, Rogers’ career began as a panel operator for 3XY in Melbourne in 1942.

For nearly 80 years, Bob Rogers worked in radio stations all over the country. (Supplied)

He then moved to regional radio stations in Mildura, Orange, Tamworth, Hobart, and Brisbane – where he was the first Aussie DJ to play Slim Dusty’s ‘Pub With No Beer’.

In 1958 Mr Rogers moved to Sydney’s 2UE, launching the first Top 40 music countdown which made him a household name.

He then joined 2SM as a disc jockey, taking the station to number one spot in the radio ratings.

He began his career as a panel operator for Melbourne-based 3XY in 1942.

Most famously, he accompanied the Beatles on their 1964 tour through Europe, Asia and Australia, and was subsequently nicknamed ‘the fifth Beatle’ after five weeks on the road with the world’s biggest band of the time.

Rogers was also the morning program presenter for 2UE, 2GB and 2CH.

Beyond radio, he hosted a TV variety show called The Bob Rogers Show on Channel Seven which lasted five years.

In the 1960s, Rogers accompanied The Beatles to Australia, earning him a title as the “Fifth Beatle”.

2GB morning host Ray Hadley, who visited Rogers just two weeks ago, has remembered his former colleague as “a fantastic man”.

“When you use the word legend in radio, it’s often overused but we are talking about one of the legendary most famous broadcasters in this nation’s history,” Hadley said on 2GB on Wednesday night.

“I can thoroughly say having known him quite well for the last 35 years, you wouldn’t meet a better bloke. Absolutely gentlemanly, a fantastic man and he’s sadly gone.”

Rogers with John Laws in the 1980s.

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Former Australian senator and media personality Derryn Hinch described him as a “brother”.

“(On Wednesday), I said goodbye to my dear friend, my ‘brother’, radio legend Bob Rogers,” he wrote online.

“The words ‘legend’ and ‘icon’ are thrown around too easily these days, but Bob Rogers was both.”

Rogers briefly entered the rag trade in the 1980s.

He had fashion stores in Dee Why and Manly.

After an infamous “f bomb” dropped live on air by colleague John Singleton, Rogers was sacked, before changing gears and launching two fashion stores in Dee Why and Manly.

In 1995, Rogers returned to the airwaves, where he spent the rest of his career at 2CH, before retiring in 2020 aged 93.