Lee Rodgers: Vanished from the KSFO Radio Morning Show

Angry. That's how I felt as I awakened to the news that Lee Rodgers had left the KSFO Radio Morning Show. Shocked. Abandoned. And Angry.

Lee Rodgers had been the host of KSFO Radio's morning talk show for over fifteen years. He was a San Francisco Bay Area conservative icon and had built the show into a very successful franchise. I confess I loved waking up in the wee hours of my weekday mornings to the lively banter of Lee Rodgers and his sidekick, Officer Vic. (Don't get too excited boys: I had just slept with George Noory!)

But then, it was never a gentle awakening. Lee Rodgers, aka "Mr. Cranky Pants" (as per Brian Sussman), couldn't seem to utter a sentence without revealing massive disdain for - well, pretty much everything. While I get how it can be difficult to refrain from oozing righteous indignation over the loony left wing policies that are threatening to destroy the nation or the moronic mainstream media complicit in their agenda, Mr. Rodgers' vitriol seemed no less intense over such inane offenses as having been subjected to a bad airplane meal or a weekend of boring TV. Always complaining, always condemning. I won't miss that about Lee Rodgers.

Thank God for Officer Vic, who was always there to soften the rough edges of the sharply be-barnacled Mr. Rodgers. O.V. managed to offer comic relief where it often seemed Lee might have otherwise blown a gasket. The two had a hysterical repartee, albeit sometimes a little off color for my taste. I think I learned more about the seedy side of men's drive from the KSFO Morning Show than from any other venue in my daily walk. Still, I must confess, the boys did make me laugh, and often. I just wished they could have kept it PG so I could feel safe in sharing the better parts of their wit and wisdom with my progeny. I won't miss that about Lee Rodgers.

I did, though, love Lee's guests; the always interesting, always enlightening, cream of the crop conservative thinkers, authors, speakers and news makers like Jed Babbin, then editor of National Review Online; Ben Shapiro of TownHall.com; Walter Williams, Professor of Economics at George Mason University; Brigitte Gabriel, author of Because They Hate; even John Bolton, former United States Ambassador to the U.N. and many other distinguished men and women too numerous to mention. Lee Rodgers attracted the best and he knew how to get the most out of them, expertly interviewing each and challenging them to share not only knowledge but learned perspectives we might not otherwise have gotten with an average interviewer. He could, of course, sometimes get a little caustic about some of the newcomers to his interviews. And I won't miss that about Lee Rodgers.

But if his sudden departure weren't enough, another betrayal was revealed the morning Lee Rodgers disappeared from the KSFO Morning Show. It seems Rodgers hadn't actually graced the halls of KSFO studios in San Francisco for years, broadcasting his show from his new home in Arizona! Maybe I should have known this? But I don't know how. The show was seamless, with Rodgers and Officer Vic volleying their off color jokes; Rodgers complimenting OV on his new guitar; Rodgers fussing over the pound puppies that Miss Wanda Wags (or her replacements) would bring to visit the studio. (That loss hurt, too! I still miss you, Miss Wanda!!!) But to learn he wasn't even there: I felt lied to, toyed with. Such a rouse: the geographically philandering Mr. Rodgers putting on such a perfect, seamless KSFO Morning Show from states away. Yeah, I won't miss that about Lee Rodgers.

So, groggy from sleep and angry from the betrayal, perhaps I was initially a little hard on Lee, my brilliant but all too often crusty morning curmudgeon. I am grateful that Brian Sussman, a conservative talk radio icon in his own right, was there to take up the mantle. And I've learned since that Lee didn't leave so abruptly of his own volition. Turns out it was a scuffle with the station's owners, Citadel, that forced him from my waking consciousness.

So how am I feeling about him now? Now that a little time has passed and I've had a chance to process the loss?

Well, GOOD RIDDANCE, LEE RODGERS! I, for one ... really miss you.