Unless you have lived in Miami or are a talk radio devotee, you probably haven’t heard of Neil Rogers. He is very much of the liberal persuasion, but the kind who knows why he believes what he believes – not just reading today’s DNC talking points and telling Conservatives to get off his lines.
With all the turmoil in radio, he bounced from station to station – my memory is at one time he wound up on an all-sports station for a while when it changed formats. He’s already had a heart attack and a stroke, so the prognosis is not all that positive.
He retired last year – yet another of the “legends” to move aside as the young people arrive to put their two cents worth in. Time marches on.
* Update from the Miami Herald – the decision has been made to postpone the open heart surgery until next week.
More interesting given his politics – Neil lives in Canada – but returned to Florida in order to get this surgery. Canada has socialized medicine with waiting lists, doesn’t it?
** Second Update – the surgery was rescheduled for Tuesday (today). They announced today the surgery was canceled (not postponed) and Neil was moved to hospice care (translation: we put him on happy drugs until he dies)
Wow. Neil Rogers is/was the quickest wit that ever existed on the radio. I started to listen to talk radio (almost exclusively) in South Florida in 1977, starting with Jerry Witchner. We use to refer to Neil as the King of Slander.
My best wishes go out to him. Thanks for the post.
Headlines this morning state that waiting times for surgery in Canada are “alarming”.
One of the news accounts mentioned he is diabetic. When the Canadian system “death panels” (usually called some nice name like utilization review board) look at the waiting list and decide who gets the operation, being a diabetic reduces the chance of a successful outcome. Not having any dependent children would move him further down the list (Neil announced he was gay in the 1970s). The ability and willingness of the patient to pay is not a factor in who gets treated. Offering to pay to move up the line is against the law. So Canadians with resources travel to Florida for treatment.
England has recently realized the folly of their national health service – things are so bad that it’s becoming a cliche that people from England have bad teeth – waiting times for simple procedures are so long that by the time they are addressed, a tiny problem becomes a larger problem – which then needs a different treatment, which puts you back at the end of the line.
And so it ends. The announcement came this afternoon– Neil Rogers is dead.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/fl-neil-rogers-obit-20101224,0,6138666.story
The story includes comments from Tom Taylor