R.I.P.: NC Radio Broadcaster Thomas Rogers

A man some called a legend in the Myrtle Beach broadcast radio community and former president of the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce died Monday.

Thomas Rogers was 77, according to myrtlebeackonline.com.

Rogers was owner of rock WKZQ 96.1 FM.

Rogers was involved in a car crash Monday in Myrtle Beach, according to an incident report from Myrtle Beach police. His car left the road, hitting a curb and then a light pole and a pine tree.

Patrick J. Milan, executive vice president and chief creative officer of Tunheim, said Rogers was instrumental in launching his career as a broadcaster. Milan worked for Rogers and Bill Hennecy who managed the station while he was at Myrtle Beach High School.

“Tom found a way with a small radio station to find and develop some of the best radio talent in the country,” he said. “He launched so many careers out of that little place down there.”

WKZQ was award winning under Rogers and was named best radio station by Billboard Magazine in the 1990s.

“Banana” Jack Murphy also worked under Rogers starting in 1989. Murphy now owns WLSC Tiger Radio, a talk radio station based in Loris, NC.

“He was quite an innovator as far as broadcasters go and gave us a lot of leeway,” he said.

“He really allowed us to develop who we were on air as personalities ... what he allowed me to do there gave me ammunition to do what I do now as owner of my own station.”

Murphy said the radio world under Rogers was made of two people – those that worked at WKZQ and those that wanted to.

Rogers was president of the Grand Strand Broadcasters Association from 1966 to 1999. He also was president of the Grand Strand Press Association and was serving as secretary-treasurer and part-owner of the Strand Media Group.