R.I.P.: Former WCCO-AM Morning CoHost Roger Erickson

Roger Erickson

Roger Erickson, a WCCO 830 AM radio legend who offered generations of Minnesotans a laugh over their morning coffee and commute, the news of the day and school-closing information on snowy days, died Monday.

He was 89, according to The Star-Tribune.

Erickson, with his deep and melodious voice, and “his other half,” Charlie Boone, were the “Boone and Erickson” morning show at 830 AM on the radio dial for 38 years. The two were the longest running on-air duo on a single station in American broadcasting, they said in a 2013 video interview.

For decades, more than half of local radios would tune into Boone and Erickson’s show. Their folksy chat recalled an earlier era for many listeners and the two were notorious for involving interview subjects — from Hollywood actors to Minnesota governors to state troopers — in skits and sketches.

Erickson was a 2001 charter inductee into the Minnesota Broadcasting Hall of Fame. His biography on that website called him, “The man who made school closing announcements an art form.”

The biography said he grew up on a farm near Winthrop, Minn., and studied speech and theater at the University of Minnesota, where he appeared in productions such as Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” and wrote and produced programs for in-school listening at the university station, KUOM.

He joined WAVN in Stillwater in 1951, served two years in the Army, returned to WAVN, and moved to WCCO Radio in 1959, serving as an announcer, and also appearing as “Bozo the Clown” on WCCO TV.

He hosted a 5 a.m. show for years and, in 1961, an afternoon show just before Boone’s program. The two began to chat and trade jokes on each other’s show and “Boone and Erickson” was born.

Erickson retired from the weekday show in January 1997 but continued to work with Boone from 6 to 10 a.m. on Saturdays.



Boone died in 2015 at age 88.