Phil Rogers has reported countless stories for NBC Chicago, and as he signed off for the final time on Thursday, the team paid tribute to his remarkable career, and he delivered a message to viewers about the meaning of his life’s work.
Veteran reporter Phil Rogers is retiring from NBC 5 News after 31 years of bringing viewers some of the biggest and best told stories in Chicago, from across the country, and all around the world.
Rogers joined NBC 5 in December 1991, new to television after spending more than a decade at WBBM Newsradio. In the years since, Rogers has reported from war zones, major disasters, countless high-profile trials, corruption scandals and so much more.
He offered these reflections on his time in news and on the frontlines of history.
December 30th marks my retirement, after 31 incredible years with this amazing company.
A few thoughts.
My very existence here bordered on the impossible. In 1991, I was working as a reporter for WBBM Newsradio – a wonderful place where I had been working for 12 years. A reporter for NBC 5, the late Paul Hogan, convinced me I should talk to his bosses about jumping to the TV side of the street.
I had never done television. But in spite of that, NBC 5 took a chance on me. And that chance meant the reporting adventure of a lifetime across four decades!
At this point, I should let you in on a little secret. When I was growing up in Stillwater, Oklahoma, we were an NBC family. When it came to the news, channel 4 out of Oklahoma City was the only station we watched. That means for every big event, from President Kennedy’s assassination when I was in the second grade, through political conventions, elections, and space shots, we were getting the news from Chet Huntley, David Brinkley, and a battalion of amazing NBC News correspondents.
To me, NBC News was kind of like the Mt. Olympus of news. Ordinary people like us couldn’t work there. So imagine my pride, walking into the NBC Tower in December 1991 to join that team.
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I still can’t believe it.
Because of my time at NBC 5, I got to report on and experience history. There were, of course, tragedies. Tornadoes, floods and way too many unnecessary episodes of Chicagoland violence. I was at the Oklahoma City bombing and at the Pentagon after 9/11. Standing on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier leaving Norfolk harbor for Afghanistan the following week, I remember thinking, “These men and women are going to war.”
One mass shooting is one too many. I’ve seen a bunch. I was at Sandy Hook, the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Las Vegas, and just this past summer, Highland Park. It’s absurd that we still have to make mention of “common sense” reforms which should be taken. They aren’t being taken because the lawmakers who could make them happen are more interested in getting re-elected than doing what they know is right.
I’ve watched three Illinois governors go to prison, along with at least three congressmen and more aldermen than I can count. They were from both parties. I am equally skeptical of both sides. Experience has rewarded that approach. Illinois should demand more of its public servants. There is an old expression that “you deserve the government you elect.” That’s only true if you don’t learn from your mistakes and keep electing them.
I got to do thrilling things. I covered three Olympics. I parachuted with the Army, drove a nuclear submarine, and flew the space shuttle (the simulator the astronauts trained in). And speaking of astronauts, one of my childhood heroes, Jim Lovell, actually flew my photographer and me to Hutchinson, Kansas, to see his Gemini spacecraft being restored. Remember my story about space shots? One of those, Apollo 8, happened when I was 12 years old, as Jim Lovell and his crewmates orbited the moon on Christmas Eve. And there I was, that 12-year-old kid, riding shotgun with him in a twin-engine aircraft as he told me stories about flying in space!
I flew with an Air National Guard pilot in an F16 over Minnesota after 9/11. When he learned that I was a private pilot, he said, “Here, you take it.” There I was, a guy who had never flown anything bigger than a Cessna 172, rolling a jet fighter! (I actually got to do that again, this time in an F-18 with the Blue Angels at their training base in California).
But there is a much bigger piece of this. What we do, a free and independent press, is the only profession explicitly mentioned – and protected – in the Constitution. It’s not just a guarantee, it also a mandate, something of an assignment.
When we are challenging the mayor or the governor or the police superintendent, we are your representatives in that room. When we are digging through spreadsheets, or suing city hall for documents, we’re doing that for you. We give you that information – and then it’s up to you to decide what to do with it next. It’s a tremendous responsibility to get it all, and get it right. And we really, really believe in that.
I know that this company, especially, devotes tremendous resources to make certain that every word we bring to you is accurate and fair. And that’s important. Because more and more, those in power don’t want you to see what’s behind the curtain. They claim they believe in transparency but don’t practice it. They waste vast sums of money because it isn’t their money - it’s yours. It’s up to you and us, to tell them that’s not acceptable. And here’s the amazing part: the viewers and readers, the consumers of news in this city have shown us time and again, they are partners in that effort. And that is amazing.
So as I leave here, please know that I do so with a tremendous sense of pride for working at a great company with great people – most of whom you don’t see – but are the real heroes who get all of this into your homes. And gratitude for you, who let me do this all these years. Thank you. It has been an honor doing news in Chicago.
