R.I.P.: WVEE Atlanta Pioneer Rik Rogers Has Died

Rik Rogers

Clarence Brack “Rik” Rogers died Nov. 30 of a traumatic brain injury due to an accidental fall.

He was 80-years-of-age.

Rogers was a man who did his job well, and was a creator of Atlanta’s urban contemporary radio station WVEE 103.3 FM V-103.

“He did things people said could not be done,” his daughter Kim Chastain told AJC.com. “He was a brilliant man.”

Rogers worked in radio his entire career, starting out in his teens in his hometown of Spartanburg, N.C. as a radio personality. A very quiet, deliberate and intellectual man, Rogers shined bright on air and was nicknamed Mr. Showbiz.

In 1969 Rogers moved to Atlanta and began working in sales at radio station WPLO, AM-590, country, and FM-103.3, top 40. He soon became vice president and general manager of the AM station and in the mid 1970s it became the number one country music radio station in the U.S., said his daughter.

As vice president Rogers came up with an idea for an urban contemporary station, creating V-103. He set up a transmitter and increased the range of the station. Rogers left the station in 1993.