Arts & Entertainment Fred Roggin To Step Down As NBC4 Sports Anchor, Ending An Era After 42 years as the most recognizable face in Southern California sports news, Fred Roggin will step down Thursday. Replies (3)
15 Jan 2002: NBC sports reporter Fred Roggin covers the happenings during the 2002 Salt Lake Olympic Torch Relay in Los Angeles, California. (Todd Warshaw/Pool/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA — After 42 years, Fred Roggin will no longer be the face of Southern California’s local sports coverage. The longtime NBC4 sports anchor announced his plans to step down this week after word of his departure leaked.
But don’t call it a retirement. “I am going to step away from doing daily, local news,” Roggin told NBC4 viewers. “But I am not retiring.
“First, I can’t retire for a couple of reasons. I do a radio show every day for three hours, so I am not retired. Second, I can’t retire and go home because nobody wants me in the house that long, so that won’t work.” Roggin said he plans to transition into other projects — possibly on television or streaming platforms. Roggin will continue to host his AM 570 radio show.
“I will do what I love to do, which is create and produce,” he said. “I’ve done the sports for 43 years but I am a producer and creator at heart.” “You don’t have to say goodbye,” he told fans.
The announcement is the latest in a series of major shakeups at NBC4. In December, NBC4 evening news co-anchor Chuck Henry and veteran reporters Beverly White, Vikki Vargas, Kim Baldonado and Angie Crouch accepted early retirement offers. None, however, had been in front of the camera at NBC4 for as long as Roggin.
He joined the station in 1980. He was part of the longest-running news team the region has seen with Henry and Fritz Coleman, who recently retired. His sports coverage airs on weekdays during the 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. broadcasts. In addition to his nightly sports coverage, Roggin hosts NBC’s sports commentary show ‘Going Roggin.’ Known for his irreverent style and his “Hall of Shame” and his “Roggins Heroes” segments, Roggin also endeared himself to families across the Southland for his focus on high school football. He devoted his Friday segments to highlights and interviews with players and coaches and became the go-to destination for Southern California high school football fans. According to NBC, he earned more than 35 L.A. Emmy Awards, 30 Golden Mike Awards, five Associated Press Awards and several L.A. Press Club Awards. He’s been inducted into the Southern California Sports Broadcaster’s Hall of Fame the California Sports Hall of Fame in 2019.
Roggin recently summed up his journey to the Los Angeles Times.
Fred Roggin To Step Down As NBC4 Sports Anchor, Ending An Era
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