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Remembering Roger Allan Bump
Longtime Boston radio broadcaster and Curry professor, Roger Allan Bump, passed away in early July. Roger was an iconic figure in the world of radio news, serving as a reporter, anchor and news director for decades.
He was also a professor at Curry College for more than thirty years, mentoring thousands of students along the way. Recently, Roger participated in a video commemorating 75 years of broadcasting as a field of study at the college.
We now present this video as a tribute to his legacy, not only in the radio industry, but here at Curry as well.
Click here to watch the video.
Here are more remembrances that are coming in:
He was never Professor Allan, or Mr. Allan, and he certainly wasn't Professor Bump. He was always Roger or Rog. Despite the informality, Roger Allan had the respect of his students from day one, because he had done it and he was doing it, day in and day out. Roger was a practitioner and he believed that's how broadcasting should be taught.
For more than 50 years, Rog was a broadcaster whom people looked up to. He was a person of principal, honesty and great integrity. In the 40 years that I knew him, he always told me the truth. Sometimes it wasn't the easiest thing to hear, but it was meant to make me a better person. That's the way he was with all of his students during the 33 years he taught at Curry and other schools.
I was honored to know Roger in the classroom, the newsroom and in our respective living rooms. He had a special bond with his students. Roger did not mince words. He had an opinion on just about everything, and he wasn't afraid to share those opinions. On starting out in radio he told it to us straight: "You've got to go the 'tall grass' " he'd say. "That's where you can make mistakes and its okay, because you're just starting out." When you got there, there was often a call from Roger. Somehow he'd heard you and was ready to offer advice. He loved to drive, and every place he traveled to he'd take with him a list of students working in that region, with the station frequency or channel so he could listen or watch. He was one of a kind!
He startled me a few months ago when he said: "How come they only give you two minutes an hour to tell the news on that station. Do you want me to make a call to the program director?" Rog was always concerned about his students no matter how many years they'd been out of Curry!
There are so many things that I remember about him during our 40-year friendship; the years we served on the Curry Alumni Board together, and the time Curry presented him with an honorary degree. But the two things I remember the most was how he stressed the need to give something back and to never forget where you came from.
When visiting him at his home in New Hampshire last winter, he sat right in front of a big picture window so he could keep an eye on what was going on outside, while talking on the phone, usually to a student. Next to him were class directories, as well as his Rolodex, and phone books. He didn't go in much for computers. "I like to talk to people one-on-one,'' he'd say. "I like hearing their voice." He'd make endless calls, always wanting to make sure his "kids" were doing okay.
Roger never forgot his roots. He was still talking to high school students interested in broadcasting in northern New Hampshire and Vermont about going to Curry College. He also did a weekly radio show with local officials on the Lebanon, New Hampshire station, that could also be heard on the Internet.
While his voice has been silenced, his advice and guidance are still very much a part of me and hundreds of others, and always will be.
Thanks Roger!
And this from Jordan Rich of WBZ Radio:
The Mentor
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I hope you’re lucky enough to have had one. It is never too late to seek one out. My wish is that your children and grandchildren encounter one or more of these folks along their own paths to adulthood. I refer to the blessing of having a genuine mentor in your life. “Mentor” is defined in the dictionary as a teacher, counselor or guide. But it can carry so much more weight.
I consider myself both lucky and privileged to have met up with a person who would become not only my key mentor when it came to a career and the work that I love, but the person who would become a trusted advisor, sounding board, booster, and dear personal friend for nearly 35 years. He departed this world just days ago, but not before leaving an incredible legacy of love for others. His name was Roger Allan Bump, and if ever one should be considered the mentor’s role model, he would be your man.
Most radio listeners probably won’t recognize Roger Allan (as he was known professionally) to be a household name. He spent a good deal of his time at the height of his career in the background, off the air directing programming and news, serving as a public affairs liaison between radio and the local community. It’s a shame that more didn’t get to know him personally to benefit from his experience or to share one of a kind laughs and good times with him.
As ebullient as Roger was, the laws of physics are what they are and didn’t allow this larger than life good guy enough time to attend to the rest of the world. Had he the chance he would have. He did befriend and guide hundreds of us citizens of the broadcasting world. For decades, his name was synonymous with invaluable advice, key contacts, and help with any kind of issue, broadcast related or not.
It is amazing how many people in my field, dating from the late 1950’s to now, were touched in some way by Roger Allan’s kindness and assistance. He was an award winning radio news director for several stations including WRKO in Boston. He was an extremely popular communications professor at several schools including his alma mater and mine, Curry College in Milton. Roger was a proud navy veteran, a pretty nifty trombone player in his younger days, and without any doubt a phenomenal husband and father. He was also one of the funniest people I have ever met. He rarely missed helping out at a charity event or fundraiser, absolutely NEVER missed a meal, and was unlikely to wind up on Mr. Halston’s or anyone else’s best-dressed list for that matter. His storytelling was legendary and rarely did his jokes or anecdotes ever simply leave you laughing. There always seemed to be a life lesson tucked into a story when Roger held court. Those life lessons stuck for many of us to this day.
If you ask members of our profession from network television anchors to radio sales reps, talk show hosts to CEO’s or owners of huge broadcast conglomerates “who has had the greatest impact on your career and/or your life?” the answer would often be “Uncle Roger.” I have heard from dozens of colleagues over the last few days confirming it.
I entered college in 1976 eager to learn everything I could about radio and television, to find out if I had any shot at making it a career. My first class was entitled, Intro to Broadcasting with a certain Professor Bump. After the first class, I was hooked. I had so much fun and learned so much about my craft from this lovable, rumpled, big city broadcast news director that I made it a point to take other classes with him. In fact, I ran the card and ended up enrolling in every class Professor Bump taught throughout my entire college career. He would stride into the classroom with that patented John Wayne style gait of his, glasses sliding down the bridge of his nose, wearing open toed clog shoes, often sporting a purple shirt and green polka dot tie or any combination therein. The package was nearly always completed by his trademark 50,000-watt smile. He would begin each session with news about the “biz” and often would start out with something like, “I’m really excited to tell you guys that WRKO (where he was news director) has just won the news station of the year award. How about that!”
He was as excited to tell his students about his day in radio as any first grader might be coming home with a glowing report card. His enthusiasm rubbed off on all of us. I’ll never forget the time he talked about certain “accessories” to his wardrobe. “You see these cufflinks? I happened to me with ‘El Presidente’ Jimmy Carter in the White House on Monday and thought those would look pretty good on MY sleeve. So I asked him if I could have them and sure enough he took them off and gave them to me. Geez, the President, for crying out loud! You see, exciting stuff like this can happen. It’s all part of being in this great business…”
The classes that Roger taught always equipped students to foster style, procedure and broadcast professionalism. But these were also courses on life, taught by our wise old friend. We learned about how to deal with colleagues and the audience both on and off the air, the critical importance of the old FCC code that so few take the time to even consider today. Roger made us very much aware that as broadcasters it was incumbent on us to broadcast in the public’s interest, convenience and necessity. It was that and so many other thoughts on doing the right thing, being professional and treating others with respect that made students realize there was something special going on here. Maybe some didn’t realize it all until later. But the life learning was there. He was the mentor, the go-to guy, the one who could pave the way with connections, insight and leads. Hundreds of broadcasters and media people including yours truly owe our first, second or third jobs to Roger. He was our career builder. None of us will ever forget that.
Until his final day, Roger worked the phones and met with young students as well as broadcast veterans, helping them in so many ways achieve success in the industry.
We shared a lot, my mentor and me. Over the years, there were hundreds of get togethers and phone calls with so many jokes and stories. Lately, Roger would end our conversations with this thought, “I’m so proud of you and what you’re doing.”
Nothing made me more proud than to know that I had earned this beautiful man’s friendship and admiration. I know I speak for hundreds (and that is a conservative estimate) who feel the very same way.
One of his most lasting lessons? Always be appreciative and take the opportunity to say thank you.
Happily, members of us in the broadcast and academic communities were able to salute Roger with not one, but two testimonial dinners during his lifetime. Our mentor taught us all well about gratitude and we got the chance to recognize his help and pay him tribute.
If you’re lucky enough to know or have a mentor such as my late friend, you might want to take time to express to that person how thankful you are. Mentorship, done the Roger Allan Bump way, can make a lifetime of difference.
Roger Allan leaves a healthy legacy of family, commitment, education, excellence at one’s craft and of course that unflagging optimism and sense of humor.
I am happy to tell you that he inspired dozens of us in this hectic business to help others along the way, to give this “mentoring thing” that he did to perfection a try. You know something? He was right about that and so many other things. Helping others get ahead is a wonderful thing to do. It improves their lives and the life of the mentor in so many ways. It feels good. Thanks Roger…for everything.
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