After a brief time as a merchant seaman, Scott found his way to the United States and joined the radio station WPTR in Albany, New York in 1966. Scott's job, based on his British accent, was to be 'friend of the Beatles', and Scott learned the craft of disc jockey, working with Boom Boom Brannigan and other legendary names at the station. Eight months later he left WPTR to become the evening presenter at the Montreal station 1470 CFOX.
From 1967 to 1971 he was known by listeners for his on-air antics and for his passionate love of music. Notable during this time was his participation in "Give Peace a Chance", recorded by John Lennon with Yoko Ono during their 'Bed-in' for peace at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal.
Anticipating the launch of legal land-based commercial radio, Scott returned to the UK in 1971, only to find the introduction was not as advanced as he had anticipated. Meanwhile, he secured a position at UBN, a closed-circuit station broadcasting music to all the United Biscuits factories nationwide. It was about this time he also had a brief stint on BBC Radio 1 but, anticipating a future in commercial radio, he did so under the pseudonym 'Bob Baker'.
In 1975 he and Tim Rice were resident team captains on a short-lived BBC television pop quiz program, 'Disco!', hosted by Terry Wogan and broadcast on Sunday afternoons. He did not enjoy working on television, and the show finished after only one series.
Commercial radio in the UK finally became legal at the end of 1972, and in 1973 Scott joined the original on-air line-up of London's Capital Radio. His afternoon drive-time shows became immensely popular with Londoners, generating such landmark features as the 'Three O'Clock Thrill' and the daily 'Hitline', together with the jingle 'Grab a little piece of heaven' by David Dundas.
In 1976 his regular Friday rush-hour oldies show "Cruising" acquired a cult following, largely owing to his introduction of obscure rock-a-billy records to his London audience for the first time. He was also one of the first people in the British media to popularize the music of Bruce Springsteen.
It was also during this time that Roger Scott helped champion the Knebworth Rock Festival in 1980. The Festival's Headliner was the Beach Boys who had just released their latest album titled "Keeping the Summer Alive". Scott was always a big supporter of the West Coast Beach Boys influence on modern popular music and in anticipation of the Rock Festival and also a series of two concerts at the Empire Pool (now the Wembley Arena), Scott had listeners vote on their all time 15 top Beach Boy Hits of all time. Two subsequent Fridays were used to play back the top songs coupled with some excellent interviews with all the then band members including some insightful interviews with band member, and producer at the time, Bruce Johnston. Additionally Scott included one of the Wembley concerts in his Friday night live concert series.
Scott disdained the standardized playlists, market and audience research and other techniques introduced by the commercial stations in the 1980s.
In June 1988, after fifteen years with Capital, he moved to commercial-free BBC Radio 1. There, he reached a national audience for the first time, presenting a Saturday afternoon show The Saturday Sequence and a late night Sunday show, Scott on Sunday. The Saturday show featured interviews with many artists, and during this time Scott interviewed Dion, Jackson Browne, Don Henley and many others. The Sunday shows were more eclectic, featuring 1950's rock'n'roll, soul, classic rock and more contemporary music. In 1989 he also began the Classic Albums series for Radio 1. The show and Scott were remembered on a dedicated Radio 1 Vintage show introduced by Richard Skinner in 2017.
Roger Scott finished his final Radio 1 show, broadcast on October 9, 1989, with 'Heroes and Villains' by the Beach Boys, and his last words were: "Thank you for your company, thank you for your support and thank you for your kindness. I hope I'll see you next weekend but there are no guarantees". Having been diagnosed with cancer, he died at the end of the month, eight days after his 46th birthday.
In December 1989 a tribute to him was recorded and broadcast on Radio 1, compered by Alan Freeman, with performances from Cliff Richard, Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe, Mark Knopfler, Chris Rea, and Mark Germino, whose single 'Rex Bob Lowenstein' had been a particular favorite of Scott.
In 2010, the internationally syndicated radio show It's Only Rock 'n' Roll broadcast a 2 part tribute to Roger Scott. Hosted by Alex East and featuring interviews with his friends and former colleagues: Jan Ravens, Dave Cash, Marc Denis, John Sachs, Mick Brown, Nicky Horne and Paul Burnett. It aired on radio stations around the world in the spring of 2010.
