Barbara Rodgers: A Look Back and a Look Ahead

by Sabrina Ford

When asked when she might retire, KPIX Channel 5 anchor and reporter Barbara Rodgers laughs and says, “Yesterday!”

While growing up in Tennessee, Rodgers didn’t envision becoming a journalist. When she graduated from Knoxville College, a small historically black university, Rodgers worked as a nanny, a salesperson at a department store, a computer programmer and a teacher.

When Rodgers agreed to work as an unpaid reporter on an African American public affairs program, she thought it would be a temporary position. She was the first African American woman reporter hired at WOKR in Rochester, New York, the station behind the program. Among the few other professional women at the station was the newsroom secretary. Being a pioneer did not come without its obstacles and Rodgers had to work extra hard to prove her credibility as a journalist in a field dominated by white men. In 1979, When Rodgers was hired as an anchor / reporter at Channel 5 in San Francisco, she was the third African American woman hired in news. The first was her friend Belva Davis.

In 1982, after living in the Bay Area for less than three years, Rodgers was among the founding members of the Bay Area Black Journalists Association, also known as BABJA.

Rodgers was honored by her BABJA colleagues for her 25th anniversary at Channel 5 at a luncheon benefiting the Young Journalist Scholarship on October 15.

Herbert Lowe, president of the National Association of Black Journalists, has declared October 15 Barbara Rodgers Day to be celebrated by the NABJ community.

Rodgers has given thought to what she will do when the right time comes to retire. She has started writing a couple of romance novels that she says are fun “beach reading” books best described as a mix of Terri McMillan and Danielle Steele. She also would like to do documentaries on issues that are important and under reported and even talks about joining the Peace Corps.