Roger the Scanner Guy, one of the hardest working, most mysterious and unsung heroes of Santa Barbara’s fourth estate, has just retired from Edhat, where for 11 years he dished out thrice-weekly servings gleaned by listening to the police and fire scanners.
Roger — whose true identity was never revealed in Edhat — provided brief snippets of mayhem, crisis, violence, and heroism taking place behind Santa Barbara’s well-ordered facade of perfection. With brevity and restraint, he called out such things as knife fights, fires, bar brawls, cars going through buildings, and a man wearing no pants standing at a well-known intersection on the city’s Westside.
Roger routinely scooped all of Santa Barbara’s major news publications with his reporting, and his departure will leave a serious void. According to the announcement on Edhat, Roger the Scanner Guy is retiring so he can “focus on a healthier lifestyle.”