Roggin’s Reward : Having Overcome His Addiction to Drugs and Alcohol, Broadcaster Is Doing Better Than Ever

After the Orange Bowl on New Year’s Day, Channel 4 will show a Fred Roggin “Hall of Shame” special that will chronicle 10-plus years of bloopers and offbeat shots.

To this day, Roggin’s favorite is still one from 1988 that shows a 5-year-old Chula Vista girl accidentally smacking her 2 1/2-year-old little brother upside the head with a lightweight plastic bat.

After the thud of the bat, the mother laughs and the little boy cries. But the tyke, despite getting a scare, escapes unscathed.

Roggin and his career took a whack upside the head a little less than two years ago, but he too has apparently escaped unscathed and his life, he says, is better than ever.

Roggin figured he was a prime candidate for a real hall of shame in March 1992 when he finally admitted to having a chemical dependency and checked into an Orange County drug rehabilitation clinic.

“I thought if my problem ever came out, I would lose everything I had worked so hard for,” Roggin said the other day.

Turns out, his career is in fine shape, and so is he.

Roggin’s Sunday night sports wrap-up show averaged a 6 during the November sweeps, one of its highest ratings ever.

A few months ago, he was the host of a network prime-time video show called “Top Secrets,” and might do more.

He recently made an appearance on the NBC show, “Blossom,” and he has a cameo role in an NBC movie due out next year, “Witness to the Execution.”

His national show, “Roggin’s Heroes,” is no longer in production after a three-year run and 69 episodes, but it is still doing well in syndication.

As for his personal life, Roggin said he is looking at things differently these days and credits his two “families” for helping him beat his addiction.

He calls his bosses and colleagues at Channel 4 one family. His other is his bride of nine months, Richel; her parents, Roger and Tina Ruggiero of Northridge, and her brother, Roger Jr.

Roggin’s father died when he was 13, his mother when he was 26.

Roggin, 36, said it was his KNBC “family”--in particular Reed Manville, the general manager of Channel 4, and John Rohrbeck, the former general manager who now oversees all NBC-owned stations--who first persuaded him to seek help.

On March 4, 1992, he checked into the family recovery center at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Orange. On March 23, he checked out.

Skeptics feared that the treatment period was too short and Roggin would return to his former habits. But all indications are that Roggin has proved the skeptics wrong.

Roggin credits Richel, whom he married last April, for helping him the most through the difficult times.

They live in a Studio City home, where, Roggin said, clean living is the emphasis and daily workouts in a fully equipped gym the norm.

They see Roggin’s 5-year-old twins, Shannon and Jeffrey, on weekends and as often as possible. They even took them on their honeymoon to Florida.

“Our life is blissful,” said Richel, 27, a physical fitness fanatic who at one time worked at the Mid-Valley Racquetball Athletic Club in Reseda.

It was anything but blissful for Roggin two years ago when he was both a heavy drinker and chemically dependent.

“As bad as what I went through was,” Roggin said, “I am better off today because of it.

“Back then, I thought the most important thing was what I did. I’ve learned who I am is a lot more important.”

Richel, 23 at the time, took a job in the sports department at Channel 4 in 1989 while still working at the Mid-Valley club. Later, Phil Olsman, the executive producer of “Roggin’s Heroes,” hired her to work on that show.

By March of 1992, Roggin, separated from his first wife, had grown close to Richel.

But it was a rocky relationship. As Roggin’s behavior became more bizarre, Richel had thoughts of turning and running.

“That’s what some of my friends thought I should do,” she said. “But I liked Fred, I liked him a lot and I knew he needed help. But I didn’t know what the problem was. He lied to me just like he lied to all his friends.”

Said Roggin: “Mainly, I was lying to myself. It wasn’t until I could be honest with myself that I could be honest with others. And that’s when my life started to turn around.”

Said Richel: “When Fred admitted his problem to me and told me he was going to get help, a bond was created between us that will last forever.”

Richel’s father and brother are both Los Angeles police officers.

Their reaction?

“They were very supportive,” Richel said. “They trusted me to make the right decision.”

Roggin said he can’t remember how it all started, but he said he was never a partyer. He was a sneak addict, and tried to keep his secret from everyone.

“I was working around the clock, and I thought I needed a way to find more hours in a day,” he said. “I was also drinking a lot and one offset the other.”

And all the while, he was driving himself.

“I wanted everything to be perfect,” he said. “Mainly, I wanted to be perfect.”

Turned out Roggin was anything but perfect. Although his on-air work didn’t really suffer, his personal life was in shambles.

And now?

“I don’t drink at all,” he said. “No one has told me I can’t drink, I choose not to. And you know what? I sure don’t miss it.

“I’ve found you can beat this thing. That period of my life is only a memory. That was a lifetime ago.”