‘Price Is Right’: Rod Roddy Once Passed Out on Live Radio After a Guest Threw Coffee in His Face
What To Know
- Rod Roddy, later known as The Price Is Right announcer, once passed out on live radio after a former Miss America winner threw hot coffee in his face during a heated interview.
- The incident escalated when Roddy retaliated by pouring ice water on the guest, leading to her coffee-throwing response, Roddy’s on-air collapse, and a brief period of dead air that prompted listeners to call emergency services.
- After regaining consciousness, Roddy shared the guest’s hotel details on air, resulting in public backlash and his firing from the Dallas radio station, which eventually led him to a successful career as a TV announcer.
The Price is Right announcer Rod Roddy once passed out on live radio after a former Miss America winner threw coffee in his face.
During a February appearance on Nostalgia Tonight With Joe Sibilia, Roddy’s friend and fellow TV announcer Randy West recalled the jaw-dropping story. The altercation involved a former Miss America winner who came on Roddy’s radio show to promote her Amway cosmetics line. Except, Roddy wanted to focus the discussion on her time in the Miss America pageant.
“So he booked her on the show… and she’s only there to hype Amway because they’re having some convention in Dallas,” West explained. “And he’s asking questions about women’s lib and, ‘Did you feel objectification running around in a bathing suit for a beauty pageant?’ And all she wants to talk about is a new line of cosmetics from Amway.”
West continued, “Eventually, it escalated to where he poured a portion of a pitcher of ice water onto her head. But instead of her just being aghast and upset and whatever, she took her hot coffee and threw it in his face.”
After getting a cup of hot liquid to the face, Roddy hyperventilated and fell over.
“He kind of passed out and hit the counter where the microphone is, so the audience heard a big clunk, and it fell on the floor,” West recalled. “The engineer was, like, ‘I don’t know what to do.’ And it took like 10 long seconds of silence until he got some music on. During that 10 seconds of dead air, it’s untold how many people called the equivalent of 911, I don’t even think that was a number in those days, but call[ed] the local authorities.”
Eventually, an ambulance arrived, the Miss America winner left, and Roddy — who had “just passed out” — got back on the radio and divulged information to listeners about her location.
“To get back at her, he did something that got him into deep trouble that eventually led to his cancellation of the show at KLIF in Dallas,” West detailed. “He said, ‘This Miss America is at the Amway convention, which is being held at the hotel XYZ, and I have here in the notes to contact her. Here’s the phone number of the hotel, and she’s in room blank blank blank. And I suggest you call and say that she was outrageous on the show, and she should be embarrassed.'”
Ultimately, Roddy lost his job not long after the incident, and he eventually got into voice announcing. Roddy went on to work as an announcer on The Price Is Right alongside Bob Barker from 1986 until his death at 66 in 2003, after a battle with cancer.
The Price Is Right, weekdays, 11a/10c, CBS, stream next day on Paramount+
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