“Little Ricky Rocko” Had a Kid’s Dream Job

SAM ROGOWAY (fka “Little Ricky Rocko”)

AGE: 44

BEST KNOWN FOR: Playing Top 40 hits on Z100 from 1987 to 1992 as “the world’s youngest disc jockey.”

In early ‘90s Portland, Z100′s on-air team “The Morning Zoo” reigned supreme. The radio station, formally 100.3-FM KKRZ, boasted a Jammin’ Salmon mascot and the beloved novelty song “Bust a Bucket” about the Portland Trail Blazers’ ascent to the 1992 NBA Finals. (Ask any Portland child of the ‘90s to rap the chorus. We’ll wait.)

The lucky kid at the center of it all was “Little Ricky Rocko,” né Sam Rogoway. The son of Dave Rogoway, former KISN radio personality and co-owner of LaRog Brothers jewelers, Rogoway began his radio career at the tender age of 8 when he submitted a tape, with his father’s help, to a Vancouver radio station.

According to news coverage at the time, the station in the ‘Couv put him on the air as a gimmick, billing him as “the world’s youngest disc jockey.” Soon, Z100 snagged him to play Top 40 hits on Fridays and Saturdays. He chose the moniker “Little Ricky Rocko”— “Rick” for his uncle and “Rocko” for rock ‘n’ roll (also a sly nod to his actual surname).

“I don’t want to be seen as some special type of kid,” Rogoway told The Oregonian in 1992. “It’s just a job I like to do like any type of job.”

His ascent was the stuff of kid dreams. In 1989, Rogoway served as the grand marshal of the Portland Rose Festival Junior Parade. As the Guinness Book of World Records holder for youngest DJ, he went on TV shows, such as Live With Regis and Kathie Lee and Good Morning America. He got to miss class every Friday morning from Southeast Portland’s Duniway Elementary School to deejay. He met Jon Bon Jovi and Debbie Gibson.

It’s been 30 years and some of us (ahem) are still smarting with jealousy.

Yet the no-longer-little Ricky doesn’t wish to reminisce. Through his father, Rogoway declined to be interviewed.

“While I was on the radio, I learned a lot about working with people much older than me,” he told the Los Angeles Business Journal in 2007. “I still rely on those lessons to help me today.”

According to his résumé on LinkedIn, Rogoway attended Loyola Marymount University for his undergrad and then law school at the University of California, Berkeley. He has worked a variety of tech jobs, including as the chief content and product officer at the meditation app Headspace from 2019 to 2021.

He lives in L.A. with his wife and daughter, according to Linktree, the tech company Rogoway joined as chief product officer in November 2022.

Two weeks ago, a spokesman said Rogoway is no longer with the company, but would not provide any further details.