Roger Francisco Sound Recordings, 1969-1986 | The Sousa Archives and Center for American Music

Roger Francisco was born in Decatur, Illinois in 1938.  While growing up in Springfield, Illinois, Francisco developed a love for music, playing bass in his high school orchestra and working at a local radio station. After moving to Urbana in 1956, he began working as an audio engineer at Magnavox and radio disc jockey as well as performing bass with several local bands as well as the music program "Jazz You Like It" that gave concerts at the University's student union.  In the early 1960s, Francisco moved to Nashville and began producing records at Monument Studios as well as performing bass in The Galaxies. Around 1964, he moved back to Urbana and formed RoFran Enterprises, the home studio where he recorded radio and television commercials as well as records for local bands and ensembles including: The One Eyed Jacks, The Finchley Boys, The Lindsey Triplets, and Marvin Lee. By 1968, RoFran Enterprises began attracting jazz and experimental ensembles including The University of Illinois Jazz Ensemble and Howie Smith. Smith and Francisco also worked together as band mates in The Prodigies, which eventually changed its name to Sound Studio One. In the late 1960s, Francisco also performed within the groups The Expressions and The Spoils of War.

By 1970, Francisco had recorded groups like REO Speedwagon, Head East, Starcastle and Al Franken. In the early 1970s, Francisco also became the co-manager for the folk ensemble The Ship. After selling RoFran studios in 1974, Francisco began working with the annual Red Herring Coffee House folk festival where he recorded and produced the LPs for the festival. In addition, he helped to found Silver Dollar Studios, eventually moving on to Creative Audio where he became the chief engineer recording such groups as: The Elvis Brothers, Dan Fogelberg, Champaign, and Duke Tumatoe and the All-Star Frogs. In the early 1980s, Francisco began working on the soundtrack for the CBS miniseries "Alice in Wonderland," whose album was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1985. In the mid-1980s, he began working with the video production company, Prairie Production Group which produced video spots for Human Kinetics, a publisher of physical education books. One of the visual segments he created appears in the Acadamy Award nominated documentary Cosmic Voyage from 1997, in which Francisco can be heard discussing the University of Illinois NSCA computer. Since the early 1990s, Francisco has provided the voice overs for all of the videos for Human Kinetics.