Donald Rickles (announcer)
Encyclopedia
Donald Newton Rickles was an American
radio
and television
announcer
, news anchor
, and actor
.
Born in Portland, Oregon
, Rickles began his announcing career at the age of 11 at KBPS (AM) in Portland. Later he was chief announcer for KUSC-FM
in Los Angeles, California
. Other stations where he worked early in his career included KGW
and KEX
in Portland and KVAN in Vancouver, Washington
.
In 1949, Rickles became an announcer at KIEV in Los Angeles, and a year later joined the announcing staff of NBC
in Hollywood
. He was part of a core group of West Coast announcers for the network that, in his early years, included Don Stanley
, Arch Presby
, Eddy King, and Frank Barton
; by the 1970s the main core announcing lineup had become Rickles, Stanley, Victor Bozeman
, and Peggy Taylor
.
Rickles' radio announcing credits included The Whisperer
, The Great Gildersleeve
, and The NBC University Theatre. On television, over the next three decades he would handle announcing duties for such program
s as Coke Time with Eddie Fisher
, The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show
, The Dean Martin Show
, The Flip Wilson Show
, Sanford and Son
, NBC Saturday Night at the Movies
, NBC Monday Night at the Movies
, and Bob Hope
specials. He appeared in sketches
on, and frequently did voice-over
work for, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
, and in a memorable 1978 episode of The Tomorrow Show
, he and host Tom Snyder
spent ten minutes playing the Milton Bradley
board game
Simon
. He also handled live booth announcing duties for the network's Los Angeles owned-and-operated station
, KNBC
.
Rickles had also worked as a newscaster, at one point anchoring KNBC's 11 P.M. newscast. Years later, after John Schubeck
became anchor, Rickles was one of the rotating announcers for the station's NewsCenter 4, and was thanked on the air by Schubeck at the start of each newscast. Rickles also anchored out-of-vision for sign-on and sign-off editions of NewsCenter4.
Rickles died in Glendale, California
of a heart attack at age 57.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
and television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
announcer
Announcer
An announcer is a presenter who makes "announcements" in an audio medium or a physical location.-Television and other media:Some announcers work in television production , radio or filmmaking, usually providing narrations, news updates, station identification, or an introduction of a product in...
, news anchor
News presenter
A news presenter is a person who presents news during a news program in the format of a television show, on the radio or the Internet.News presenters can work in a radio studio, television studio and from remote broadcasts in the field especially weather...
, and actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
.
Born in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, Rickles began his announcing career at the age of 11 at KBPS (AM) in Portland. Later he was chief announcer for KUSC-FM
KUSC
KUSC is a listener-supported classical music radio station broadcasting from downtown Los Angeles, California, USA. KUSC is owned and operated by the University of Southern California, which also operates student-run KXSC and San Francisco's classical station KDFC...
in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
. Other stations where he worked early in his career included KGW
KPOJ
KPOJ is a radio station located in the Portland, Oregon, area. It airs a progressive talk format and was an original Air America Radio affiliate.-History:...
and KEX
KEX (AM)
KEX is a class A clear channel AM radio station broadcasting from Portland, Oregon. As of 2005 it is owned by Clear Channel Communications and runs news/talk programming. Because KEX is a Class A station, KEX reaches most of the densely populated areas of Oregon, providing grade B coverage as far...
in Portland and KVAN in Vancouver, Washington
Vancouver, Washington
Vancouver is a city on the north bank of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington. Incorporated in 1857, it is the fourth largest city in the state with a 2010 census population of 161,791 as of April 1, 2010...
.
In 1949, Rickles became an announcer at KIEV in Los Angeles, and a year later joined the announcing staff of NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
in Hollywood
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Hollywood is a famous district in Los Angeles, California, United States situated west-northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word Hollywood is often used as a metonym of American cinema...
. He was part of a core group of West Coast announcers for the network that, in his early years, included Don Stanley
Don Stanley
Donald Stanley Uglum , known professionally as Don Stanley, was an American radio and television announcer....
, Arch Presby
Arch Presby
George Archibald "Arch/Archie" Presby was a Canadian-born, American radio and television announcer.Born in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada, Presby began his announcing career at CFDC in Vancouver in 1925, and remained with the station at the point where its call letters changed to the current CKWX two...
, Eddy King, and Frank Barton
Frank Barton
Frank Barton is a retired English footballer who played as a midfielder during the 1960s and 1970s.He went on to play for Seattle Sounders of the North American Soccer League from 1979 until 1982....
; by the 1970s the main core announcing lineup had become Rickles, Stanley, Victor Bozeman
Victor Bozeman
Victor Emanuel Bozeman was an American television announcer, voice-over artist, and actor.In the 1950s, Bozeman was a disc jockey at WLIB in New York City...
, and Peggy Taylor
Peggy Taylor
Peggy M. Taylor was an American singer and actress who later became a radio and television announcer.-Biography:...
.
Rickles' radio announcing credits included The Whisperer
The Whisperer
The Whisperer was an American old-time radio program which broadcast 13 episodes on late Sunday afternoons [5:00 p.m. Eastern] as a summer replacement from July 8 to September 30, 1951 on NBC.It was based on stories by Dr...
, The Great Gildersleeve
The Great Gildersleeve
The Great Gildersleeve , initially written by Leonard Lewis Levinson, was one of broadcast history's earliest spin-off programs. Built around Throckmorton Philharmonic Gildersleeve, a character who had been a staple on the classic radio situation comedy Fibber McGee and Molly, first Introduced to...
, and The NBC University Theatre. On television, over the next three decades he would handle announcing duties for such program
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
s as Coke Time with Eddie Fisher
Coke Time with Eddie Fisher
Coke Time with Eddie Fisher is an American musical variety television series starring singer Eddie Fisher which was broadcast by NBC on Wednesday nights in early prime time from 1953 to 1957. The program was aired from 7:30 to 7:45 p.m...
, The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show
Tennessee Ernie Ford
Ernest Jennings Ford , better known as Tennessee Ernie Ford, was an American recording artist and television host who enjoyed success in the country and Western, pop, and gospel musical genres...
, The Dean Martin Show
The Dean Martin Show
The Dean Martin Show is a TV variety-comedy series that ran from 1965 to 1974 for 264 episodes. It was broadcast by NBC and hosted by crooner Dean Martin...
, The Flip Wilson Show
The Flip Wilson Show
The Flip Wilson Show is a variety show that aired in the U.S. on NBC from September 17, 1970 to June 27, 1974. The show starred American comedian Flip Wilson; the program was one of the first American television programs starring a black person in the title role to become highly successful with a...
, Sanford and Son
Sanford and Son
Sanford and Son is an American sitcom, based on the BBC's Steptoe and Son, that ran on the NBC television network from January 14, 1972, to March 25, 1977....
, NBC Saturday Night at the Movies
NBC Saturday Night at the Movies
NBC Saturday Night at the Movies, was the first continuing weekly prime time network television series to show relatively recent feature films from major studios in color...
, NBC Monday Night at the Movies
The NBC Monday Movie
The NBC Monday Movie was a television anthology series of films scheduled every Monday night from 1963 to 1999 on NBC. It was referred to as NBC Monday Night at the Movies prior to the mid-1980s...
, and Bob Hope
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
specials. He appeared in sketches
Sketch comedy
A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...
on, and frequently did voice-over
Voice-over
Voice-over is a production technique where a voice which is not part of the narrative is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, theatre, or other presentations...
work for, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson is a talk show hosted by Johnny Carson under the Tonight Show franchise from 1962 to 1992. It originally aired during late-night....
, and in a memorable 1978 episode of The Tomorrow Show
Tomorrow (TV series)
Tomorrow was an American late-night television talk show hosted by Tom Snyder...
, he and host Tom Snyder
Tom Snyder
Thomas James "Tom" Snyder was an American television personality, news anchor and radio personality best known for his late night talk shows The Tomorrow Show, on the NBC television network in the 1970s and 1980s, and The Late Late Show, on the CBS Television Network in the 1990s...
spent ten minutes playing the Milton Bradley
Milton Bradley Company
The Milton Bradley Company is an American game company established by Milton Bradley in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1860. In 1920, it absorbed the game production of McLoughlin Brothers, formerly the largest game manufacturer in the United States, and in 1987, it purchased Selchow and Righter,...
board game
Board game
A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...
Simon
Simon (game)
Simon is an electronic game of memory skill invented by Ralph H. Baer and Howard J. Morrison, with the software programming being done by Lenny Cope and manufactured and distributed by Milton Bradley. Simon was launched in 1978 at Studio 54 in New York City and became an immediate success. It...
. He also handled live booth announcing duties for the network's Los Angeles owned-and-operated station
Owned-and-operated station
In the broadcasting industry , an owned-and-operated station usually refers to a television station or radio station that is owned by the network with which it is associated...
, KNBC
KNBC
KNBC, channel 4, is an owned-and-operated television station of the NBC Television Network, licensed to Los Angeles, California, USA. KNBC's studios and offices are located within the NBC Studios complex in Burbank, California, and its transmitter is located on Mount Wilson...
.
Rickles had also worked as a newscaster, at one point anchoring KNBC's 11 P.M. newscast. Years later, after John Schubeck
John Schubeck
John Schubeck was an American television reporter and anchor, and one of the few to anchor newscasts on all three network owned-and-operated stations in one major market....
became anchor, Rickles was one of the rotating announcers for the station's NewsCenter 4, and was thanked on the air by Schubeck at the start of each newscast. Rickles also anchored out-of-vision for sign-on and sign-off editions of NewsCenter4.
Rickles died in Glendale, California
Glendale, California
Glendale is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the city population is 191,719, down from 194,973 at the 2000 census. making it the third largest city in Los Angeles County and the 22nd largest city in the state of California...
of a heart attack at age 57.
External links
- Donald Rickles radio credits (with some credits actually applicable to comedian Don Rickles)
- Web page with video clip of September 27, 1981 sign-off of KNBC by Donald Rickles