Donald Rickles

Who was Donald Rickles?

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 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,"Nightbeat" and The NBC University Theatre.