Royal Parker

Royal Pollokoff (April 8, 1929 – January 8, 2016), better known by the stage name Royal Parker, was an American television personality. In a broadcasting career spanning the 1940s–1990s, he appeared in various roles, becoming a staple on television screens in the Baltimore, Maryland, area.

Early years Born in Baltimore, Maryland, on April 8, 1929, Parker graduated from Baltimore City College in 1946. He began his broadcasting career in the late 1940s on WASA (now WHGM), an AM radio station in Havre de Grace, Maryland, hosting a music program called the Royal Record Review. While at WBAL, he played P. W. Doodle, a newsboy character he created based on his own experience selling newspapers in Baltimore as a youth. On November 22, 1963, he was called upon to broadcast the news flash of U.S. President John F. Kennedy's assassination. He later took a job as an inspector for the Baltimore City Liquor License Board, retiring from that position in 2006.

In his retirement, Parker remained active in local charitable work, which included frequent benefit appearances for the Mount Washington Pediatric Hospital.