Victor Mills "Vic" Roby, Jr. (November 9, 1917 â€" September 22, 2011
) was an American radio and television announcer, voice-over artist
and public affairs show host, and served for years as a staff
announcer with NBC.Born in Tylertown, Mississippi, Roby was an alumnus
of Millsaps College ('38) where he had been an Alpha Iota brother. He
entered the broadcasting business in 1943, working as a newsreader and
announcer at KOA (AM) in Denver, Colorado. After a brief stint with
the Mutual Broadcasting System where he announced on the 1950 version
of The Rudy Vallee Show, Roby joined the announcing staff of NBC in
New York City in 1950.Roby handled announcing for numerous radio and
television programs during his career, including Monitor and working
as sub-announcer on Concentration and The Price Is Right in the early
1960s. But his chief claim to fame was announcing on network promos,
bumpers and program introductions, most notably a variation of the
shortened 1968 version of the "Laramie Peacock" bumper on which he
intoned, "Now, a special program in living color on NBC," which ran on
television specials aired on the network through 1975. In addition, he
handled local announcing duties for WNBC-TV, including public service
announcements, station identifications, live tags and occasional
Emergency Broadcast System tests. He was one of a core group of
well-known voices for the NBC network which also included Don Pardo,
Howard Reig, Mel Brandt, Bill Wendell, Roger Tuttle, Bill McCord,
Arthur Gary, Bill Hanrahan, Wayne Howell and Jerry Damon (whose voice
bore some similarities to Roby's, leading to some confusion between
the two).Over the years, Roby did many commercials for various
products and services on both radio and television; he was part of a
group of New York announcers (also including his NBC colleague Howard
Reig and WOR-TV's Phil Tonken) who did so. Roby made headlines in 1969
when he put an advertisement in Variety indicating that he would no
longer be available for cigarette commercials, citing "evidence . . .
that smoking could lead to cancer, heart attacks, strokes, emphysema
and fires." He was one of a growing number of media personalities to
do so, nearly two years before cigarette advertising on television was
banned.
) was an American radio and television announcer, voice-over artist
and public affairs show host, and served for years as a staff
announcer with NBC.Born in Tylertown, Mississippi, Roby was an alumnus
of Millsaps College ('38) where he had been an Alpha Iota brother. He
entered the broadcasting business in 1943, working as a newsreader and
announcer at KOA (AM) in Denver, Colorado. After a brief stint with
the Mutual Broadcasting System where he announced on the 1950 version
of The Rudy Vallee Show, Roby joined the announcing staff of NBC in
New York City in 1950.Roby handled announcing for numerous radio and
television programs during his career, including Monitor and working
as sub-announcer on Concentration and The Price Is Right in the early
1960s. But his chief claim to fame was announcing on network promos,
bumpers and program introductions, most notably a variation of the
shortened 1968 version of the "Laramie Peacock" bumper on which he
intoned, "Now, a special program in living color on NBC," which ran on
television specials aired on the network through 1975. In addition, he
handled local announcing duties for WNBC-TV, including public service
announcements, station identifications, live tags and occasional
Emergency Broadcast System tests. He was one of a core group of
well-known voices for the NBC network which also included Don Pardo,
Howard Reig, Mel Brandt, Bill Wendell, Roger Tuttle, Bill McCord,
Arthur Gary, Bill Hanrahan, Wayne Howell and Jerry Damon (whose voice
bore some similarities to Roby's, leading to some confusion between
the two).Over the years, Roby did many commercials for various
products and services on both radio and television; he was part of a
group of New York announcers (also including his NBC colleague Howard
Reig and WOR-TV's Phil Tonken) who did so. Roby made headlines in 1969
when he put an advertisement in Variety indicating that he would no
longer be available for cigarette commercials, citing "evidence . . .
that smoking could lead to cancer, heart attacks, strokes, emphysema
and fires." He was one of a growing number of media personalities to
do so, nearly two years before cigarette advertising on television was
banned.
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