Donald Stanley Uglum (August 5, 1917 in

Stoughton, Wisconsin Stoughton is a city in Dane County, Wisconsin, United States. It straddles the Yahara River about 20 miles southeast of the state capital, Madison. Stoughton is part of the Madison Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2020 census, the popula ...

– January 20, 2003 in

Westlake Village, California Westlake Village is a city in Los Angeles County on its western border with Ventura County. The City of Westlake Village incorporated in 1981 becoming the 82nd municipality of Los Angeles County.Baker, Pam (2002). ''Thousand Oaks Westlake Vil ...

), known professionally as Don Stanley, was an American

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...

and

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

announcer An announcer is a voice artist who relays information to the audience of a broadcast media programme or live event. Television and other media Some announcers work in television production, radio or filmmaking, usually providing narration ...

. Stanley was born in Stoughton and attended the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...

, where he was part of the University Players. His announcing career began at the university's

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...

WHA (AM) WHA (970 AM) is a non-commercial radio station, licensed since 1922 to the University of Wisconsin and located in Madison, Wisconsin. It serves as the flagship for the Wisconsin Public Radio talk-based "Ideas Network". WHA's programming is also ...

. From there, he went to WIBA-AM in

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...

, and in 1940 joined WTMJ in

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee ...

, where he inaugurated the station's FM outlet (now

WKTI WKTI (94.5 FM) – branded 94.5 ESPN Milwaukee – is a commercial sports radio station licensed to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, serving the Milwaukee metropolitan area. Owned by Good Karma Brands, WKTI is an affiliate for ESPN Radio. WKTI is known ...

) as a staff announcer and news commentator. After a brief stint as an announcer with ABC in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, Stanley joined

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

in Hollywood in 1946 and became part of the network's West Coast announcing staff for the next 46 years. He was part of a "core" group that included the likes of Arch Presby, Eddy King, and Frank Barton; in later years, among his colleagues would be Donald Rickles, Victor Bozeman, and

Peggy Taylor Peggy Taylor (born Margaret Tague, October 12, 1927 – February 9, 2002) was an American singer and actress who later became a radio and television announcer. Early life On October 12, 1927, Taylor was born as Margaret Tague in Inglewood, Ca ...

. His tenure with NBC was on par with such New York-based network staff announcers as

Don Pardo Dominick George "Don" Pardo (February 22, 1918 – August 18, 2014) was an American radio and television announcer whose career spanned more than seven decades. A member of the Television Hall of Fame, Pardo was noted for his 70-year tenure with ...

Bill Wendell William Joseph Wenzel Jr. (March 22, 1924 – April 14, 1999), known as Bill Wendell, was an NBC television staff announcer for almost his entire professional career. Life and career Born in New York City, Wendell served in the United States ...

Wayne Howell Wayne Howell Chappelle (February 16, 1921 – July 8, 1993) was a voice-over announcer for the NBC television and radio networks from 1947 through 1986. He was born in Lexington, Kentucky, and became one member of a core group of New York-base ...

, and

Howard Reig Howard Reig (May 31, 1921 – November 10, 2008)World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, he served in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

and also did announcing work for the

Armed Forces Radio Service The American Forces Network (AFN) is a government television and radio broadcast service the U.S. military provides to those stationed or assigned overseas. Headquartered at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, AFN's broadcast operations, which ...

. During the "golden age" of old-time radio, Stanley's voice was heard on such shows as '' The Bill Stern Colgate Sports Newsreel'', ''The NBC University Theatre'', '' The Adventures of The Saint'', ''

The Halls of Ivy ''The Halls of Ivy'' is an American situation comedy that ran from 1950 to 1952 on NBC radio, created by '' Fibber McGee & Molly'' co-creator/writer Don Quinn. The series was adapted into a CBS television comedy (1954–55) produced by ITC Entert ...

'', '' The Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy Show'', ''

The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe ''The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe'' is a 1950–51 American radio drama series starring Sydney Greenstreet as Rex Stout's fictional armchair detective Nero Wolfe. Based on Stout's principal characters but not his stories, the series aired Octob ...

'', '' Presenting Charles Boyer'', and ''

Father Knows Best ''Father Knows Best'' is an American sitcom starring Robert Young, Jane Wyatt, Elinor Donahue, Billy Gray and Lauren Chapin. The series, which began on radio in 1949, aired as a television show for six seasons and 203 episodes. Created by ...

''. After moving to the television side in the 1950s (and, eventually, to their later

studios A studio is an artist or worker's workroom. This can be for the purpose of acting, architecture, painting, pottery ( ceramics), sculpture, origami, woodworking, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, industrial design ...

in Burbank, California), he handled announcing duties for such

television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

s as '' The Sheilah Graham Show'', ''

One Man's Family ''One Man's Family'' is an American radio soap opera, heard for almost three decades, from 1932 to 1959. Created by Carlton E. Morse, it was the longest-running uninterrupted dramatic serial in the history of American radio. Television versions ...

'', '' The Spike Jones Show'', and ''

NBC Saturday Night at the Movies ''NBC Saturday Night at the Movies'' was the first TV show to broadcast in color relatively recent feature films from major studios. The series premiered on September 23, 1961, and ran until October 1978, spawning many imitators. Previously, tel ...

''. Stanley's voice was also heard introducing ''NewsCenter 4'' on the network's

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

flagship station, KNBC, where he handled live on-air continuity duties and anchored local newscasts out-of-vision at sign-on and sign-off. His long run with the network ended around 1992. He was married to his high school sweetheart, Elinore, for 63 years. They had three children: Jon, Kristin and Donna. Stanley died of complications from cancer of the small intestine at age 85. His wife, Elinore, died on October 31, 2011 at age 94.

References

External links

Don Stanley radio credits
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stanley, Don 1917 births 2003 deaths American television personalities American male voice actors Deaths from cancer in California Radio personalities from Chicago Deaths from colorectal cancer NBC network announcers People from Stoughton, Wisconsin Radio and television announcers Male actors from Wisconsin University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Deaths from small intestine cancer

References

Further reading

External links