He was a good-looking man, too: tall and dark, with a resemblance to Errol Flynn according to his son, anyway. But not many people actually knew of him, and even fewer would have recognized him if he had knocked on the front door.
In the 1930s and 40s, the heyday of radio, this was the lot of the announcer, the man who introduced serials and other narrative shows always live on the air and read advertisements and moderated game show panels. And like few others, Mr. Roberts was ubiquitous, the voice of dozens of shows, a star without a name or a face.
He died of pneumonia on June 19 in Manhattan at 99, having had a stroke five years ago, his son, the actor Tony Roberts, said.
In the 1950s Ken Roberts made the transition to television, appearing on game shows, serving as the original announcer for Candid Camera and lending his voice to a popular program starring Jan Murray, Dollar a Second, for which he also did on-air commercials for the shows sponsor, Mogen David wine.
But his most enduring television legacy was as the announcer for two long-running daytime soap operas, The Secret Storm and Love of Life.
Mr. Robertss radio credits include comedies, dramas, game shows and variety shows. It was not unusual for him to be on the air half a dozen times a day. He announced several seasons of The Shadow, including 1937-38, when Orson Welles played the lead character, Lamont Cranston. He was the host and announcer for the game show Quick as a Flash, in which historical events or current events were dramatized, and contestants were asked to identify them.
He was the announcer for the comedy Easy Aces; the soap opera This Is Nora Drake, about a young woman with a surfeit of suitors; the hospital drama Joyce Jordan, Girl Intern; the quiz show Whats My Name?; and the quiz show parody It Pays to Be Ignorant.
He did stints on The Milton Berle Show, The Victor Borge Show, The Sophie Tucker Show and The Fred Allen Show. He could be heard on weekly drama presentations like The Philip Morris Playhouse and The Mercury Summer Theater and mystery series like The Adventures of Ellery Queen.
