In June, 2001, Royal reminisced
about the early days of Baltimore television:
"Back at 13 when it was WAAM, what we had was a straw hat, a cane, and
a striped coat. That was for whoever was on duty.
We'd stand next to this little eight millimeter projector to lead into
a cartoon. There was Ted Jaffe and myself, and Jim Killian
and whoever was around and on duty on staff. And you were the
staff announcer then 30 minutes later you were the newscaster or doing
some headlines or voiceovers of United Telephoto slides that used to
come in twice a day. Everything was always one
camera. If it was two cameras, it was a big show.
And you stood next to this projector and you wound it up and it
flickered then dissolved into a black and white cartoon. And
you were standing there with the straw hat and the striped coat and the
cane and you were like a barker at the circus. Everybody used
the same costume. When Westinghouse took over in 1957--they
bought the station in the spring and weren't going to take over until
the fall of '57--they holed up in a hotel just watching the operations
of all the local stations, and they were getting their feet wet with
regard to the local market. They went out and hired Jack
Wells from 'CBM, and Buddy Deane from 'ITH, and Keith McBee from
WBAL. And I'll never forget they come to me and said, and I
was a staff announcer, and they said we want you to fill an hour from
12 to 1:00, just show some cartoons. So I asked, what do I
do?"
Deciding that kids enjoyed seeing characters in costume, Royal came up
with the Toonerville Trolley conductor, "Mr. Poplolly."
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