Parker served in diverse roles during his more than four decade career in television (1951–1994), including newscasts, sports events, children's programs, announcing duties, and commercials. As a television newscaster with WAAM-TV in Baltimore, Parker covered the 1952 elections, when
Dwight D. Eisenhower was
elected U. S. President and
J. Glenn Beall was elected U.S. Senator from Maryland. He created a children's television character,
Mister Poplolly, in which he would don an oversized hat and glasses, along with a clown's nose, for a daily show. 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. Later on his career, Parker broadcast the resignation of
Richard Nixon, economic disasters facing the United States, the
Iran hostage crisis and the
attempted assassination of
Ronald Reagan. Parker remained at WBAL-TV until his retirement in 1994. Reflecting on his varied roles in the early pioneering years of commercial television, Parker recalled in 2008 that when he started at WAAM in 1951, earning $45 per week, "We just figured things out as we went along. In six months, you did everything. I could run a control board, or put on a cooking show". ==Later years and personal life==