Roy Park’s ‘media empire’ continues to benefit N.C. State

Returning to the story of Roy Hammond Park, who was introduced to readers on April 11, 2025….

Experiencing a rapid rise in popularity of its Duncan Hines cake mixes, the business partnership between Duncan Hines and Roy Park – known as Hines-Park Foods – was in high cotton in the mid-1950s…and ripe for the picking.

 

Duncan Hines

The Procter & Gamble Company of Cincinnati, Ohio, stepped up in 1956 to acquire Hines-Park Foods and the rights to the Duncan Hines brand name.

 

Hines and Park were rewarded handsomely. Hines chose to retire and return to his hometown in Bowling Green, Ky., where he died from cancer three years later in 1959, at the age of 78.

Park was in his mid-40s when the P&G buyout occurred. He opted to stay on as a Procter & Gamble senior executive…but eventually got the entrepreneurial itch to strike out on his own.

 

Roy Park

He used his nest egg to launch a new venture in 1962, known as Park Communications, Inc. He embarked on a journey to purchase local radio and television stations as well as newspapers in small- and mid-sized media markets. He saw the importance of local news and invested in community journalism.

Park’s first acquisition was WNCT-TV and its related radio stations in Greenville, N.C. By 1977, Park had become the first broadcaster to own what was then the legal limit of seven television stations, seven AM radio stations and seven FM radio stations.

 

When Roy Park, at age 83, died in New York City in 1993 due to a heart attack, the Park Communications media empire included 22 radio stations, 11 television stations and 144 news publications. These media outlets combined to reach nearly one-fourth of all American households.

Park bequeathed more than 70% of his holdings for the creation of the charitable Park Foundation, Inc., which is dedicated to primarily supporting educational and environmental interests.

(Private investors reportedly paid $710 million to purchase the remaining assets of Park Communications. Shortly thereafter, the properties became part of Media General, only to be sold in 2017 to the current Nexstar Media Group.)

Park’s biographer said: “While Roy Park’s media influence was felt across the nation, his personal influence was always felt in North Carolina and especially at North Carolina State University, his alma mater.”

 

Park grew up in Dobson, a small community in rural Surry County, N.C., and graduated from N.C. State in 1931. 

He continued to maintain close ties with the university and offered his services in the arena of public relations.

In 1951, Park helped create and promote a “Nickels for Know-How” program, which allowed North Carolina farmers to donate 5 cents on each ton of feed and fertilizer purchased to support the university’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

In 2025, the program is still going strong, with farmers continuing to invest in the self-assessment program. (A referendum is conducted every six years. The measure passed with “a nearly 96% favorable vote” on the last ballot in 2022.) Nowadays, the rate is 15 cents per ton.

 

Receipts total about $1.4 million annually to help fund agricultural teaching, research and extension projects as well as internships and scholarships.

In 1996, the Park Foundation established the Park Scholarships program at N.C. State to award outstanding incoming freshmen. To date, more than 1,200 students have been selected to participate. This year, about 38 full scholarships are expected to be awarded.

 

William C. Friday (shown below), president of the University of North Carolina System from 1956-86, remarked: “Among North Carolina’s illustrious achievers…none stands taller than Roy Park. Always of good humor and with a generous heart, he moved among his peers sharing of himself gladly in the service of others.”