In later years, he portrayed himself and fictional broadcast journalists in entertainment media, such as in 1970s episodes of the TV series M*A*S*H. After serving as a war correspondent in World War II and Korea, Roberts settled in the Los Angeles area and became a respected radio news reporter, eventually turning to television in the mid-1950s at KNXT Channel 2 (now KCBS-TV), the local CBS owned-and-operated station.

He anchored a nightly newscast and occasionally ventured to far-flung locations to report on national and international stories, taking with him his own Bell and Howell movie camera with which he shot his own news footage.

In 1966, Roberts returned to KNXT, joining the station's highly esteemed 6 p.m. "The Big News" broadcast and its late-night companion "The Eleven O'Clock Report."

His long tenure in Los Angeles comprised reports and travels ranging from offbeat local stories to the war in Vietnam.

Roberts portrayed reporters in various productions, among them Meteor from 1979[5] and the 1983 NBC miniseries V[citation needed] as well a San Francisco television newsman in the 1983 nuclear war film Testament.