Schenkel was born on August 21, 1923 to second-generation immigrant parents on their farm in Bippus, Indiana. He was one of six children. He began his broadcasting career at radio station WBAA while studying for a premedical degree at Purdue University where he was a member of the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II and the Korean War. He worked in radio for a time at WLBC in Muncie, Indiana. and then moved to television, in Providence, Rhode Island, and in 1947 began announcing Harvard football games. For six years he did local radio and called the Thoroughbred horse races at Narragansett Park.