Ralph Story (born Ralph Bernard Snyder in Kalamazoo, MI), radio and television broadcast innovator, died Tuesday morning at his home in Santa Ynez, California at the age of 86 after a long battle with emphysema.

Mr. Story began his career as a broadcaster in the late 1940s at KNX radio in Los Angeles. He was hired to host and direct a program about life in Southern California, which eventually gained him national exposure. His style was witty and casual, unusual at that time in the broadcasting field.

From there, he moved from working in radio to network television and in 1956 became host of The $64,000 Challenge quiz show in New York.  Several years later the show was cancelled after it was found out that some contestants were fed the answers to questions in order to increase ratings.  Ralph was not implicated in the scandal and shortly thereafter returned to Los Angeles to start yet another phase of his life's work.

Originally, he returned to news/talk radio staple KNX.  Within a few years he would go back to broadcast television, this time as part of The Big News team, a show that was one of the first local hour-long newscasts.  His regular feature there, called The Human Predicament, was about people caught up in unusual events and situations.  This segment would soon morph into the award-winning Ralph Story's Los Angeles which highlighted the people and places of his adopted home town.  It turned out to be extremely popular and enjoyed a six year run.

In the 1970s, Ralph Story heeded the call and once again went back to working in television.  At KABC-TV he co-hosted a morning program, A.M. Los Angeles, a prototype for the national show, Good Morning America.  The show moved its base of operation to New York, but Ralph remained loyal to California and stayed there.  He continued to work on local news shows as a writer, producer and reporter until the mid 1980s when he officially retired from the entertainment industry.

He and his (third) wife Diana then moved to Santa Barbara county, where they ran an art gallery.  In his spare time, Story was a champion for public television fundraising as well as a narrator (as called for) at the famous Hollywood Bowl.

Long time friend, collaborator and colleague Dan Gingold had this to say about Story.  "He was a wonderfully warm gentleman and an extremely talented journalist."  He was not only a good narrator, but was in his own right a producer and writer who became the unofficial historian of Southern California."

Ralph Story is survived by wife Diana as well as his son, Bradley Snyder.  A memorial service is scheduled for October 8 in Los Olivos, California.

Article Author: tink

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