Fred Foy (1921-2010)

One of the great voices in broadcast history died. Fred Foy (1921-2010) was one of the voices that everyone knew in radio and television. His name is not as well-known and he was not very visible to the public, but his voice was recognized because of the work that he did. Just picture the William Tell Overture and the words "A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust . . . ." That is all, yet you know that the Lone Ranger is starting. He did this open for both the radio and television version of the program. This was a voice that was always recognized and that made us all children, no matter how old we were. Listening to radio in my youth it was always a fun Saturday morning to hear the radio versions of some early television programing. I am not quite old enough to have lived in the early days of radio drama but did get to enjoy the end of that era. Growing up in Fresno, CA we had many of the early programs that were still on the air and played on Saturday mornings. Fred Foy did the introductions on several of the classic shows. He was the voice of the “The Green Hornet’, “The Challenge Of The Yukon” (Sargent Preston Of The Yukon to us less technical folks) and several other shows. His voice was so well known that when the Lone Ranger was made into a television program they may have made many changes but his open was still intact and it made for continuity between the eras. Many of us will always be aware of the great voices of radio and will keep them in our minds forever. That is the benefit of radio you can always remember the sounds of your youth and the way that they affected your actions. So now I will put in the DVD and watch the opening just to hear all of the words and the inflections that I could never do. He will be missed and remembered every time we watch or listen to the Lone Ranger or find a radio station that is still playing the “old time” radio programs. They may be very dated and in some cases show the bias of the WWII time period, yet they do have an imagination that seems to be lacking in most of the broadcast spectrum today.