Ron McCoy; Radio Host Became Minister

Ron McCoy, a Los Angeles radio host dubbed the “dean of late night talk radio” who chucked a half-century career on the airwaves to become a Religious Science minister, has died. He was 72.

McCoy, who hosted KFI’s “Night Owl Show” from 1961 to 1978, died of cancer Dec. 10 in Los Angeles.

Known for his melodious voice, sense of humor and nonconfrontational style, McCoy estimated that he fielded between 8,000 and 10,000 phone calls a year during that 17-year run. The subjects under discussion, despite strict limits set by station management, ranged from politics to the mundane, or what McCoy always labeled “fudge brownie recipes.”

“The 1960s were a very controversial time: hippies, the Vietnam War, assassinations, drugs and sex,” McCoy told The Times in 1989. “But KFI management had a strict policy against anything controversial. [Comedian] Joey Adams was on when Ronald Reagan was running for governor and a caller asked him if actors should go into politics. ‘Why not?’ says Adams. ‘Most politicians are clowns anyway.’

“Management didn’t let me have a guest for two months after that one,” McCoy said. “KFI thought I was incompetent and couldn’t handle my guests.”

After leaving KFI, McCoy had other talk shows successively on KGIL, KPRZ (later KIIS-AM) and KIEV.

But his increasing restlessness with management policies and two shattering divorces prodded him to seek a career change. A five-minute Religious Science show that preceded his “Night Owl” on KFI convinced him to explore that early 20th century religion.

“Religious Science said that if you want to be better than you are, it’s all up to you. That’s a practical way that made sense to me,” he later told The Times.

McCoy, a onetime Roman Catholic, studied for six years to earn certification as a Religious Science minister, and in 1987 abandoned radio to become minister of the Sherman Oaks Church of Religious Science. He later served the organization’s Santa Clarita Churc “There’s a strong element of showmanship in all successful ministries,” the Rev. Leo Fishbeck of the Glendale Science of Mind Center, who trained McCoy, told The Times shortly after McCoy began delivering sermons. “ . . . You have to move people in some way. Coming from radio, Ron already knew how to do that.”

Enamored in childhood of live dramatic shows on radio, McCoy landed his first radio job at age 12 on a local station in his native Denver. He acted the boyhood voices of famous artists on a show called “Art Speaks Your Language” and voiced parts in little plays about farm life on a Saturday agricultural show.

After more on-the-job training in an Office of War Information radio drama workshop during World War II, he studied economics and history at the University of Denver, intending to go into radio news. But his first job as an adult was in entertainment radio--as a disc jockey at Salt Lake City station KALL.

Four years later, in 1958, he moved to Los Angeles as a deejay at KLAC. In 1961, he switched to KFI and began his long stint on talk radio.

When McCoy adopted his second career as a minister, he continued to do occasional radio advertising and film voice-overs and appeared from time to time as a guest on radio shows talking about his ministry. But he never looked back at the rest.

“Radio had changed,” he mused in 1989. “I don’t miss that daily grind and wondering who will buy the station this week, and I certainly don’t miss staying up all night.”

During his radio days, McCoy lectured on broadcasting at UCLA and Los Angeles Valley Community College and taught at KIIS Broadcasting School and Radio Lab.

He is survived by two sons, Ron Jr. and Brett; a stepdaughter, Danielle, and three grandchildren.

Memorial services are scheduled for 3 p.m. Jan. 2 at the Hollywood Church for Today, 7677 Sunset Blvd.