Game-Show Host Story Dead at 86

The AP reports that Ralph Story, host of the 1950s game show The 64,000 Challenge, has died in Santa Ynez, Calif., at the age of 86.

Story began his broadcasting career in radio in the late 1940s. He started working in network television in the 1950s and hosted the enormously popular Challenge from 1956-1958.

After his challenge gig, Story hosted one of the first hour-long local TV newscasts, called The Big News, which spun off into a local newsmagazine, Ralph Story’s Los Angeles.

In the 1970s, Story joined KABC and was co-host of a morning-news program that was a predecessor to Good Morning America.

He spent the final years of his life operating an art gallery in Los Olivos, Calif., and fundraising for civic groups and public-TV stations.

He is survived by his wife, Diana, and son, Bradley Snyder.