Fred Foy, announcer for ‘The Lone Ranger,’ dies at 89

LOS ANGELES – Fred Foy, a radio and television announcer best known for conjuring up “those thrilling days of yesteryear” in the late 1940s and ’50s as the announcer-narrator of “The Lone Ranger” on radio and television, has died. He was 89.

Foy died Wednesday of age-related causes at his home in Woburn, Mass.

During a broadcasting career that began in Detroit in 1940, Foy spent more than 20 years as a staff announcer for ABC television and radio before retiring in the mid-1980s.

His early career included stints announcing radio’s “The Green Hornet” and “The Challenge of the Yukon,” and he later was the announcer on “The Dick Cavett Show” on ABC in the late ’60s and early ’70s.

But for many, Foy remains best remembered for his stentorian delivery of what many consider the most famous opening in broadcast history, accompanied by the stirring strains of Rossini’s “William Tell Overture”:

“A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty ‘Hi-yo, Silver’ – the Lone Ranger! With his faithful Indian companion, Tonto, the daring and resourceful masked rider of the plains led the fight for law and order in the early western United States. Nowhere in the pages of history can one find a greater champion of justice.

“Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear. From out of the past come the thundering hoof-beats of the great horse Silver. The Lone Ranger rides again!”

Foy was a staff announcer at Detroit radio station WXYZ in 1948 when he was asked to take over as the announcer for “The Lone Ranger,” which had been launched at the station in 1933. He remained with “The Lone Ranger” until its final live broadcast in 1954.