KGO Radio talk show host Ronn Owens discusses battle with Parkinson's disease

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- One of the Bay Area's best-known radio hosts recently revealed he has Parkinson's disease, but chose to hide it from the public for more than 12 years.

KGO Radio talk show host Ronn Owens and his wife, former KGO news anchor Jan Black, sat down with ABC7 News anchor Cheryl Jennings to talk about Owens' battle.

Owens' doctor William Marks from UCSF talked about symptoms and treatments ranging from medication to surgery.

ABC7 News learned depression is part of the illness.

"I have clinical depression and so the Parkinson's kind of feeds into that. Bill will tell you, I was at 40 to 60 per cent of people who get Parkinson's have depression issues," Owens said.

Cheryl: "Jan, do you find that he's moody?"

"I seriously think he's sort of always been like that. Well and before the diagnosis and then you got on anti-depressants and it really does make a very big difference I think in terms of his moodiness, but, I've often wondered well was this sort of a symptom of Parkinson's showing up before the tremors did," Black said.

You can watch the entire exclusive interview with Owens Sunday at 10 a.m. on ABC7.