By RODNEY HO/ rho@ajc.com, originally filed Monday, February 29, 2016

Steve McCoy, the former Star 94 morning host, has started a podcast focused on Parkinson's Disease.

He said he was first diagnosed with the disease in 2007 but only recently announced to the world he had it.

The first podcast last week featured several Parkinson's experts. Before he opened to the serious stuff, he mined his Star 94 roots by playing some jokes from late-night TV by the likes of Jimmy Fallon and Conan O'Brien, saying laughter is healing.

McCoy is in Washington D.C. with the Parkinson's Action Network this week talking to Congressional representatives about amping up research dollars for the disease, which affects up to one million Americans a year. It's a progressive disease of the nervous system marked by tremor, muscular rigidity, and slow, imprecise movement.

He has acknowledged in past interviews that Parkinson's has impacted his voice and has sometimes clouded his judgment.

He worked for several months last year as morning host at NewsRadio 106.7 until a Buzzfeed reporter caught him recycling an old Donald Trump interview as new. That led to the station letting him go.

He also does regular podcasts with his former Star 94 morning hosts Vikki Locke and Tom Sullivan.