Paul Harvey was a legend of broadcast radio. See a video and photo tribute here to the pioneer who with his iconic delivery rich with expressive pauses was a broadcaster for more than 70 years and the most listened to radio commentator in the world, ending his broadcasts with his signature signoff, “Paul Harvey….good day.”
He was an icon and a revered figure, indeed a national treasure who had met every U.S. president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In 2005 President George W. Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Born in 1918, he was 90 years old at the time of his death in 2009.
“Paul Harvey was the most listened to man in the history of radio,” said Bruce DuMont, president of the Museum of Broadcast Communications and host of the nationally syndicated radio program “Beyond the Beltway.” “There is no one who will ever come close to him.”
Dumont said Harvey had a litmus test for all his stories: Would Aunt Betty care about this? He thought about the interest level of his real Aunt Betty to get away from “highfalutin” foreign affairs discussions to discuss “meat and potato” issues like health care, Dumont said.
[Source: Chicago Tribune]
Paul Harvey got his start in radio in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at age 14 in while still in school. Radio broadcasting has been his sole passion and occupation, which he shared with his wife Lynne Cooper Harvey whom he called Angel. She was his longtime producer (and died in May 2008). Later his son, Paul Harvey, Jr. joined the family’s venture and became producer and writer of ‘The Rest of the Story.’
Harvey never viewed himself as a newsman, even though some 18 million people tuned into his daily reports to hear his 15-minute take on the day’s events.
“I’m a professional parade watcher who can’t wait to get out of bed every morning and rush down to the teletypes to pan for gold,” he told CNN’s Larry King in 1988.
That he did with a vengeance since those teletype days in 1951, arriving at his Chicago studio in the pre-dawn hours to produce two news and commentary segments and his evening The Rest of the Story (written by his son, Paul) which were carried on some 1,100 radio stations and 400 Armed Forces Radio Network stations.
Harvey lived in River Forest, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. He had a 16th floor studio above a street sign that said Paul Harvey Drive.
In 2001, when he was 81 years old, Paul Harvey famously signed a $100 million 10-year contract with ABC Radio Networks, the network he had been with for his entire career. The stalwart Harvey nearly fulfilled the contract.
He was also a noted pitchman, with a one-of-a-kind delivery of commercial spots that he wove seamlessly into his radio broadcasts, with companies clamoring for the very limited ads and sponsorships.
“I can’t look down on the commercial sponsors of these broadcasts,” he told CBS in 1988. “Too often they have very, very important messages to put across. Without advertising in this country, my goodness, we’d still be in this country what Russia mostly still is: a nation of bearded cyclists with b.o.”
The idea of retirement never occurred to either Harvey or his wife, Angel, whom he married in 1940 and who was his producing partner throughout his career.
“I’ve got an old country boy’s philosophy,” he told The Chicago Tribune in a 2002 interview. “When the car’s running, you don’t look inside the carburetor. Just keep rolling.”
Source: Radio legend Paul Harvey dies at 90 Photo source: AZCentral.com
Read a detailed profile of Harvey written in 2002: Good Days for Paul Harvey
Watch Paul Harvey videos below.
Here is a classic Paul Harvey broadcast. ‘Letter from God’
Here is video of Paul Harvey ‘The Rest of the Story’
YouTube Link
Here is a Paul Harvey interview video
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