Paul Harvey, a familiar radio voice for six decades who used long pauses to punctuate his delivery of news and observations, died yesterday in Phoenix, Arizona. He was 90.
Harvey’s death was announced in a statement by ABC Radio Networks, which began airing his News and Comment coast to coast in 1951 after he impressed executives with high ratings at affiliate WENR-AM in Chicago, where he’d worked since 1944.
“Paul was a friendly and familiar voice in the lives of millions of Americans,” former US president George W. Bush said in a statement.
Harvey died in a Phoenix area hospital with his family by his side, said Louis Adams, a spokesman for ABC Radio.
The broadcaster lived in Chicago during the summer and moved his production to Arizona in the winter months.
“My father and mother created from thin air what one day became radio and television news,” son Paul Harvey Jr said in a statement on his father’s Web site. “So in the past year, an industry has lost its godparents and today millions have lost a friend.”
Harvey’s wife Lynne, always referred to as “Angel” by the broadcaster, produced his shows until she died in May.
Rising at 3:30am, Harvey would arrive early at his office and studio to check overnight wire-service stories.
A staff of six helped cull small-town newspapers and readers’ suggestions for more material for News and Comment segments that aired six days a week.
Harvey’s plain language and distinctive pauses were highly effective. He also managed to convey a sense of fresh wonder.
“Let me say I can’t wait to get up every morning and watch the passing parade and call out to anybody who might be interested in the things that interest me,” he told the Chicago Tribune.
At age 82, Harvey was still so productive that ABC Radio signed him to a 10-year contract valued at US$100 million in November 2000. More than 1,200 radio stations and 400 Armed Forces Network stations aired his broadcasts, ABC said.
“As he delivered the news each day with his own unique style and commentary, his voice became a trusted friend in American households,” Jim Robinson, president of ABC Radio Networks, said in the statement.
“His career in radio spanned more than seven decades, during which time countless millions of listeners were both informed and entertained by his News & Comment and Rest of the Story features,” he said.
Harvey’s career was launched in 1933 when a speech teacher at Tulsa’s Central High School recognized his potential.
She escorted the 14-year-old to local station KVOO-AM and told the station manager “This boy needs to be in radio,” the Tulsa World recounted in a 1997 article.
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