For just about everyone who has ever worked and studied radio broadcasting knows the tremendous legacy of Paul Harvey. Paul began working in radio in high school 1933, but he continued in 1944 after the War a time when America really needed a beacon of hope. Now, because of that tenure, Paul leaves the airwaves permanently taking with it a folksy style that American broadcasting may never ever get back.In my own radio career, Paul was a featured broadcaster during my tenure at WRSC AM and WBLF AM in State College. His broadcasts started at 11:30 AM at that time, leaving few options to fill in the 11 AM first half hour. We then continued the evening with Paul's classic "Rest of the Story" monologue at 5:20 PM before we started the local sports talk shows. One day, I was working as the producer and a technical glitch caused the cutting of the end of the Paul Harvey story broadcast. I got so many calls asking me what had happened. I missed the end of it too and had no answer for the big pay off closing line. So, I know how much Paul's broadcasts can mean to a community.
He was elected to the National Association of Broadcasters Radio Hall of Fame and the Oklahoma Hall of Fame and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005 from President George W. BushIn my opinion, listeners to radio today see a vast competition to get people's attention with a perpetual decline in standards. "Shock-Jocking" works to a degree, but at what cost? Paul Harvey, while he was broadcasting, was living proof that broadcasters didn't have to be controversial.
I would hope that production directors everywhere would tribute this great American by playing a minute of "white noise" as an alternative instead of going silent.
