PAUL HARVEY: R.I.P. A View From San Francisco

IT'S BEEN LESS THAN 24 HOURS since the passing of broadcast pioneer PAUL HARVEY, and already, enough has been said of this true giant of an industry that has seen it's share of figures go by the way side, either due to circumstances of fate or the current toxic, almost doomsday economic climate we live in these days.

Paul Harvey was a part of my growing up in the 70's in the SF Bay Area, where his broadcasts were prominently featured on KGO Radio 810, which aired his morning and afternoon "news and commentary", and in his later life, the celebrated "Rest of the Story" and uniquely-charmed "This is Saturday" report. Harvey was so good at his craft that his "worst" work was still A-grade broadcast content.

Politically, Mr. Harvey and I agreed on very little, but his familiar staccato pipes, that rapid-fire voice that would immediately catch your ear, would make listening to what he had to say "appointment radio". His signature style and almost legendary "good day" trademark send-off was inordinately still fresh all the way to his last days on the air. That's special.

Harvey seemed to be bullet-proof. Of course, ABC Radio began using a healthy dose of fill-ins as the years went by; suddenly, a Ron Chapman here, a Paul Harvey Jr. there, we in and out of the business knew that "something was up with the 'great one', but refused to believe that eventually fate would take our beloved, broadcast curmudgeon into the audio heavens.

Like I said, Harvey's politics were straight down the political right. He was against gun control, voiced passionate support for "pro-life" issues, made a habit of habitual on-air "rooting" for the Reagan and Bush43 administrations, and sometimes his political rants bordered on the severely-extreme no matter whether you were on the right or left side of the spectrum, but again, he was so darn good at delivering his daily commentary, his program transcended most of what he had to say. In this instance, yes, style superseded substance.

And even if you were the most casual Paul Harvey listener, his work had tremendous influence in an industry that was just beginning to lose a part of it's thrust to music and the Internet. Harvey was so good that he would persevere over those forces no matter what.

In a now famous "60 Minutes" interview from a few years back, it was noted that Harvey not only was the biggest name in radio, but indeed he WAS radio. He appeared on over 500 stations, eclipsing both the monetary status of giants like Rush Limbaugh and Howard Stern combined.

It wasn't merely style either. Oh sure, the familiar staccato voice, ingenious writing and technique were second to none; Paul Harvey's greatest gift and undoubtedly his signature moments were that he was able to somehow, magically, under any sort of circumstances, pull out a daily fifteen-minute verbal soliloquy that was singularly spectacular, no matter what the odds.

There were signs at the end that something was amiss. He would take overly-long vacations and sabbaticals. Periodically, his voice didn't sound right. We were told that he had throat surgery and that he'd be OK and back on the air in days, which turned into weeks. He suddenly sounded different and we began to worry a bit. It all makes sense now.

Mr. Harvey's tenure at ABC Radio is unchallengeable. His 75 years at the alphabet network will almost certainly never be matched, and although it's easy to throw around the words like "pioneer" and "legend", in Mr. Harvey's case, those words befit a true magician like no one else.

It's trite to say of one's passing, "he will be missed". He will. And even to the end at age 90, we in the business, and those folks out of the biz who made it a ritual to listen to what he had to say will indeed miss the audio ballet known as "Paul Harvey News and Commentary".

Good night Mr. Harvey. R. I. P. And be strong, Angel.

RICH LIEBERMAN