RIP Paul Harvey

[uncool2pillow]

I doubt many of us listened to him regularly, and as this board is left of center, probably actively disliked much of what he said. But you have to admire the way he said it.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Harvey

 

 

"...and you you know... the rest of the story."

[embiggen]

I used to listen to him all the time when I was a kid. he had a great life. RIP

[cryptique]

Heard him all the time when I was a kid. Not so much in the last thirty years or so. RIP.

[yermom]

Only ever became familiar with him once I moved to Arkansas, then throughout high school, it seemed I couldn't turn the radio on without catching "...the rest of the story." It saddened me to hear of his passing because his voice became so familiar to me during all of those restless younger years spent driving through these mountains.

[Griddles]

This is sad news. I loved Paul Harvey.

[aricandover]

shit. I gotta call my grandpa tomorrow morning to give him the news.

[Moss]

Holy shit. I have so many memories of driving through South Dakota and elsewhere listening to Paul Harvey. He often made the endless drive through Iowa tolerable. I loved the "page 2" and whatever. Some of his "the rest of the story" were so interesting. He was an original.

 

Actually my mother in law was on his show. She sprinkled some of her husbands ashes on main street here in town when they were paving the street. To this day I hear people talk about how the mayor is buried on main street.

 

Anyway he did a good show.

[OOO]

I recall listening to his stories as a kid as well. Cool guy.

[HungryHippo]

wow, this is really sad. i use to hear him a lot as a kid as well. some of my earliest memories are of his voice, the whole "and now you know the rest of the story" line. my mom would pick me up from elementary school and we'd listen to him on the ride home. that was back in the early 90's, haven't heard much from him since. its crazy how a person like Paul becomes a part of our lives. he almost feels like an uncle that you never got to see but who would always call or something.

[bjorn_skurj]

A truly great storyteller.

[LouieB]

I listened to him as a kid also, but that was because there were few radio shows that were as ubiquitous as his was over such a long period of time. You could find it on any station in any market. It was only later I found out he was such a conservative.

 

I do think this speaks to the power of the radio. Only Rush Limbaugh has this kind of power any more and it has certainly hurt the music industry that new music is no longer played on the radio. I know this is bullshit, new music IS played on the radio, just nothing anyone wants to listen to any longer. I was thinking about this the other day. The quest for the hit single by recording artists, including many of our favorites, has hindered the longevity of popular music. I mean someone like M. Ward (for example or Andrew Bird and in a moment Neko Case) puts out an album to relative critical aclaim and no one hears it, yet we all can sing along with hundreds of oldies and classic rock tracks, some of which came out before some folks here were even born.

 

In this case we were all born at different times and know Paul Harvey. Hell our parents knew Paul Harvey. The guy was on for freakin ever.....(and now the rest of the story....)

 

LouieB

[yermom]

I do think this speaks to the power of the radio. Only Rush Limbaugh has this kind of power any more and it has certainly hurt the music industry that new music is no longer played on the radio. I know this is bullshit, new music IS played on the radio, just nothing anyone wants to listen to any longer. I was thinking about this the other day. The quest for the hit single by recording artists, including many of our favorites, has hindered the longevity of popular music. I mean someone like M. Ward (for example or Andrew Bird and in a moment Neko Case) puts out an album to relative critical aclaim and no one hears it, yet we all can sing along with hundreds of oldies and classic rock tracks, some of which came out before some folks here were even born.

It's true, it's hard to find interesting new music on the radio, especially in rural areas. Where I spent my teen years (which are pretty major music consumption years for everyone, right?) the only things you could tune in on the radio with any clarity were current country and oldies rock. I think my music exposure would probably be half or less than what it is now if it weren't for the internet. There are interesting things here and there on the radio for us backwoods folks...like the occasional exposure to college radio and NPR (especially late at night) but they're few and far between.

 

I never listen to the radio anymore, when I try to I usually just get angry and start ranting, "Who the hell thought this sounded good?! Who stood in a recording studio singing the slop and thought, 'Yes! That's perfect! Every line rhymes and the music stirs zero emotion...we've got a hit!! Woohoo!' Stupid radio!!!" and then I turn it off. I also do this in resturaunts and grocery stores. It happens so often now, that I usually just roll my eyes and point to the speakers overhead and my partner knows what I'm thinking.

[John Smith]

It's sad to see the old legends die. I was never a fan of Paul Harvey, not because he was more conservative than I am, but because he was uninteresting to me. His cadence when speaking was too monotonous for me and I could never stomach the all advertising all the time in his show. I am from a way different generation than he was and the appeal was never there.

[LouieB]

It's true, it's hard to find interesting new music on the radio, especially in rural areas. Where I spent my teen years (which are pretty major music consumption years for everyone, right?) the only things you could tune in on the radio with any clarity were current country and oldies rock. I think my music exposure would probably be half or less than what it is now if it weren't for the internet. There are interesting things here and there on the radio for us backwoods folks...like the occasional exposure to college radio and NPR (especially late at night) but they're few and far between.

 

I never listen to the radio anymore, when I try to I usually just get angry and start ranting, "Who the hell thought this sounded good?! Who stood in a recording studio singing the slop and thought, 'Yes! That's perfect! Every line rhymes and the music stirs zero emotion...we've got a hit!! Woohoo!' Stupid radio!!!" and then I turn it off. I also do this in resturaunts and grocery stores. It happens so often now, that I usually just roll my eyes and point to the speakers overhead and my partner knows what I'm thinking.

This is beyond sad, it is a major part of the reason that the music biz is dying and that musicans are dying along with it. Sure the internet is probably the best place to actually find newer music (which sort of includes forums like this), but the death of radio which takes singles and promotes them and the artists along with them (yea I know about payola, etc.) means that folks who could become immortal by having a hit single, now limp into obsurity and out of our lives forever.

 

I do listen to radio, mostly talk or college stations, but the closest I come to extended listening to commercial radio is WXRT which still plays somewhat newer and better music (I actually like the Coldplay single, amazingly enough...), but the rest of the commercial stations that play new music (as opposed to the oldies and classic rock stations) I never listen to, despite having grown up listening to music this way.

 

Even this discussion on Paul Harvey is important. How many other radio commentators do we all know?

 

LouieB

[yermom]

The only distinctive radio personality who will always stand out in memory for me that I can think of at the moment is Garrison Keillor, maybe Ira Glass.

[Guest Jules]

I listened to him as a kid also, but that was because there were few radio shows that were as ubiquitous as his was over such a long period of time. You could find it on any station in any market. It was only later I found out he was such a conservative.

He did stand up to/disagree with Nixon regarding Vietnam, though, right? Before my time, but I seem to remember something about this.

 

Even this discussion on Paul Harvey is important. How many other radio commentators do we all know?

 

LouieB

Howard Stern.

[aricandover]

Howard Stern.

 

whether you're fan or not, you can't really talk about influential radio personalities w/o mentioning Stern.

[cwnorman]

Missed this being up in the mountains this weekend. Seeing this reminded me of a piece I always heard Paul Harvey did, and I never found anything to refute that. Just dug it up, and while most will not be interested, thought I would post anyway. Mississippi has some skeletons and is the butt of quite a few jokes, so its always nice for a Mississippian to read something positive about their state. Don't want to debate Paul's stance on this or anything else, just thought I would share a piece I always liked that I think Paul Harvy did.

 

Paul Harvey on Mississippi

> >

> > Mississippi is still burning. Times have changed, but the

> > incendiaries won't quit. Mississippi, statistically, could shame

> > most of our states with its minimal per-capita crime, its cultural

> > maturity and its distinguished alumni. But Mississippi has enough

> > residual gentility of the Old South not to rub our noses in our own

> > comparative inadequacy.

> >

> > The pack-media could not wait to remake the movie MISSISSIPPI

> > BURNING, into a TV version called, MURDER IN MISSISSIPPI. Thus yet

> > another generation of Americans is indoctrinated with indelible

> > snapshots which are half a century out of date.

> >

> > The very idea that anybody from New York, D.C., Chicago or L. A.

> > could launch stones from those shabby glass houses toward anybody

> > else is patently absurd. Lilliputians have a psychological need to

> > make everybody else appear small and Mississippi, too nice to fight

> > back, is such an easy target.

> >

> > The International Ballet Competition regularly rotates among four

> > citadels where there is a sufficiency of sophisticated art

> > appreciation: Vama, Bulgaria; Helsinki, Finland; Moscow, Russia and

> > Jackson, Mississippi.

> >

> > Only Mississippi has a satellite art program in which the State

> > Museum of Art sends exhibits around the state for the enjoyment of

> > smaller communities. No state can point to a richer per capita

> > contribution to arts and letters. William Faulkner, Richard Wright,

> > Walker Percy, Ellen Douglas, Willie Morris, Margaret Walker

> > Alexander, Eudora Welty, Tennessee Williams, Thomas Harris (Silence

> > of the Lambs) and John Grisham are Mississippians.

> >

> > As are Leontyne Price, Elvis Presley, Tammy Wynette, B. B. King,

> > Jimmy Rogers, Oprah Winfrey, and Jimmy Buffett.

> >

> > Scenery? The Natchez Trace is the second most traveled parkway in

> > our nation. With magnolia and dogwood, stately pines and moss-draped

 

> > oaks, Mississippi is in bloom all year 'round. And the state stays

> > busy---manufacturing more upholstered furniture than any state;

> > testing space shuttle engines for NASA; and building rocket motors.

> >

> > Much of our nation's most monumental medical progress has roots in

> > Mississippi. The first heart transplant in 1964. The first lung

> > transplant in 1963. The most widely used medical textbook in the

> > world, THE TEXTBOOK OF MEDICAL PHYSIOLOGY, reprinted in ten

> > languages, was authored by Dr. Arthur Guyton of the University of

> > Mississippi.

> >

> > The "Case Method" of practicing law, the basis of the United States

> > legal system, was developed at the University of Mississippi.

> >

> > Nationally, educators are chewing their fingernails up past the

> > second knuckle anxious about the disgraceful rate of dropouts and

> > illiterate graduates. In Mississippi, the state government and two

> > philanthropic organizations have teamed up to put a computer-based

> > literacy program in every elementary school in the state. Maybe

> > Mississippi is right to downplay its opportunities, advantages and

> > refinement. The ill-mannered rest of us, converging, would surely

> > mess it up.

> >

> > GOOD DAY!

[LouieB]

Howard Stern.

yea...if only the motherfucker were still on free radio......

 

LouieB