The_Kansan: USA Today:
(Feb. 28) -- Radio legend Paul Harvey, whose news and commentary segments always ended with his distinctive sign-off, "Paul Harvey....good day," died Saturday at the age of 90, ABC Radio Network says.
Network spokesman Louis Adams says Harvey died Saturday at his winter home in Phoenix, surrounded by family. No cause of death was immediately available.
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.
He based himself in Chicago, flew aboard his Lear jet to give corporate speeches and commuted by limo each day from his 27-room home in suburban River Forest, Ill., to his 16th floor studio above a street sign that reads Paul Harvey Drive.
When Harvey was 81 in 2000, his sole employer for all those years, ABC Radio Networks, signed him to a 10-year, $100 million contract. Rivals who had lost in the bidding told him they'd be back in 2010.
Harvey's ability to sell products in advertisements, via spots that read and which flowed seamlessly from his news stories, were legendary. He is considered the greatest radio salesman of all time and sponsors — only one in 15 were accepted — were required to sign on for at least a year......I posted this because Paul Harvey was, to me and millions of others, an American icon. I first started listening to him in 1978 as a know it all teenager while driving a wheat truck for a Custom Harvest crew in Nebraska and his commentary was a constant and positive influence upon me. I listened to Paul Harvey when I wouldn't listen to my own father. For years afterwards, I ate breakfast with Bryant Gumbel, lunch with Paul Harvey and supper with Tom Brokaw... Contrary to what the experts tell us, lunch was the most important meal of the day.
You didn't have to agree with Paul Harvey to enjoy listening to him and that might've been the best thing about his broadcasts. I never had the honor of meeting the man in person, but I still feel this morning as if I've lost a dear, dear friend.
Heaven has gained another excellent commentator.
Sure was a colorful Character.
