Still Living Rest of the Story

“Hello, American.�

The voice on the phone could say “be-bop a lula�--which would have been highly unlikely--and still be instantly recognizable. But the individualized variation of the salutation that has greeted several generations of the nation’s radio listeners daily eliminates any doubt.

“This is Paul Harvey.�

It’s like a voice from the past, a friendly tone and clipped delivery echoing Walter Winchell or Lowell Thomas, conveying a Middle American, conservative slant in his “Paul Harvey News� reports and the folksy, guess-who-he’s-talking-about homilies of his “The Rest of the Story� personality profiles that themselves seems to echo a bygone era.

It’s understandable--Harvey at age 82 (though he says he had his last birthday at 55) has been in radio broadcasting for 68 years, a full-time newsman since 1940. As a self-described “professional parade watcher,� he’s covered and commented on Depression hardships, World War II, the Cold War, assassinations, Vietnam, the sexual revolution, Watergate, impeachment--you name it.

Through it all he’s done it with his familiar plain-spokenness, his distinctive markers (“Page two,� he’ll say, as if turning the page of a newspaper) and pregnant pauses, and an overriding sense of optimism, whether reading news or pitching vacuum cleaners. His voice is Middle America, where save for an early-’40s stint in Hawaii and service in the Pacific he’s been based from his birth in Tulsa, Okla.

His first radio job was there at age 14, followed by stints in Oklahoma City and St. Louis before settling in Chicago after the war. And he’s won just about every major broadcasting award there is--as well as been a regular on surveys as one of the most influential public figures in the nation.

But don’t ask him to reminisce.

“I’m no good at looking back,� he says. “Tomorrow is the most exciting thing for me.�

So much so, in fact, that Harvey recently signed a new contract with ABC Radio, his home for the last 50 years, to keep him on the air for another full decade.

And if you think he feels he’s seen it all in his time, just ask him his take on the election.

“I think we’ve outsmarted ourselves,� he says, with both a chuckle and a sigh about the current presidential predicament, knocking both the Democrats and Republicans for their partisan spins on the developments. “But that’s one of the reasons I get up with enthusiasm at 3:30 every morning. I can’t wait to see what heroic and foolish things hundreds of millions of people have been doing all night.�

Harvey goes to the office in his Chicago area home, looks over the news of the day and starts writing his pieces, pounding every word himself on a manual typewriter. Meanwhile, his wife, Lynne--known to him and his listeners as Angel--serves as his producer. And extending the family affair, their son, Paul Harvey Jr.--who Paul Sr. refers to as “young Paul� despite him having been born before Harvey signed his first ABC contract--writes the “Rest of the Story� segments.

And this doesn’t get stale?

“Oh my, no. No, no, no,� he says. “I get up every morning like a kid going fishing.�

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What might be most amazing is that Harvey has not grown stale for his audience either. He can claim more than 18 million listeners a week via some 1,300 stations in North America and 400 more overseas on Armed Forces Radio.

At Los Angeles’ KABC-AM (790), where Harvey is heard locally, several shake-ups in recent years have been aimed at gaining and retaining a hip audience in the advertiser-coveted 35-to-54 age demographic--the latest having taken place this month with a new morning show and the return of psychologist Dr. Toni Grant evenings. You’d think that alongside such fiery personalities as Gloria Allred and Larry Elder, Harvey would be an anachronistic square peg.

Not so, says Erik Braverman, program director at KABC, where Harvey’s news and comments are heard in 15-minute segments at 9 a.m. weekdays and 12:45 p.m. Saturdays, with the five-minute “The Rest of the Story� weekdays at 7 p.m.

“Some programmers would say he’s an obstacle to what we’re trying to create,� says Braverman, noting that he grew up in Texas with Harvey as part of his regular radio diet. “I don’t see it that way. He’s a personality that’s a big part of the station. Paul is an incredible storyteller. I’ll pull in my garage and have to keep the radio on to hear him finish. He’s incredible and keeps people listening.

“There are grandparents and parents and kids who have all grown up listening to him, and if he’s on vacation or we have breaking news and have to preempt him, people will call and ask what we did with him.�

For Harvey, the clear evidence that he has transcended societal changes and generation gaps can be seen in who comes out when he does one of his frequent speaking engagements.

“I’m always invited to speak at high schools and colleges,� he says. “And the audiences there are always more enthusiastic than my peers.�

But he’s loath to explore why this is so. “I have an old country boy’s philosophy that when the car keeps running, you don’t look in the carburetor to see why,� he says. “I’m not given to introspection about why Paul Harvey does well.�

So even at 82, the rest of his story is still to come.