By Mark Rhoads
Hello Canadians and Americans, stand by for news.
Page One.
Paul Harvey Aurandt was born on Sept. 4, 1918 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. When he was only three years old Paul lost his father. Dad was a Tulsa Police officer trying to make an arrest when he was gunned down in the line of duty. Now it hardly seems possible that it was only seventy-three short years ago in Tulsa that a 15-year old high school student got his first part-time job at KVOO-AM to start his broadcasting career. He didn't start at the top---or even on the air. In fact, he swept up the place at night. But it was a start.
That was 1933, the first year of President Roosevelt's New Deal. In Chicago, Mayor Ed Kelly and FDR's good ally Mr. Jim Farley, the U.S. Postmaster General, were dedicating that grand Century of Progress Exposition on the shore of Lake Michigan along the IC tracks and around Soldier Field and the Adler Planetarium. Forty-six million people from all over the world came to the fair in the next two seasons. Your heard me right folks, that was forty-six million--well more than one-third of all the people who lived in America at that time. Well the fair organizers knew that about sixty percent of the American population lived within a one-night train trip from Chicago and thanks to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and others, they could get to Chicago and enjoy the fair even during the Depression at cheap rates.
Now speaking of low prices, did you know you always get the lowest prices possible when you shop with our friends at Walgreen's Drug Stores? They really do treat you like royalty at Walgreen's. Shop there yourself and find out why the folks at Walgreen's have so many loyal and happy customers. The Harvey family shops there and so should your family.
Page Two:
That young man from Tulsa we talked about? He worked at stations in Oklahoma City and St. Louis and Hawaii. Then Pearl Harbor changed his life as it did for millions of others and Paul joined the Army Air Corps until June 1944. Later that year we find Paul working at WENR-AM in Chicago, an ABC Radio Affiliate. Well actually WENR had been part of the NBC Blue Network until the government broke up NBC into two networks one of which became ABC.
In the late 1940s, Paul Harvey was Chicago's most listened to newscaster. He hosted an employment bulletin board for returning veterans called "Jobs for GI Joes" in 1945 and 1946 and started to add his own segment called "The Rest of the Story." By 1951, Paul Harvey's news and commentary program was carried nationwide on ABC Radio stations and he has been at that stand in all the decades ever since. Most of the time Paul has worn out several microphones in a studio north of The Chicago Theater and next to the L tracks at 190 N. State Street. His distinctive radio voice and unique style of delivery have been recognized all over the country for the last 56 years.
Paul now has an audience 22 million listeners weekly Monday through Friday. His programs are on more than 1,200 commercial radio stations and more than 400 stations of the Armed Forces Radio Network worldwide. More than 300 newspapers carry his commentaries also and his radio show is also streamed twice each day on the world wide web. In 1976, in addition to "News and Comment," Paul Harvey started a second daily program based on his popular segment called "The Rest of the Story." A member of the National Radio Hall of Fame, Mr. Harvey received many awards including the Horatio Alger Award and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in November 2005.
Now this man Harvey must be the guy who taught the Energizer Bunny everything he knows. Paul Harvey will be 88 years young this fall and he has been broadcasting from Chicago for the last sixty-two years. And still he keeps on going and going.
He has his "angel" by his side, the former Lynn Cooper of St. Louis, and their son Paul, Jr. To Mr. Harvey and his millions of listeners we say good luck and.......................Good DAY!
