Paul Harvey RIP, Twitter and Everything Else

"I've never seen a monument erected to a pessimist." ~ Paul Harvey

This morning I learned that Paul Harvey had passed away this yesterday. The story was not in our morning newspaper. It was being tweeted on Twitter, the social media phenomena.

A lot of memories popped into my head at this point. I remember how as a kid in Cleveland we would drive to my grandmother's house with the radio on, and Paul Harvey was right there, injecting himself into our lives, along with the Burma Shave road signs. Paul Harvey outlasted Burma Shave by a long shot.

When I was twelve our family moved to suburban New Jersey. The new developments were fertile ground for Newspaper Wars, much like the Cola Wars that took place in the third world a decade or two later. I became a paperboy for the Newark Star-Ledger, and went to every house in the new neighborhood seeking new customers. What I remember from that experience was how the Sunday morning newspapers were delivered around 10:00 p.m. Saturday night, in two groups, the pre-printed comics, ads and miscellaneous material, and the late breaking stories which included the sports and front page sections. My job included meshing the two portions into one newspaper by inserting the pre-printed material into the late-breaking part.

So it is no wonder that the passing of Paul Harvey did not make this morning's paper. It must have been a late Saturday story, like the final scores on late games in sports. As a result, Mr. Harvey's passing was first announced on alternate media. I myself discovered it on Twitter early today.

You may recall that this past Thanksgiving Twitter broke the Mumbai massacre before network television or CNN had a handle on it. And Twitter is becoming the "live as it happens" mechanism for covering major events, from political to sports to social phenomena. Don't believe me? Check out the Nightline story about Twitter right here.

As for Paul Harvey, with seventy years on the air you might say he "found his voice." That inimitable staccato style stood out from the crowd of airwave noise makers. At one time his daily broadcasts were aired in Duluth at 7:30 a.m. and noon, with the morning version of “Paul Harvey News and Comment” being a five minute news review and the noon program going fifteen. His unique historical trivia accounts, called The Rest of the Story, reinforced his fame.

Being in advertising, I once looked into the going rate of being a sponsor of his news program. The price tag circled around $900,000 for a two year stint with six months on, six months off. This was about a dozen years ago, and it gives you an idea of the prices you can garner if you have a name. Mr. Harvey had established his cred, and claimed to be a user of every product he promoted.

I am sure that it was disheartening when last year Mr. Harvey said good-bye to his beloved wife Angel, but it looks like they are back together again, sharing the rest of their story.

As for everything else... I think we'll just save that for another time.

In the meantime, here's an overview on the life of this legendary radio entertainer.