Thursday, March 26, 2009

A Tribute to Paul Harvey

I missed this somehow. My all-time favorite radio commentator Paul Harvey has passed away earlier this month on 1st of March, 2009.



I first discovered Paul Harvey in the early nineties when I was sent to Tokyo (of all places to discover him!) for an overseas assignment by my company I worked with at that time. Being a radio freak then I scoured the airwaves for an English station and soon chanced upon the US Army radio station based somewhere in Japan. It was THE only English station in Tokyo I could find and it was broadcasting in AM!

I soon found that I could catch the early morning news and some music just before I leave for work from my small hotel room. It was during that time that I keep hearing someone on the radio keep mentioning ... "this is Paul Harvey..." and it was always accompanied by some interesting news of the day. Now I am sure you would think that there can't be anything that interesting EVERY day that would warrant a special presenter to present. There wasn't. But it was Paul's style that captivated me from the moment I heard his voice. He could make something uninteresting sound so wonderful and would cheer up your day the way he presented it. It was a gift he had.

I managed to listen to him a few more times when I did returned to Tokyo but I never could find out much about this man since it wasn't the age of the internet yet then. Years later I have forgotten about thim and it was only recently I remembered about Paul Harvey (after really giving up on our pathetic local radio stations). I searched the internet and found that I could listen to Paul again now over the internet.

I can't believe he is dead now although he has lead a long and productive life. I wished our Malaysian radio presenters could learn something from this American radio icon but I know now that would be trying to expect the impossible to happen.

I guess no one else can pay a tribute to Paul Harvey as high as Larry King when he said:
"Paul Harvey could read the phonebook and you would pay attention" - Larry King

ABC's tribute to Paul Harvey




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