Stand by... for news

Back when I was a young tyke, my mom helped my brother and I avoid sweltering Milwaukee summers, where we'd inadvertently be stuck inside, blasting AC and watching TV. She sent us to stay with our grandparents each summer on the lake in Door County.

Every day at lunch, my grandpa turned on his beige Bose stereo to the local radio station, WDOR, tuning in to hear radio news broadcaster Paul Harvey announce and discuss the day's headlines.

After the announcement for News and Comment, "This is Paul Harvey (pregnant pause)... stand by for news!" we didn't say much at the table. Everyone sat facing the radio as we ate and listened -- sometimes my grandpa would grumble or make some comment. Otherwise, we willingly obliged to keep the noise down.

We even kept quiet during the commercials, which Harvey read with the same enthusiasm and voice inflection as the news. The one I remember most was Bose radio; which is why I'm sure my grandpa had one too.

Harvey had a distinct voice, and announced with clear pronunciation. Although he was pretty conservative; from what I remember, he still broadcast the news without a noticeable bias (Then again, I was only eight). Harvey had a way of explaining what was going on with the rest of the world, and helped me appreciate that I wasn't so isolated stuck in a cottage near a lake in northeastern Wisconsin -- even if he was thousands of miles away.

I think it's also why to this day I like hearing news on the radio (like NPR) instead of watching it. At eight years old, I didn't understand how adults could sit through an entire half hour of local news on TV. What about Tail Spin and Duck Tales? But I still listened to Paul Harvey.

In the afternoons, we had to keep the TV down, go outside, or keep quiet in the kitchen, so grandpa could listen to Harvey's The Rest of the Story. Since the show broadcast at 3 PM -- snack time! --, I'd sometimes opt to sit in front of the radio with grandpa with my two gingersnaps or some juicy slices of watermelon.

I liked The Rest of the Story program more, because each segment focused on a certain person, place or thing. They were short interest-pieces, with a twist at the end, where Harvey would finish with "And now you know, the rest of the story." (See: News and Comment is to New York Times, as The Rest of the Story is to Time magazine.)

Last Sunday, February 28, Paul Harvey passed away. He started broadcasting on April 1, 1951, and continued up until a week before he died. He was 91 years old.