Ink Tank

My Memories of Paul Harvey

Photo Credit: Radio Ink Magazine

(Paul Harvey and Radio Ink publisher Eric Rhoads 1991)

Commentary of the Death of Paul Harvey (1918-2009)
By Radio Historian B. Eric Rhoads

I’m saddened to see the death of Paul Harvey, who was the longest running radio personality in America. Paul was a dear friend of mine, who had written the forward to my book “Blast from the Past: A Pictorial History of Radio’s First 75 Years” and has been interviewed many times in my magazine Radio Ink.

Paul was not only a good friend, he was a beacon of light for the radio industry. He is our Rembrandt, a master of the craft of radio. His words, stories and presentation were the best example of using the radio to create images. He will be missed.

One of the highlights of my career was my first meeting with Paul, when I visited his broadcast studio in Chicago and watched his broadcast for the first time. He was kind and gentle and truly interested in learning more about me than he was talking about himself.

Paul once read a story about me on the air, which my grandfather heard. My grandfather never much understood what it is I do, but when he told me he heard my name on Paul Harvey, it was one of his (and mine) proudest moments.

Paul was on the air from 1933 when he first aired on KVOO Tulsa and was on the air into 2009. 76 Years on the air. He was America's #2 most listened to radio personality (only behind Rush Limbaugh) and stayed on the air all those years because he understood the magic of using words to craft visions on the radio. He understood the value of inflection and.... pause. He was a masterful craftsman, who embodied the greatness of radio. And he was once called radio's top salesman, because any product he endorsed would sell unlike any other, yet he would not endorse what he did not believe in.

(Photo credit: Radio Ink Magazine/Blast from the Past: Radio's First 75 Years.)

In the forward to my book, Paul said this:

“Should you visit my skyscraper offices, your attention will focus first on a large portrait in the reception room wall. It’s a portrait of a young boy whose clothing dates itself to a generation past: the plus-fours are wretchedly wrinkled, the mis-shapen shoes are worn out; one is worn through.

But the boy, leaning forward on one elbow is listening enrapt to a 1930’s-vintage cathedral-shaped multi-dial radio.

The boy does not resemble any person in particular except to me. The artist in Oklahoma, Jim Daly, whom I have never met, but with the painting he included this note. “There is no way for me to express the pleasure I received from listening to the old radio programs. In my mind those wonderful heroes were magnificent. No movie... No television program... Not even really life, could have equaled what my imagination could conjure up. Amazingly, all those heroes looked a little bit like me.”

Radio people, in their preoccupied haste, have been letting go of the might and majesty of the well-spoken word.


Van Gogh is pleasing to the eye: Shakespeare is fathomless. Our industry’s poets you can count on your thumbs. Charles Kuralt when he has time and Jack Whittaker when some classic sporting event deserves added dimensions.

Trust me to paint pictures on the mirror of your mind and I will let you feel such agony and ecstasy, such misery and such magnificence as you would never be able to feel by looking at it.

Let me paint you a picture of unrequited love in 17 words: “When the fire in me meets with the ice in you what could remain but damp ashes.?”

Now tell me, with what picture in oil or on film could you duplicate that poignancy?

We court the lights turned down to remain undistracted. We savor a fragrance, a kiss or a foot massage with our eyes closed.

As a boy, I fell in love with words and ran away from home and joined the radio.

It was really something. Close your eyes and see...

It still can be.”
- Paul Harvey

(Photo credit: Radio Ink Magazine/Blast from the Past: Radio's First 75 Years.)

How to Zig When Others Zag in this Economy

No, you did not awaken to a bad dream. Business is bad all around us. One of my radio group colleagues shared that his business was off 28% last month and he expected this month to echo last month's decline. We're watching an industry make the sound of a giant exhale as they breathe out staff members, kill entire departments, and change the way business has to be done. Though many are doing it because they paid an unrealisticly high multiple for their stations and cannot meet their debt service or covenants, others are doing it because they simply have no other choice. It is in these times, which the previously protected status quo is nolonger the holy grail. The way business is done will change forever.

Winners & Loosers
In every down economy there are winners and losers. Though our instinct (and usually necessity) is to cut expenses, typically the losers are those, who do what comes naturally. If there is no money to pay they have no choice but to shrink. Shrinkage sometimes causes lapses in customer service and quality of product, and reduced marketing which results in dropping revenues.

Almost 300% Increase?

From every crisis emerges opportunity. The last big recession was 1981-1982. McGraw-Hill researched 600 companies covering 16 different industries from 1980 to 1985. During the 1981-1982 recession, companies that maintained advertising, developed personal customer relationships, and provided superior customer service realized a 256% increase in sales by 1985!

Recessions historically reward companies with the most aggressive sales forces and penalize the timid.

In the branding business, big, confident brands that do not reinforce their leadership during a recession are often replaced by aggressive competitors that end up owning the top position thanks to aggressive marketing while their competitors hunker down.

Radio Is Hunkering Down
We ask people to advertise with us yet we don't do it? We pressure our sales teams to perform, yet we fired our most expensive and most productive sellers to save money. We want to maintain our audiences, yet we're cutting valuable and expensive local icons in exchange for national talent.

Jobs That Never Return

Chances are that most of the lost jobs in radio will NEVER be replaced as these companies realize that their new way of doing business will work well for them. For instance one big broadcast company plans to cut all local traffic and accounting departments and operate them as a central operation. If this works without sufficient problems, it makes sense. I suspect the big companies will nationalize production operations as well. The same goes for national talent vs. local talent. Television switched to this model decades ago and it's hard to argue that a strong local talent could beat the Tonite show or CSI. I suspect radio will become mostly national talent across all formats, much like talk radio is today, with only minimal local presence. (Though I'm a big believer that strong local "friends" with longevity would be a big loss to radio audiences.)

Taking Advantage of the Opportunity

I have one advertiser who is DOUBLING down his bet by doubling his advertising budget. He knows that he can increase his business while his competitors hunker down and play safe. He see's it as the best possible opportunity to grow his business.

Another advertiser fired two people and took the salaries of those people and put it towards marketing increases. He is building his business when his compeitors are sleeping and knows that visibility when others have none will recast leading brand preferences and he will get any business that is currently out there.

I know of a radio station who started advertising heavily on local television because he believes he can steal market share from competitors who can't afford to advertise, and he believes he will stand out as secure, confident, and practicing what he preaches to local advertisers. Plus he can dominate local tv at the lowest prices in history.

A sales trainer told me that while most companies have droped training sales people, several of his clients are getting 10% above the market in most cases because his clients continue to invest in sales training.

When Clear Channel cut its sales force I received a call from a large competitor looking for a list of all the people cut, because he decided to increase his sales force by hiring these former competiors.

What Will You Do?

In the great depression millions were made by companies who refused to give in and who used every possible tool to gain advantage over their competitors. What about you?

There is no doubt that most of us have to slash expenses until business improves, but if there is some creative way to increase your sales effort, your marketing effort, your client relationships? There has never been a better time to get aggressive. There is less noise to overcome and you'll stand out, which results in radid accomplishment of your goals. A good rule of success is to zig when others zag. Following the pack is never a good practice.

Eric Rhoads

Radio Ink

www.radioink.com