Paul Harvey, a familiar radio voice for six decades who used long pauses to punctuate his delivery of news and observations, died yesterday in Phoenix. He was 90.
Harvey's death was announced in a statement by ABC Radio Networks where his "News and Comment" was a fixture aired from coast to coast since 1951. He had impressed network executives with high ratings in Chicago, where he'd been a newscaster at ABC affiliate WENR-AM since 1944.
Harvey died in a Phoenix area hospital with his family by his side, said Louis Adams, a spokesman for ABC Radio Networks. The broadcaster lived in Chicago during the summer and moved his production to Arizona in the winter months.
"My father and mother created from thin air what one day became radio and television news," son Paul Harvey Jr. said in a statement on his father's Web site. "So in the past year, an industry has lost its godparents and today millions have lost a friend."
Harvey's wife, Lynne, who produced his shows, died in May.
Known for his resonant voice and trademark delivery of "The Rest of the Story," Harvey had been heard nationally since 1951, when he began his "News and Comment" for ABC Radio Networks.
He became a heartland icon, delivering news and commentary with a distinctive Midwestern flavor. "Stand by for news!" he told his listeners. He was credited with inventing or popularizing terms such as "skyjacker," "Reaganomics" and "guesstimate."
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