I’ve been a listener to Paul Harvey, off and on, for about 30 years. He’s a good touchstone for me — a brief recap of news, commentary, and general oddness that lets me know what a certain element of the American people find interesting. He’s been a staple of WBZ, Boston’s news radio station, for as long as I can remember.
But no more.
As of January 2, WBZ has dumped Paul Harvey for yet more repetitions of the same news, weather, and sports.
Fortunately, a while ago his commentaries were available for streaming from his website, but WBZ’s decision has certainly made my radio habits a lot simpler. And freed up a pre-set on the Shaggin’ Wagon’s stereo.
Thanks for the update. Now I know the rest…
of the story.
You still got Michael Graham up there – not sure which station he went to though. Hopefully, that new station won’t grab ankles every time CAIR comes strolling by.
One word …
C … I … T … R … I … C … A … L
I love P. harvey too. 😉
You’d think they’d podcast him.
Did they dump him, or did he decide to leave?
If they dumped him, shame on them. Paul Harvey rocks.
Great. Now you won’t have to miss his weird pronunciation of “veg et tables” and “pro tee en.” Sorry but Paul’s way past it.
I stopped listening to Harvey after the 3rd item local to me, that he’d been pontificating about, went the other way (In this case, a trial of 2 dancers, the police officers were required to pole dance in the courtroom to show the jury what they saw in the club). He’d been making a big deal about the story, the immorality of the dancers, etc. The dancers were aquitted.
Harvey announced to the nation that they were “Guilty as charged”. I even usually change off of “The Rest of the Story” now. That was the 3rd local story he misreported – and no way that was possibily an innocent explanation.
What happened was, as I understand it, that
WBZ decided to let their affiliation with
ABC Radio News expire on 12/31, and also I
believe they figured he no longer fits in with
their news coverage.
And confirmation of this from a post on boston-radio-interest mailing list:
“According to an e-mail from Erin Moran (Office Administrator for New & Programming) at WBZ, Paul Harvey is syndicated through the ABC Radio Network, but when they “re-negotiated” a new agreement with ABC, it did not include continuation of Mr. Harvey’s show. Even though it’s been great to have him all these years, they decided to continue with more of WBZ’s local news format as they do during the rest of the day.
And that’s the way it is…..
The People Have [been] Spoken [for].”
I’ll be doing a lot less listening to WBZ now. WEIM Fitchburg (1280) carries Paul’s morning show at 8:30. Thing is, by then, the headlines are over on WBZ so I’ll probably just turn on music and never go back to the news.
Gosh, they repeat the same stuff over and over and over again, you’d think Paul Harvey would be a draw.
Oh well, broadcast radio shoots themselves in the foot again. I’ll just listen on the web now.
Wish Paul Harvey was on XM.
Paul
First, the loss of David Brudnoy, and now this.
Unless I’m stuck in traffic, there will be VERY little reason to listen to WBZ except perhaps for that two minutes out of 60.
I think it’s obvious they don’t want to spend the money. They’d rather use cheap local talent.
No reason to listen to WBZ now. (I first heard Paul in 1958.)
For about 30 years, I faithfully went out to my car for lunch at noon and tuned in for news and Paul Harvey. Rain snow heatwave – it didn’t matter. That was my “chill” time and lunch break no matter where I worked. Now… it’s all over. I feel lost in a sea of cookiecutter radio programs. I am even loosing my appetite. Lunchtime will never be the same, and will always be ..standing by for NEWS.
As a long time listener of Paul Harvey in Boston, MA (who also would go out to my car to listen on lunch breaks), it disappointing the BZ dropped him. I can’t listen to him on the internet because the website seems to only serve Windows users for audio download.
Anyone know of other mroe accessible sources to listen?
I’ve been listnening since the late 50’s. He’s part of my life. I don’t always agree with his views but always enjoy his sense of humor and humanity. He honors the ordinary and the lowly in our society like no one else. In my professonsal life as a Speech Coach I am often asked “who do you think is a good speaker”..My imZ, what happened. the answer was, “we wanted to do more local news”. Uh…in other words the other hour afte hour of rehashed “news” as not enough? I suppose we’ll never know the truth. I’m sure Money played a big part. Shame on WBZ. I used to respect their journalistic efforts. This is a smudge on their Boston reputation.
Mac users can use Windows Media Player from Microsoft, or, if you don’t want to use Microsoft software, a freeware application called VLC. I just listened to this morning’s Paul Harvey broadcast on my Mac with VLC.
Paul
Often Paul was behind on local news but he filtered a lot of news to tell what was hapening and kep it interesting. I was thinking to complain to BZ anyway that there news reporting was getting sloppy, to much “man on the street” misinformation and not enough facts.
Paul Harvey is available on XM Radio channel 173 via its simulcast of WLW AM 700 from Cincinnati.
Excellent!
Do you know the schedule of Paul Harvey shows on WLW? I couldn’t find the information on their web site.
Paul
Thank God for Paul Harvey! I’ve listened to him for many years on WBZ. These LEFT-WING idiots like WBZ, who think they will make the news instead of reporting the news have turned into just that “LEFT-WING IDIOTS”! And I just don’t have to listen to them any more or buy the products they advertise. We just turn the dial! They don’t deserve Paul Harvey!