'Good Day' to Broadcasting Pioneer Paul Harvey

Staff and Wire Reports

CHICAGO - ABC Radio Networks said broadcasting pioneer and Oklahoma native Paul Harvey has died at the age of 90.

Network spokesman Louis Adams said Harvey died Saturday at a Phoenix hospital, surrounded by family. No cause of death was immediately available.

The news commentator and talk-radio pioneer had a staccato style that made him one of the nation's most familiar voices.

His career began at Tulsa's KVOO radio where he started cleaning the studios before the lure of the microphone drew him to the airwaves.

"I'm gonna be talking back to those newsmakers anyway so I might as well stay around the microphone and do it professionally," Harvey said.

He was forced off the air in 2001 because a virus weakened a vocal cord. But he returned to work in Chicago and was still active as he passed his 90th birthday.

President George W. Bush awarded the senior commentator the Medal of Freedom in 2005.

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.

Harvey was born Paul Harvey Aurandt in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Harvey also worked at KOMO for a brief time in the 1930s.