R&R To Honor Paul Harvey
Lifetime Achievement Award set for TRS 2003

Legendary ABC Radio newsman and commentator Paul Harvey has been selected as the 2003 recipient of R&R’s News/Talk Radio Lifetime Achievement Award. Harvey will accept the award during a luncheon to be held in his honor at the 2003 R&R Talk Radio Seminar, set for March 6-8 in Los Angeles.

With his trademark greeting of “Hello Americans!” Harvey has long been America’s most popular and successful radio newscaster. “If the very best radio is local, then Paul Harvey has made America his hometown,” ABC News Radio VP Chris Berry said. “He always gives the news equal treatment, whether it’s happening in a big city or a small town. With his unique ability to connect with the radio audience Paul is unchallenged as America’s best storyteller. His broadcasts continue to attract millions of listeners daily and convince many advertisers of the power of radio.”

Born in Tulsa, Harvey began his radio career in 1933, while still in high school, as an announcer for his hometown radio station, KVOO. He continued working as an announcer and PD at the station through his college years, spent at the University of Tulsa. Following graduation Harvey got his first job as a newscaster, at KOMA/Oklahoma City, then moved to KXOK/St. Louis as Director/Special Events and a roving news reporter.

In 1940 Harvey moved to Hawaii to cover the United States Navy as it began concentrating on its fleet in the Pacific. During his trip home from that assignment he learned that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor, so upon his arrival back on the mainland he immediately enlisted in the Army Air Corps. After leaving the corps in 1944, Harvey made what was to become a career-changing move to ABC affiliate WENR/Chicago, where he quickly became the Windy City’s most popular newscaster.

Harvey was heard coast-to-coast for the very first time in 1951, when his daily Paul Harvey News and Comment began airing on the ABC Radio Networks. In 1976 ABC added a second Paul Harvey broadcast, The Rest of the Story, which delved into the forgotten or little-known facts behind the stories of famous people and events. Today Harvey is the largest one-man network in broadcasting, with more than 1,200 commercial radio affiliates nationwide and 400 Armed Forces Radio Network stations that broadcast his familiar voice and unique style to listeners around the world.

“As he celebrates a nearly 70-year career in radio Paul Harvey personifies all that is good with and about radio broadcasting,” R&R Publisher/CEO Erica Farber said. “TRS 2003 will give all of us a wonderful opportunity to honor the tremendous impact he has had not only on our business but on the entire American population.”

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Hannity To Speak At TRS 2003
Talk Radio Seminar set for March 6-8 in L.A.

ABC Radio Networks talk host Sean Hannity has been added to the lineup at R&R’s Talk Radio Seminar, to be held March 6-8, 2003 in Los Angeles. Hannity will be the featured lunch speaker at TRS 2003 on Friday, March 7.

Hannity, who was named News/Talk Personality of the Year in 2001 by R&R readers, hosts the nationally syndicated Sean Hannity Show, which reaches an estimated 10 million listeners weekly. He is also the co-host of FOX News Channel’s highly successful Hannity and Colmes, a nightly discussion of the issues of the day between the proudly conservative talker and his left-leaning opponent, Alan Colmes.

Ironically, R&R inadvertently played a significant role in the launch of Hannity’s meteoric career in Talk radio. Following a stint in college radio — where the University of California at Santa Barbara’s liberal-minded establishment was not particularly enthused about the young radio host, who sang the praises of then-President Ronald Reagan — Hannity placed a “Positions Sought” ad in R&R. Billing himself as “the most-talked-about college radio host in America,” the brash young talker was offered his first commercial radio gig by the smart management of WVNN/Huntsville, AL. The rest, as they say, is history.

Next, Hannity moved to WGST/Atlanta, where his success in the Peach Tree City soon attracted the attention of WABC/New York and the FOX News Channel. In 1996 FOX’s Roger Ailes asked Hannity to move to New York, where he became part of the new lineup at the fledgling FOX cable news outlet.

Then, in 1997, Hannity joined ABC Radio’s News/Talk flagship, WABC/New York, where his program quickly became the Big Apple’s most popular News/Talk afternoon radio show. Hannity’s energy, charisma and audience following soon attracted the attention of ABC Radio Network brass, who, as a result, launched the New York City native into national syndication in 2001. Today Hannity’s daily program is heard on more than 200 stations nationwide.

Not content with simply having success on radio and TV, this year the multimedia minded Hannity authored the best-selling book, Let Freedom Ring: Winning The War of Liberty Over Liberalism. His book tour attracted thousands of average Americans, who lined up at book stores all across America to meet and shake hands with the popular Talk radio host.

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