Paul Harvey

Legendary broadcaster Paul Harvey, who began his career at Tulsa’s KVOO, has passed away at a Phoenix hospital near his winter home. He was 90.

From ABC Radio Networks President Jim Robinson:

“Paul Harvey was one of the most gifted and beloved broadcasters in our nation’s history. As he delivered the news each day with his own unique style and commentary, his voice became a trusted friend in American households.

“His career in radio spanned more than seven decades, during which time countless millions of listeners were both informed and entertained by his ‘News & Comment’ and ‘Rest of the Story’ features.

“Even after the passing of his loving wife Angel in May 2008, Paul would not slip quietly into retirement as he continued to take the microphone and reach out to his audience. We will miss our dear friend tremendously and are grateful for the many years we were so fortunate to have known him. Our thoughts and prayers are now with his son Paul Jr. and the rest of the Harvey family.”

Via WGN.

This from KFAQ (formerly KVOO-AM):

In 1933, at a high school teacher’s suggestion, he started working at AM 1170 in Tulsa, which at the time was KVOO and is now KFAQ. After being hired, Harvey helped clean up and eventually was allowed to fill in on the air, reading commercials and news.

Later, while attending the University of Tulsa, he continued working at KVOO as an announcer, and later as a program director.

Born as Paul Harvey Aurandt, Paul Harvey was known to most Americans as the man who brought them his news and commentary as well as “The Rest of the Story.” His listening audience was estimated at 22 million people a week.

There an old saying that if you’ve been married nine times, maybe it’s you. Maybe David Schmidly should get the point. Schmidly, former president & CEO of the OSU system, has just received a vote of no confidence from University of New Mexico faculty. Their claims (via the Whirled)?

About 500 faculty members — half the voting faculty on the main campus of the state’s largest university — cast votes Wednesday on motions presented by the university’s Committee on Governance. Results were made public Thursday.

Along with Schmidly, a former Oklahoma State University president, the faculty cast no-confidence votes against the president of the university’s regents, Jamie Koch, and the university’s executive vice president, David Harris.

They also called for faculty to be included in UNM’s decision making and asked for an independent external audit of how funds from the state and sponsored research and money trimmed from end-of-year budgets have been spent.

Faculty members believe the administration is not aligned with their vision of excellence in teaching, research and service, said Doug Fields, president-elect of the Faculty Senate.

“Their focus is on a more corporate model of making things bigger and not necessarily better,” Fields said.

I’ll just say that squares with my impression of where Schmidly was going to take OSU. I went to school and worked at OSU mostly under the brilliant, masterful, and effective presidency of James Halligan. When Schmidly came on board, he began making immediate changes that reminded me of the power structure and cronyism I had experienced during my brief stint at Rogers State University. I had been thinking about quitting to join Jeane in our business full time. The Schmidly administration, especially an egghead named Wiggins, who was the VP over my department, made my decision for me—and quickly. And, from my friends who stayed, I can tell you his time as chief was just as unsuccessful as I expected. Glad I got out, sorry they had to live through it, and thrilled when Schmidly left.

It’s nice to see a faculty have the gumption to do something with an administration that’s gone wrong, too.

The resolutions voted upon all received large majority support.

Found another video of Bob Wills and the Boys on YouTube. This one is “Stay All Night, Stay a Little Longer” and you get the treat of seeing Bob work it just a little.

And surprise of all surprises: George Jones recorded an album of Bob Wills tunes. Here’s “Take Me Back to Tulsa.”

And if you don’t think the music community respects the influence of Bob and the Boys, here are the Stones singing “Bob Wills is Still the King.”

The McCarville Report shares (via ABC News) that the Obama Administration’s Attorney General is beginning to ramp up its gun control efforts. First up? Reinstatement of the so-called “assault weapons” ban (which generally means that if a gun is big and scary looking, the government won’t let you legally own one). Of course, Dear Leader just happens to consider semi-automatic hunting rifles “assault weapons,” too.

[Despite the emphasis on "assault weapons" as instruments of destruction, FBI data does not support the contention they are used regularly to commit crimes. Furthermore, the definition of "assault weapons" as used by Holder et al includes semi-automatic hunting rifles.]

We knew it was coming. What shall we do about it?

“Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.”

–Abraham Lincoln