Paul Harvey said .....

[Towntalk]

Early 90's (1990 - 1991 or thereabouts). I recall seeing a printed copy of it on the bulletin board at work. It's real though. Maby if you e-mailed Harvey you could get a copy. I link to his home page on my web site - http://farrell-report.tripod.com. In fact I think that I'll do just that and see what happens.

[Janko]

I have a question:

Does anyone know when Paul Harvey actually read this?

I keep receiving copies of this from people, with bits added here and there, and sometimes things taken out. So many changes in fact, I am am starting to wonder if it is real or not.

So does anyone remember the year, or remember hearing this on the radio?

thanks

[Towntalk]

Speaking of Paul Harvey, he was in Youngstown several times, and when here did his newscast from WBBW which at the time was an ABC affiliate with a direct patch to the network. Dan said that since he was the early morning announcer/DJ/talk show host that he would let Mr. Harvey in at 5:00 AM at which time Harvey would head off to the newsroom to prepare his newscast. One of the things that impressed Dan was the fact that Harvey, after pulling the stories he would use, sat down at the typewriter and literally rewrote the story in his own words.

If I recall, the time that his piece about Youngstown appeared, he was here giving a lecture at Powers Auditorium for a lecture series they use to have.

When that article appeared, Harvey himself did write it, since his son didn't join him until several years later to write the copy for "THE REST OF THE STORY".

By the way, Harvey has been a newscaster for 57 years ... the longest running newscast in the history of radio.

[Towntalk]

Some folks can never be pleased!

This tribute to Youngstown by a nationally syndicated news commentator is right on.

No, Mr. Harvey hasn't spent a lot of time here, but what network newscaster has?

But I would remind you that this was not the first time that he payed tribute to our city, and as one of the most listened to and trusted newscasters in broadcast history, this is saying something, or would you rather that he, like most of the others in the news media slammed our city?

I for one get sick and tired of hearing the Mainstream Media slam our city. They're quick to show up and show our city in the most negative light possible, but whenever there's good news, they're nowhere to be found.

Remember how they came here and searched out the most abandoned and ugly building that they could find and did their reports from there?

And what about what he said do you object to?

[Oldmill]

 "Wills of Iron Build City of Gold" This was supposedly written by Paul Harvey.
You can tell he hasn't spent much time here !



For 30 years I'd been hearing about "the rustbelt." Surely that must be America's unlovely and embarrassing backyard. 

So I went looking for it.

If the rustbelt is where our steel industry is, I knew where to begin my search. I aimed my jet toward the valley of the Mahoning River in Ohio.

There, 170 years ago, a man named Young discovered iron ore and Brier Hill coal in just the parallel quantity necessary to make pig-iron and just the right amount of limestone to melt pig-iron into steel.

Young called his pioneer village "Young's Town."

Youngstown flourished. By 1810 there were 773 people thereabouts. By 1890 there were 33,000.

Something about Youngstown, generation after generation bred uncommon men - the Reverend William McGuffey, who authored our nations' best-ever schoolbooks, and the Reverend George Bernard, who wrote "The Old Rugged Cross."

Early political and industrial giants, spring from roots in Youngstown.

But then - in our own time - high wages, alternative construction materials and cheap imports put our nation's ailing steel industry to bed and eventually to sleep.

I settled out of a leaden winter sky, folded my wings and went looking for rust.   

What I found was a state university, thriving, expanding.

I found a Museum of Modern Art - 17 enormous galleries - displaying the most precious collection between New York and Chicago.

I found a Symphony Center as elegant as anywhere and an orchestra worthy of it.

A handsome classic courthouse - restored with loving care and private money.

This hub of 5 railroads for a population of 100,000-plus has 30 city parks!

And hospitals and tree-lined avenues of elegant homes on lawns wide and deep.   

Where steel once was everything, half a hundred thriving industries now are.

All this plus 15 - count them, 15 - golf courses!

I went looking for the rust. I found none in Youngstown, Ohio.  There were just enough riverfront ghosts to keep folks reminded how far they've come. Except that home folks will be the last to know.

Youngstown is under-appreciated only by its own citizens who are as yet unaware that running scared from the blast furnace flameout they've run on ahead of most of the rest of us.

I know now where hometown boy Dave Dravecky got his get-up-when-you-fall-down-courage.  Lead on, Youngstown. And please don't ever again feel sorry for yourself.

Nobody else would.

Paul Harvey