WLW Dropping Paul Harvey

WLW has said "Good Day!" to Paul Harvey. Reports by the 89-year-old broadcasting legend (who has been absent most of this month) will not be heard Monday on Cincinnati's No. 1 station.

At 6:25 a.m. Monday, Harvey's "The Rest of the Story" feature will be replaced by Gary Burbank's "Earl Pitts" commentaries, which haven't been heard since Burbank retired Dec. 31. (Welcome back to the Big One, Gary!) What they should do is run some of Burbank's old Paul Harvey "The Rest of the Story" bits at 6:25, and air Earl Pitts at Harvey's 8:30 slot....

Bill Cunningham's talk show will start at 12:05 p.m. Monday. The extended news block with Harvey has been dropped. Now Cunningham can go head-to-head with Rush Limbaugh at noon.

I haven't heard of any stations picking up the Harvey features. Hamilton's WMOH-AM (1450) talk station and oldies WDJO-AM (1160) haven't been pitched Harvey by ABC. I honestly don't know which other non-Clear Channel stations would be a candidate for Harvey.

In the early 1990s, when WLW-AM acquired WCKY-AM and WKRC-AM programming, I remember how excited the WLW-AM folks were to get Paul Harvey. The managers felt they needed Harvey to be a complete news-talk radio station, when he was in his prime. I'm not surprised they're dropping him now, especially with all his absences. Nobody can imitate his unique voice inflections, and those who try sound like a Burbank bit or former SNL regular Joe Piscopo doing a spoof.

And now you know the rest of the story... Paul, you had a good run. We'll miss you. Now it's time for Page 2! Good Day!