"Burt was a wonderful writer-at
best when facing a deadline."
-Bob Mott
 Burt Harrison became one of public radio's most influential spokesmen.
Whether plinking on the piano or pounding out scripts for public
radio on his manual typewriter, Burton D. "Burt" Harrison enjoyed
life to the fullest. During 27 years on the Washington State
University communications faculty, including 17 as manager of KWSU
Radio, he figured significantly in the formation and development of
public broadcasting. Moreover, he exerted a positive influence on
scores of students pursuing careers in broadcast journalism.
Harrison, 87, died January 22, 2004, in Centralia. Dee, his wife
of 63 years, preceded him September 4, 2003.
To help finance his education at Kansas State Teachers College,
the Atchison native played honky-tonk piano in nightclubs and even
did a stint as a mortuary organist. He earned an English degree in
1943, and joined The Emporia Gazette staff.
After completing military service during World War II, he
returned to his alma mater as radio production director and
assistant manager of KTSW. He got his start in Colorado commercial
broadcasting as station manager of KSFT, Trinidad, and at KOKO, La
Junta. He earned a master's degree from the University of
Denver.
At WSU (1949-1976), Harrison became one of public radio's most
influential spokesmen and colorful personalities. He wrote
thousands of radio scripts-from drama to prize-winning science
commentaries. His show, Literary Scrapbook, was distributed
to nearly 50 stations. He also wrote for National Public Radio. His
articles, reviews, and feature stories appeared in the New York
Herald-Tribune, Washington Star, Washington Post,
Newsweek, and Popular Science.
"Burt was a wonderful writer-at best when facing a deadline,"
says Robert Mott, San Diego, WSU professor (1956-68) and Department
of Communications chair. Folklore at KWSC-AM in the '40s and '50s
was that Harrison would a give the announcer the first 10 or 12
minutes of a script and finish the last three to five minutes while
the first segment was being aired.
He was writer-producer for 16 film and television documentaries,
including This is WSU, To Build a Dam, The Comedians, and
Mosaic. In 1975 he was selected to deliver WSU's 36th
Invited Faculty Address. In it, he said public broadcasting is the
best means of adding "diversity and greater purpose to American
television and quality to the diversity already existing in radio."
He noted the three commercial television networks "have to offer
essentially the same strawberries and ice cream, not out of desire
but simply as a matter of survival." The whole system of television
programming "is designated to give the majority what it wants."
"Without the efforts of Harrison and a few colleagues, National
Public Radio would not exist today," Mott says. "He was a key
person in the task force that lobbied Congress to include radio
[television was already included] in the Public Broadcasting Act of
1976."
Harrison's honors include Emporia State's Alumni Achievement
Award, 1977, and the Washington State Association of Broadcasters'
Broadcaster of the of the Year Award, 1987. He conducted an oral
history project for the Corporation of Public Broadcasting in
1977-78. In 1993, he completed Washington State on the Air,
a history of radio and television at WSU.
Val Limburg joined the faculty in 1967, when the communications
department and KWSU Radio were still blended together. He remembers
Harrison listening to students auditioning for announcing
positions. He would deliberately introduce words like "Grand Prix
race" into the script and chuckle as the naïve student invariably
mispronounced the term.
Students loved Harrison and his subtle humor in the classroom.
In his office, he'd monitor the student station via a volume meter
mounted above his desk. "He might not always listen, but he would
watch that meter and make sure there was a constant sound emanating
from the station," Limburg said.
"The Sage of the Palouse" had a large following for his
Behind the Mike radio series that made the ficticious small
Montana town of Elephant's Breath famous.
After he retired, he and Dee would sit in the press box at
Bailey Field, where he played the organ at baseball games. His
rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" was the fans' favorite.
The Harrisons were longtime residents of nearby Albion, where Burt
served as mayor for many years.
-Pat Caraher
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