Frank Harden

Francis Guinn Harden (October 28, 1922 – June 15, 2018) was an American radio announcer whose career spanned more than 50 years. Harden was best known as the genial co-host of The Harden and Weaver Show, which aired on WMAL, in Washington, D.C., from 1960 to 1998.

Distinctions Harden served as union president at the Washington chapter of AFTRA, and later, as a member of the AFTRA National board.

His book, On the Radio With Harden and Weaver, co-authored with Jackson Weaver and Ed Meyer, was published by Morrow in 1983.

Early life Harden was born in Macon and raised in Savannah, Georgia, the son of Maude Scott and John Harden, a railroad worker. Unable to play school sports due to poor eyesight, he learned trombone. As a college student playing with local dance bands for extra money, he had his first exposure to the world of entertainment and radio.

Still wearing an Army uniform, the 22-year-old Harden walked into the offices of Savannah NBC radio affiliate WSAV seeking employment. An on-the-spot interview and audition led to his first job as an announcer. Over the next three years, he worked at WSAV in Savannah, WRLD and WGST in Atlanta, and KLZ in Denver. Learning of an opening at ABC affiliate WMAL in Washington, DC, Harden auditioned and was hired, starting Christmas Eve, 1947.

At WMAL, Harden reported news and sports, covered presidential speeches, congressional and other public events. He was the announcer for Edward P. Morgan and The News Show for 8 years.

Mid-career In the 1950s, when radio seemed headed for extinction and replacement by TV, Harden teamed up with fellow WMAL announcer Jackson Weaver to create a 15-minute evening slot, titled "The Frank and Jackson Show", loosely modeled after Boston's popular Bob and Ray Show. In the late 1950s, they had their own WMAL-TV show, performing comic sketches written by Harden.

In 1960, WMAL manager Andy Ockershausen offered Harden and his partner an opportunity to create a show for the coveted 6 to 10 am morning drive time. The resulting Harden and Weaver Show began without fanfare, but gradually gained status as Washington's highest rated morning show.

Although Harden and Weaver discussed news events, they remained non-controversial, and neither revealed his personal political leanings in public. Harden wrote, in 1983, "(We) can be serious when the situation calls for it, and I can be a bit caustic at times. But it's usually on behalf of Everyman railing against the system. We don't pose as heavyweights... We'll acknowledge an issue - satirically - but won't climb on a soapbox... We're not in the business of alienating people."

"Theirs was a quiet humor, restricted by a reticence that the culture soon would discard as old-fashioned. But before they vanished, (the show) did what many media efforts dream of, but never quite accomplish: They created community," wrote Fisher in the Washington Post.

Harden and his co-host made literally thousands of appearances at various community social and civic events, including serving as MCs at The Navy League and Whitehouse Correspondents dinner. In January 1975 the editors of Washingtonian named Harden and Weaver, "Washingtonians of the Year." "It's not easy to make hundreds of thousands of Washingtonians wake up a little less grumpy every morning, but that's what Frank Harden and Jackson Weaver do," wrote the editors. "...Anyone who has ever heard them knows that Harden and Weaver like people. They have reached out and encouraged us to smile more often, and to help those most in need of aid. Their concern has made Washington a better place to live.

Harden and Weaver used their celebrity to raise funds for community organizations, most notably the Children's National Medical Center, widely called Children's Hospital. In appreciation, the hospital named a wing in their honor.

Guests, regular callers, and self-identified listeners to the Harden and Weaver Show included President Gerald Ford, dozens of Congressmen, Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, Air Force General Curtis LeMay, radio legend Paul Harvey, talk show host David Frost, singer Jimmy Dean, boxer Mohammed Ali,

Later career After Weaver's death in 1992, Harden continued the show, with co-hosts Tim Brant and Andy Parks. The Harden, Brant, and Parks Show ranked at or near the top of the ratings for five more years.

Harden received the March of Dimes A.I.R. (Achievement in Radio) Lifetime Award and other honors. The Children's National Medical Center Golf Classic that he co-founded in 1971 remains an important fund-raiser: The 40th outing occurred in 2011.

Personal Harden married twice and was the father of five grown children. He lived in Washington, D.C., and Sweden with his wife, Berit. Harden died on June 15, 2018, in Chevy Chase, Maryland.