Some voices ring beyond our ears, soothing feelings, frustrations and fears that blind us to quiet comforts that abound all around us.
Mike Stevens had an eager eye for spying inspiration in the overlooked and a voice that made music out of moments most of us miss while obsessing over “more important priorities.”
For 40 years, Mike’s dispatches for WNEP-TV’s “On the Pennsylvania Road” offered brief, easygoing detours around the pileups and pressures of daily life. Mike’s message was simple:
Slow down. Look around. Listen. Say hello. Sit and visit for a bit. Never say goodbye without saying thanks to those who shared their time and talents with you.
Mike signed off for good on Tuesday. He was 81. He passed the keys to “On the Pennsylvania Road” to Jon Meyer in 2019, but still narrated WNEP’s PhotoLink Library twice a week.
Word of Mike’s death spread quickly. The response was immediate and unanimously mournful. I’m grateful I had a few days to slow down, look around and craft a goodbye worthy of such a good soul.
Most remembrances I read marveled at Mike’s mesmerizing voice, which was uniquely world-weary and warm, wistful and cheerful, mindful of life’s peaks and valleys but relentlessly optimistic. This winter will feel longer and colder without Mike’s gentle, commiserating reminders that spring is just around the bend.
A nor’easter will dump drifts on your driveway, but individual snowflakes are some of nature’s most breathtaking works of art. Mike taught me that.
Mike shamelessly sold sentimentality as a virtue. Who else could get away with calling clouds “sky cotton”? Sincerity was his brand. His voice was his superpower, but his writing made it sing. Mike’s platform afforded no space for lyrical flourishes or vocabulary gymnastics. Airtime is measured in seconds, not paragraphs.
Chris Kelly (TIMES-TRIBUNE FILE)
Mike kept it simple. The result was elegance made to seem easy. He was a master craftsman who didn’t need much to work with. I’d listen to him read the phone book. (Do they still make those?)
I doubt Mike knew what a profound practical and professional influence he had on ink-stained wretches like me. I know he was too humble and gracious to take such a compliment too seriously.
Mike and I knew each other mostly through our work, more mutual admirers than close friends. We exchanged “attaboys” now and then, usually when he aired a piece I found particularly moving or I wrote a column about good people doing good things.
A confession: I was fondly jealous of Mike. He had my dream job — hitting the open road and tracking down everyday people with extraordinary stories to tell.
I grew up idolizing Charles Kuralt, the CBS News legend who traveled the country in a camper and met Americans where they lived. “On the Road with Charles Kuralt” was my generation’s version of John Steinbeck’s “Travels with Charley.” (Steinbeck’s Charley was a French poodle.)
Charley died in 1961. Kuralt passed away in 1997. When I moved here to start a new life in the mid-’90s, Mike’s voice greeted me like a long-lost friend. From my first exposure to “The Pennsylvania Road,” I felt like I had known this guy my whole life.
If you grew up here, you understand. Mike was a reliable, relatable fixture of life in Northeast Pennsylvania for 40 years. Generations raised here really did know the guy their whole lives.
Mike’s passing is a timely reminder that our seasons are numbered. One day, each of us will round our last bend and reach the end of the road.
So as we take the on-ramp to this new year, make it an important priority to take Mike’s gentle, relentlessly optimistic advice and try to enjoy the ride. Slow down. Look around. Listen. Say hello. Sit and visit for a bit.
Goodbye, old friend. Thank you for sharing your time and talents. See you down the road.
CHRIS KELLY, the Times-Tribune columnist, wishes you and yours safe, happy travels in 2026. Contact the writer: ckelly@scrantontimes.com; @cjkink on X; Chris Kelly, The Times-Tribune on Facebook; and @chriskellyink on Blue Sky Social.
WNEP-TV’s Mike Stevens at the news station in Moosic on Nov. 8, 2022. (TIMES-TRIBUNE / FILE PHOTO)
WNEP TV’s Mike Stevens at his desk at the news station in Moosic on Oct. 26, 2022. (TIMES-TRIBUNE / FILE PHOTO)
JAKE DANNA STEVENS / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER WNEP-TV’s Mike Stevens at the news station in Moosic on Oct. 26, 2022. (TIMES-TRIBUNE / FILE PHOTO)