{"id":76378,"date":"2026-01-02T19:37:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T19:37:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/76378\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T19:37:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T19:37:09","slug":"mike-stevens-made-small-things-sing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/76378\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Stevens made ‘small’ things sing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some voices ring beyond our ears, soothing feelings, frustrations and fears that blind us to quiet comforts that abound all around us.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cmore important priorities.\u201d<\/p>\n

For 40 years, Mike\u2019s dispatches for WNEP-TV\u2019s \u201cOn the Pennsylvania Road\u201d offered brief, easygoing detours around the pileups and pressures of daily life. Mike\u2019s message was simple:<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Mike signed off for good on Tuesday. He was 81. He passed the keys to \u201cOn the Pennsylvania Road\u201d to Jon Meyer in 2019, but still narrated WNEP\u2019s PhotoLink Library twice a week.<\/p>\n

Word of Mike\u2019s death spread quickly. The response was immediate and unanimously mournful. I\u2019m grateful I had a few days to slow down, look around and craft a goodbye worthy of such a good soul.<\/p>\n

Most remembrances I read marveled at Mike\u2019s mesmerizing voice, which was uniquely world-weary and warm, wistful and cheerful, mindful of life\u2019s peaks and valleys but relentlessly optimistic. This winter will feel longer and colder without Mike\u2019s gentle, commiserating reminders that spring is just around the bend.<\/p>\n

A nor\u2019easter will dump drifts on your driveway, but individual snowflakes are some of nature\u2019s most breathtaking works of art. Mike taught me that.<\/p>\n

Mike shamelessly sold sentimentality as a virtue. Who else could get away with calling clouds \u201csky cotton\u201d? Sincerity was his brand. His voice was his superpower, but his writing made it sing. Mike\u2019s platform afforded no space for lyrical flourishes or vocabulary gymnastics. Airtime is measured in seconds, not paragraphs.<\/p>\n

\"ChrisChris Kelly (TIMES-TRIBUNE FILE)<\/p>\n

Mike kept it simple. The result was elegance made to seem easy. He was a master craftsman who didn\u2019t need much to work with. I\u2019d listen to him read the phone book. (Do they still make those?)<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Mike and I knew each other mostly through our work, more mutual admirers than close friends. We exchanged \u201cattaboys\u201d now and then, usually when he aired a piece I found particularly moving or I wrote a column about good people doing good things.<\/p>\n

A confession: I was fondly jealous of Mike. He had my dream job \u2014 hitting the open road and tracking down everyday people with extraordinary stories to tell.<\/p>\n

I grew up idolizing Charles Kuralt, the CBS News legend who traveled the country in a camper and met Americans where they lived. \u201cOn the Road with Charles Kuralt\u201d was my generation\u2019s version of John Steinbeck\u2019s \u201cTravels with Charley.\u201d (Steinbeck\u2019s Charley was a French poodle.)<\/p>\n

Charley died in 1961. Kuralt passed away in 1997. When I moved here to start a new life in the mid-\u201990s, Mike\u2019s voice greeted me like a long-lost friend. From my first exposure to \u201cThe Pennsylvania Road,\u201d I felt like I had known this guy my whole life.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Mike\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

So as we take the on-ramp to this new year, make it an important priority to take Mike\u2019s gentle, relentlessly optimistic advice and try to enjoy the ride. Slow down. Look around. Listen. Say hello. Sit and visit for a bit.<\/p>\n

Goodbye, old friend. Thank you for sharing your time and talents. See you down the road.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"WNEP-TV'sWNEP-TV\u2019s Mike Stevens at the news station in Moosic on Nov. 8, 2022. (TIMES-TRIBUNE \/ FILE PHOTO)
\n\"WNEPWNEP TV\u2019s Mike Stevens at his desk at the news station in Moosic on Oct. 26, 2022. (TIMES-TRIBUNE \/ FILE PHOTO)
\n\"JAKEJAKE DANNA STEVENS \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER WNEP-TV\u2019s Mike Stevens at the news station in Moosic on Oct. 26, 2022. (TIMES-TRIBUNE \/ FILE PHOTO)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some voices ring beyond our ears, soothing feelings, frustrations and fears that blind us to quiet comforts that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76379,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[1590,201,182,803,139,1559,1560,28,231,178,180,179,181,2943],"class_list":{"0":"post-76378","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-chris-kelly","9":"tag-lackawanna-county","10":"tag-local-news","11":"tag-luzerne-county","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-opinion","14":"tag-opinion-columnists","15":"tag-pennsylvania","16":"tag-schuylkill-county","17":"tag-scranton","18":"tag-scranton-headlines","19":"tag-scranton-news","20":"tag-top-stories-stt","21":"tag-wyoming-county"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}