Posted on 12/20/2004 6:03:44 PM PST by John Lenin
When I was younger, I dreamed of someday being a radio talk show host. I distinctly recall the evening in 1993 when, at the age of 8, I turned on the Kirby Wilbur show on Seattle's "Hot Talk" 570 KVI. Talk radio thereafter became a sort of second classroom for me, a weighty counterbalance to the moral neutrality and civic illiteracy of my public school. I count among my teachers Mr. Wilbur, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Medved, John Carlson, Michael Reagan, Floyd Brown, and others who came over the airwaves at various times during my growing-up years. Rush calls his program the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies, and this student of talk radio has school spirit. I've never known a time when there wasn't conservative talk radio. Talk radio grows larger in bandwidth, talent, and influence as time goes on. When Rush first came on the national airwaves in 1988, his Seattle affiliate was an Oldies station. Today, the burgeoning demand that has developed around the Rush Limbaugh Show has brought two conservative radio stations into prime competition in the Seattle market. Twenty million Americans listen to Rush on over 600 stations every week. According to the American Radio News Audience Survey, 30 percent of Americans who listen to radio news can be classified as light or heavy listeners to news through talk radio stations. But I never truly appreciated the importance of talk radio in American political culture until Rush Limbaugh read one of my columns on his program last March. "This op-ed here by Mr. Zeiger is just an example of the kind of thinking that's going on out there in young people's minds and hearts," he said, "because they're just as frustrated as you are. They're mature beyond their years and they're just as frustrated as you are this stuff is happening, but they look at it: all this stuff has been tried isn't working. They want to fix it, not just talking about it. So there's reason to be optimistic is the point." Indeed, it is an optimistic time to be a patriot. There are plenty of reasons to be pessimistic too — there always are, and quite literally the world is dying — but pessimism has a funny way of becoming self-fulfilling. We ought to be optimistic about the future of this country, not because everything is going the right way, but because we have the right ideals. We should have such confidence in the strength of our ideals, such faith that they will endure, and such trust in our God, that we never hesitate to partake when a feast of hope is presented before us. And I am convinced, having grown up on talk radio, that Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Dennis Prager, Laura Ingraham, Larry Elder, G. Gordon Liddy, and all of the others have played a significant part in the battle of ideas in our time. It is largely due to their presence on the AM dials of the big cities and small towns of America that many of the most important advances have been made in the popular revival of conservative ideas. It is because of Rush Limbaugh in particular, that as he said, "there's reason to be optimistic." ABC News correspondent Carole Simpson is quite pessimistic about the fact that young people are tuning into talk radio. At a post-election National Press Club forum, as transcribed by David Wilmouth of the Media Research Center, Ms. Simpson erupted, "The children are saying, 'Well, I hear Rush Limbaugh,' and I said, 'That's not the news.' And they go, 'But he's talking about news things.' Okay, that's really scary when I hear them say that they think they're getting the news, they can't make the separation between the New York Times and ABC News and NPR and the talk shows Hannity and Colmes or Bill O'Reilly. It's all the same to them. That's all the news, Entertainment Tonight, it's all the news. So it's been a very frightening thing to me. I am scared. I am going to admit to you that I'm scared." While Ms. Simpson is scared, let us take heart that the talk radio revolution is bearing fruit. Young conservatives are on the move, thanks to motivation from our teachers on the air. Rush says that conservatism is advancing among young Americans because "they've grown up this way. They've had it around them, which is new." Conservatism is cool these days. Combined with the internet, FOX News, and vibrant conservative print publications, talk radio has the potential not only to shape public opinion, but to mobilize public action for a generation of young conservatives. Finally, parents should never underestimate the power of talk radio in the hearing of their kids. It just might save the country.
Lucky kid.
In 1993 he was 8 years old, pretty good article for a 19-20 year old.
In 1993 he was 8 years old. I feel OLD. In 1993 I got married.
Smart kid, wish we had more like him. Personally, talk radio or Christian broadcasting is the only radio worth turning on now-a-days. Music has been mostly garbage ever since Tennessee Earnie Ford crossed over the river.
I think the rampant liberalism in the schools is going to create a huge conservative generation. Kids know when they are being lied to and to be a liberal you have to lie a lot.
I too used to listen to talk radio in the mid-90's when I was in high school. Unfortunately I can no longer stand the commercial load on talk radio. Internet conservative news has completely replaced talk radio for me. I haven't listened to Rush or any other host in 2+ years.
I can say the same. I am 31 years old and am a charter Rush listener. Found him 100% by accident. I had only recently gotten my drivers license.
On Rush's show there isn't one second more of commercial time than 10 years ago.
However, a couple years ago it was discovered that some radio stations were using a "secret" technology that compressed shows by eliminating any spots of dead air and by doing so they could squeeze in over an additional minute of commericals per hour. Can't remember what it was called.
I'm not saying its any longer, I'm just saying I can't take it anymore.
You and me both. (but not to each other)
Unfortunately, I was in the military and travelling the globe when Rush was on TV.
I have a rig at home that records off of Rush 24-7, without commercials, on one side of a 90-minute cassette tape. I carry it around at work and listen to Rush every day. I have over three months of archives.
I listen to talk radio all day long. Streamed from various websites, you can listen to commercials without vomitting, I've been amazed.
Better, Ms Simpson, that they hear it on Rush than on Leno or Stewarts Comedy Central!
I wish I had the logo from Neal Boortz' old web page, for his "Institute for Insensitivity Training". Pretty good stuff.
As another teenager I completely agree with these sentiments.
When I was growing up I only had Larry King and Salley Jessie to listen to.
Your wish may be possible, check out http://www.archive.org/web/web.php Known as the 'Wayback Machine' this web site purports to have nearly 8 years of old web pages. If you remember the Neal Boortz URL, type it in and see if that logo can be 'fetched'.
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