[Iron Munro]

Remembering the World Before Rush:

[Iron Munro]

Remembering the World Before Rush:

[skeeter]

Before Rush the only person to speak for me without benefit of the news networks’ filter was Robert Novak on Crossfire.

[rabidralph]

Thanks for posting that. I grew up in the ‘60s and ‘70s and I knew there was something wrong with the world but I didn’t know what it was, because the three networks were always telling me I had it wrong. Thank God for Rush and the rise of the Internets.

[CodeToad]

I remember when CNN came on the air. Everyone thought they were without bias, that they didn’t give opinions like the networks did, that their news reporting was facts only and not suppositions as the network did.I remember when Reagan was shot and it was CNN that refused to make comments that were not known facts. Everyone was glad there was an alternative to the networks that lied, added emotional commentary, and reported things not true. Well, we quickly found CNN to be liberal; that while they, then, didn’t report anything but facts, they left out facts about conservatives.

It was a dark time for about ten years before Rush came about. Rush single handedly started the public campaign for conservative news outlets. Rush gets a load of credit where the other media failed.

[workerbee]

Wow, this is almost my story. (psst, I'm the daughter, "Joan" would be my father) I owe so much to Rush Limbaugh... I really ought to write him a letter one of these days.

[Fiji Hill]

In the 1960's, George Putnam, a local news anchor, would devote a few minutes of his nightly news broadcast to conservative commentary in what he termed "one reporter's opinion." He always closed his broadcast with a shot of the American flag flying over some local community, noting "here is the American flag flying proudly over Long Beach..." or Whittier, or Watts, or Pico Rivera, etc.

Putnam later had a radio talk show on KIEV (now KRLA--"intelligent, conservative talk radio") from 1976 until around 2000. Those who stayed awake during the graveyard shift could listen to Ray Briem's conservative call-in show on KABC, but talk radio in the morning was dominated by the liberal Michael Jackson. When his show came to the Southland in 1989, Rush Limbaugh killed Jackson in the ratings when he began broadcasting opposite him on KFI, and Jackson's show soon left the air.

In the 1960's and 1970's, conservative commentators could be heard on KIEV, KTYM, and some others. Steuart McBirnie, a pastor of a megachurch in Glendale hosted the 15-minute "Voice of Americanism." In the late '60's and early '70's, one could hear "Life Lines," a conservative commentary sponsored by Texas oilman H. L. Hunt and Richard Cotten's somewhat quirky "Conservative Viewpoint." The Rev. Carl McIntire called for victory in Vietnam in his "Twentieth Century Reformation Hour" broadcasts and led several "Marches for Victory" in Washington that attracted tens of thousands. Another commentator on KTYM was Ron Wright, a member of the John Birch Society, who hosted a 15-minute commentary entitled "Verite."

Conservative TV and radio personalities in Southern California before Rush were a colorful crowd.