A.M. radio would today have still been a backwater for weather kooks and emergency signals, were it not for Rush.
Before Rush when there was talk about news matters, schizophrenia was EXPECTED: the hosts had to say the news topic at hand was good, and right after you had to say it was bad —super weird and boring for listeners, but it provided a weird “balance” that was the fashion of the day.
But then RUSH ARRRIVED:
Rush didn’t do any of that —he just laid it right out with any of the normal silly, annoying parsley, and a local Sacramento liberal listener was so surprised and angry at these new things he was hearing out if his radio (from Rush) that he DROVE TO THE STATION..!
He had a BUTCHER KNIFE and he was trying to break through the front door of the station to start killing people...!
The management realized they had something very new and powerful on their hands, and they replaced and radically strengthened all their windows and doors.
They had to change their security protocols at the station very much.
People would drive for many miles around in order to catch sight of the amazing phenom, Rush Limbaugh.
Decades later very many people can still remember exactly what they were doing the first time they heard Rush saying these amazing things on the radio —things they had long believed they were alone in thinking.
I remember hearing him way back then and thinking “who is this guy? He thinks like me”.
Going back to the very early 90s, maybe even late 80s, when Rush was just really getting going on the national stage, I remember having restaurants in the North Atlanta ‘burbs that would have Rush listening rooms at lunch time.