Posted on 02/04/2020 4:03:04 AM PST by Kaslin
I first met Rush Limbaugh 25 years ago at his New York radio headquarters. His national show was in its seventh year of blowing liberals’ heads apart, and my local show aired immediately before it on the Dallas-Ft. Worth station. We took a planeload of listeners to visit a taping of his mid-nineties syndicated TV show, which gave me the opportunity to broadcast back to Texas from a studio steps away from the room that held the “Golden EIB (Excellence in Broadcasting) Microphone.”
He joined me one morning for a brief segment for the local listeners, then invited me to his office for a few minutes of small talk that began with a curious question: “Do you consume adult beverages?” I paused to evaluate whether a glass of wine a week merited a yes. “Sometimes,” I said, only to learn that it was an entry question to the offer he was about to make—a cigar that cost God-knows-what.
I brought it home and smoked it on the patio. I knocked down a few more cigars in the years to follow, but none as memorable.
In 2006, Rush came to Texas for a personal appearance I was honored to host. As he regaled the audience with political wit and wisdom, one of his executive folks asked me backstage if I had any interest in filling in for him as a substitute host. In early 2008, I began four years of occasionally finishing my own show, hitting a few buttons and swinging directly into his.
This put me in close touch with the people who surround him every day: Producer James Golden (the beloved “Bo Snerdley”), Engineer Mike Maimone, and Chief of Staff “Kit” Carson. Their love of radio was as apparent as their devotion to Rush. When Kit died of brain cancer in 2015, it was like a death in the family for these devoted people I had come to know.
On Monday, it was Rush himself who devoted the closing moments of his show to reveal the cancer challenge he now faces.
“I wish I didn't have to tell you this,” he shared after divulging his advanced stage of lung cancer. “I thought about not telling anybody. I thought about trying do this without anybody knowing because I don't like making things about me. But there are going to be days when I'm not going to be here because I'm undergoing treatment or I'm reacting to treatment.”
So begins the path that will dictate how long talk radio’s most dominant voice will be with us. Social media instantly filled with prayers for a fast recovery. Those same corridors also filled with predictable waves of hatred. Such is life in 2020.
For his part, Rush has worn the decades of attacks from the left like a badge of honor. “It’s how I know I’m right,” he would say of the shrill reactions he would often attract.
I refuse to adopt the tone of an obituary. I join millions in asking God for healing for this man who has meant so much to our nation, to my industry and to me. But it is an appropriate time to take stock of what he has done, and we hope he will be able to continue doing.
The word “pioneer” comes to mind, but it might not apply. America’s biggest cities spawned embryonic talk shows in the 1950s, with trailblazers like Joe Pyne and Bob Grant joining others in growing the format into the ‘60s. By the end of the ‘70s, Larry King had proven that a talk show could get ratings even in the desert of overnight.
There was music before the Beatles, and there was talk radio before Rush Limbaugh. I was part of it, as a show landed in my thoroughly unprepared lap in 1982 in Jacksonville, Florida. At my next stop in Memphis, a ripple of buzz in 1988 became a tidal wave of fame as the nineties began. It was Rush who brought enormous attention to talk radio on stations large and small, in big cities and small towns. His popularity showed radio owners and managers that talk shows could be profitable at a time when AM stations were dying on the vine as the last music listeners left for the FM dial. He thus created countless careers that never would have started, and paved the way for others that might not have gone nearly as far.
Today, all of radio is in flux. Satellite channels, podcasts and worldwide online listening have created special challenges for stations seeking to attract audiences in a complex environment. But Rush Limbaugh has persevered, and no one has equaled his impact.
Critics thought he was made famous by the Clinton years-- that his appeal would wane once Bill and Hillary were no longer around to provide content. The 20 years since their departure from the White House has yielded proof that upbeat conservatism delivered with skill and humor would always be a force.
I will often share radio stories at speaking engagements, and one of my favorite eyebrow-raisers is when I reveal that Rush Limbaugh is not a big deal because he is conservative. There are conservatives I respect that I have no desire to hear on the radio for 30 minutes, much less the 32 years Rush has been on our radios.
Rush is what he is because he is a radio guy—a storyteller, a polemicist, a provocateur, a stand-up comedian, a commentator, an evangelist, an unmatched analyst and a gracious and welcoming host to all who listen.
And he makes his gratitude clear to those listeners every day. Today it is our turn to take a measure of the gratitude we feel for him, and use that as the motivation for prayers that we may be able to enjoy his gift for many, many years to come.
He's going to get thru this with all our prayers.......
Beautifully spoken. Staying positive for all of us. There is strength in numbers. :-)
I retired about a year ago and living on the beach in San Diego two things on my schedule: listen to Rush at 9 and taking a walk at noon. Prayers up for the big guy - dear Lord please take care of him, your will be done.
Rush is not gone and prayfully will not be so soon.
This is not the time for requiem .
It’s in his contract! ;)
Rush, you have our prayers. My wife and I treasure your friendship though we have never met. God keep and heal you, dear friend.
One of his original syndicated stations was WXYT in Detroit. Day one I was a listener
Rush prayers are going to be said daily to keep you strong to get healthy and continue leading the way! We all have your back!
He followed local host Mark Scott
In listening to Rush’s announcement, it was so heartwarming to hear Rush talk of his own spiritual journey. It’s so clear that God is not done with him yet....
I have listened to Rush for over 20 years. He has always treated his audience as his family. My family will pray for him daily and never give up that prayer vigil for him.
Stay strong my friend and even though we have never meet it always seems that we have. God Bless you and the service you have given all of us .
With regard to his influence, Bill Whittle put it beautifully: Rush Limbaugh stands alone on Mount Olympus.
I’ve been listening to Rush since 1989. I once called and talked to him. I remember when he went deaf, and was concerned that his time on the radio was over.
I remember the day that the Republicans won control of Congress in the election of 1994, and Rush started his show with “I feel good” by James Brown.
This latest news saddens me. I have said a prayer for him.
I was just flipping channels and hit on Rush and within minutes I was hooked.
It was only a matter of weeks until Rush got on a week day 12-3 program, and because I was a salesman I could catch parts of his program while I drove to/from sales calls.
I've been part of Rush 24/7 from the beginning, Monthly pub, bought his books etal.
Prayers from all will occur, and the Will of God is going to happen.
I know that all FReepers feel the same and will send their prayers to their God.
I’ve been praying for Rush since the announcement yesterday, and am continuing to do so.
Joining in prayer with Fellow FReepers!
Rush is a fighter and has the money to go anywhere in the world for the best treatment available. I plan to pray for him daily and hope he achieves remission.
Bill and Hillary never left. Just sayin’.
But Rush rose through the Bush41 years before the Clintons even made the Washington scene. I remember trading emails with him on Compuserve back then.
My dear cousin was suddenly diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer about 8 years ago. She was never a smoker and seemed to never get sick. Her cancer had already spread to other organs (which will be a key factor in Rush’s prognosis). She was told there was no time for subtlety. She would have to start chemo and radiation at the same time.
She wanted to know the truth. She asked point blank. How much longer do you think I will live? Her doctor said 5% survive longer than three months.
My cousin was a woman of faith. “So you’re saying I have a chance?”
She and her husband took cruises and flew to see family (they were well off) and she had down times and then rally. She would have falls and need someone to pick her up.
She managed to last another 18 months before she passed away and we all felt blessed with God’s mercy both that she lived as long as she did and in her passing to a better beyond.
While I am prayerful and hopeful of a full recovery for Rush, I think if he goes down either the chemo or radiation paths, he’ll be too weak to do a three hour radio show very often. The energy vanishes so quickly. Perhaps, EIB should groom a substitute (like Johnny Carson had Joey Bishop all those years) or maybe have James Golden prepped and ready to take over after the first hour.
Anyway, Mark Davis is a genuinely nice guy and it is just like him to pen this. I wish him and Rush the best.
My ultra-liberal sister’s ex-husband put me on to Rush in his first year of national broadcasting. Since then, Rush has been as much a part of my life as any bone in my body. Live long and prosper, Rush!
It took me a while to start listening to Rush because I fell for the mainstream media campaign. If you didn’t listen, all you heard were the jokes and slurs. He was a Nazi gasbag, he raged at callers, he was a shock-jock, he was grotesquely obese.
Then I started to hear him accidentally on the car radio. He was on the same station as the Dodger games, and in the morning when I started the car, his show blatted at me, and I’d automatically switch away. Then one morning I heard his parody of the Beach Boys’ “Barbara Ann,” except it was “Bomb Iraq,” and it was funny. And I listened for a few minutes, and discovered that nothing the mainstream media said was true. Rush was punctiliously polite to every caller. He gave a hearing to every point of view, rather than instantly cutting off those who disagreed. He was FUNNY!
It was the start of my transformation of beliefs, the beginning of my discovery of the false front of the mainstream media.
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