Read Online Rush Limbaugh: An Army of One by Zev Chafets - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Zev Chafets
Tags: United States, General, Biography & Autobiography, Editors; Journalists; Publishers, Political, Entertainment & Performing Arts, Biography, Political Science, Performing Arts, Political Ideologies, Conservatism & Liberalism, History & Criticism, radio, Radio broadcasters, Limbaugh; Rush H, Conservatives
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were synonymous with stupidity. A ringing “Dadelut! Dadelut! Dadelut!” introduced news updates on what he regarded the absurdities of liberal activism. Liberals, of course, hated him, which he found inspiring. When they attacked him as a dimwit, he responded by claiming that he was so much smarter than his critics that he could vanquish them “with half my brain tied behind my back, just to make it fair.”
Bruce Marr saw that Limbaugh had the ability to go beyond Sacramento and introduced him to Ed McLaughlin, the former head of ABC Radio. McLaughlin had started his own company, and he was syndicating the Dr. Dean Edell Show nationally. He agreed with Marr that Limbaugh had the potential to go national as well. McLaughlin offered a partnership. Rush brought in his brother, David, to work out the details. The arrangement made a fortune for both Limbaugh and McLaughlin, and revolutionized the style and content of American radio.
But first Limbaugh had to get out of Sacramento. His contract with KBFK stipulated that he could leave only to accept an offer by a top-market station. But city stations wanted local programming, not shows aimed at a national audience. McLaughlin came up with an ingenious solution. Limbaugh would go to WABC in New York, where he would do a local program, essentially for free. In return, the ABC Radio Networks would carry a second, national program each day on its affiliates.
The New York City show started in July 1988. A month later, on August 1, the national program followed on fifty-six stations in second-tier markets with a total of about 250,000 listeners. The EIB Network was on the air. It had been twenty-one years since Rusty Sharpe’s first show in Cape Girardeau. He was thirty-seven years old, and he had finally made it to what he hoped would be the big time.
CHAPTER FOUR
THE CITY
L imbaugh came to New York with trepidation. “I decided to leave Sacramento in April but didn’t go till July,” he told a reporter for the Sacramento Bee . “I realized that everything I’d been searching for in seventeen years I’d found in Sacramento in the last year and a half. Friends. Security. Stability. A house.” After being fired in Pittsburgh, Limbaugh had retreated to Cape; in Sacramento, with New York looming, he once more holed up. “I got so depressed, I guess you could say I sat around the house in my underwear, sulking,” he said.
Bryan Burns had moved to New York. One Saturday morning he got a call from Limbaugh. “You’re not going to believe this,” Rush said, “but we’re moving to New York City. Can you help us find a place to live?”
“Rush and Michelle came to town, and my wife and I took them all over the city looking at places,” says Burns. “Finally we found an apartment near Lincoln Center for twenty-seven hundred dollars a month.” The flat was still occupied and wouldn’t be ready for a few months, so Ed McLaughlin found Limbaugh a suite at the Parker Meridien Hotel.
Professionally Limbaugh was more than ready for the big city. His technique and timing, honed during thousands of hours on the air, were flawless. Studio engineers at ABC were impressed to find that he knew almost as much about the latest broadcasting technology as they did. His voice, shorn of its regional accent through practice, was a fine instrument. And he had a great selection of bumper music. Like Lee Atwater, George H. W. Bush’s hard-driving political consultant, Limbaugh understood that cool music could make a conservative message seem contemporary and energetic.
All these tools were necessary for success but not nearly sufficient. New York was full of disc jockeys with musical taste, good voices, and broadcasting chops, but no one—in Manhattan or anywhere else—was doing unabashed, balls-to-the-wall right-wing satire. That was Limbaugh’s niche, and he seized it immediately.
Limbaugh brought with him from Sacramento the same style he uses today—unscripted, free-flow
Bruce Marr saw that Limbaugh had the ability to go beyond Sacramento and introduced him to Ed McLaughlin, the former head of ABC Radio. McLaughlin had started his own company, and he was syndicating the Dr. Dean Edell Show nationally. He agreed with Marr that Limbaugh had the potential to go national as well. McLaughlin offered a partnership. Rush brought in his brother, David, to work out the details. The arrangement made a fortune for both Limbaugh and McLaughlin, and revolutionized the style and content of American radio.
But first Limbaugh had to get out of Sacramento. His contract with KBFK stipulated that he could leave only to accept an offer by a top-market station. But city stations wanted local programming, not shows aimed at a national audience. McLaughlin came up with an ingenious solution. Limbaugh would go to WABC in New York, where he would do a local program, essentially for free. In return, the ABC Radio Networks would carry a second, national program each day on its affiliates.
The New York City show started in July 1988. A month later, on August 1, the national program followed on fifty-six stations in second-tier markets with a total of about 250,000 listeners. The EIB Network was on the air. It had been twenty-one years since Rusty Sharpe’s first show in Cape Girardeau. He was thirty-seven years old, and he had finally made it to what he hoped would be the big time.
CHAPTER FOUR
THE CITY
L imbaugh came to New York with trepidation. “I decided to leave Sacramento in April but didn’t go till July,” he told a reporter for the Sacramento Bee . “I realized that everything I’d been searching for in seventeen years I’d found in Sacramento in the last year and a half. Friends. Security. Stability. A house.” After being fired in Pittsburgh, Limbaugh had retreated to Cape; in Sacramento, with New York looming, he once more holed up. “I got so depressed, I guess you could say I sat around the house in my underwear, sulking,” he said.
Bryan Burns had moved to New York. One Saturday morning he got a call from Limbaugh. “You’re not going to believe this,” Rush said, “but we’re moving to New York City. Can you help us find a place to live?”
“Rush and Michelle came to town, and my wife and I took them all over the city looking at places,” says Burns. “Finally we found an apartment near Lincoln Center for twenty-seven hundred dollars a month.” The flat was still occupied and wouldn’t be ready for a few months, so Ed McLaughlin found Limbaugh a suite at the Parker Meridien Hotel.
Professionally Limbaugh was more than ready for the big city. His technique and timing, honed during thousands of hours on the air, were flawless. Studio engineers at ABC were impressed to find that he knew almost as much about the latest broadcasting technology as they did. His voice, shorn of its regional accent through practice, was a fine instrument. And he had a great selection of bumper music. Like Lee Atwater, George H. W. Bush’s hard-driving political consultant, Limbaugh understood that cool music could make a conservative message seem contemporary and energetic.
All these tools were necessary for success but not nearly sufficient. New York was full of disc jockeys with musical taste, good voices, and broadcasting chops, but no one—in Manhattan or anywhere else—was doing unabashed, balls-to-the-wall right-wing satire. That was Limbaugh’s niche, and he seized it immediately.
Limbaugh brought with him from Sacramento the same style he uses today—unscripted, free-flow
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