In a meeting with our GM at the time, Bill Kniesly, we discussed that the Rush Limbaugh show was available to St. Louis market stations. We agreed to give it a listen to see if we thought it would fly in this market. Rush already had a reputation for being somewhat outlandish and we weren't sure if our listeners could handle him.
I got the satellite coordinates and dialed up his show for an audition. I had not ever heard Rush before. After listening to the first hour of his show that day, I went in to get Bill. I told him..."You have to hear this. And we have to carry this show." I had no interest in, and really didn't care about, the political position presented at that time. I just told him that it was the most well-produced and entertaining radio talk show I had ever heard. There was a laugh every few minutes...some politically-based...some not. It was a talk show that sounded a lot like an old DJ-based show because of the production values. He had a music bed for all of his regular features...Clarence "Frogman" Henry and "Ain't Got No Home" for the Homeless Update comes to mind.
We signed a contract and carried it for several years until the call came one day that Rush, and his EIB network, had made a deal with KMOX. That was astonishing to us as KMOX had promoted itself in the years before as having all "locally-produced" programming in a shot at syndicated shows. Rush broke that ice.
Rush, having grown up in Cape Girardeau, knew very well how KMOX was the "big dog" in the St. Louis market. It was about this time (in my humble opinion) that Rush's show changed from a fun 3-hours to one of mostly politics spiced up with his catch-phrases and political rants.
One thing is for certain Rush, and a few others, have dominated network radio and have kept AM radio on the map for the early part of the 21st century. Who fills that void? It will be interesting to see if anyone can. RIP to Rush Limbaugh - a radio legend.
