re: The 1st Time You Listened to Rush Limbaugh

Got to interview Rush on the air in 1988 when the owner of our Austin, TX AM station decided to carry his show right in the middle of the 24/7 reel-to-reel delivered beautiful music format.

Part of the affiliation agreement was that the local station would get a localized 10-15 minute phone interview with him.

Only problem was that this was Austin, Texas, USA. Even back then, I think that the awkward station engineer (me) was the only conservative they could round up within 100 miles.

So-o-o, on the mic I went. Even back then, I knew who he was and what he was about to do for talk radio, so my part of the interview was mostly "so, um, wow, like you're Rush Limbaugh..."

I recall him being gracious to this rank-amateur. Later in my career, I had occasion to visit his original California anchor-station KFBK. My engineer-host understood when I requested to sit in Rush's chair for a while.

God bless you Mr. Rush Hudson Limbaugh III