Feb 27, 2021
Rush Knew “Radio”
Before he knew about William F. Buckley and Ronald Reagan … Rush knew about Guglielmo Marconi – the man who INVENTED RADIO in 1909 or thereabouts. Before he knew Politics … Rush Limbaugh knew “Radio”.
Those early years as “Rusty Sharpe” all alone in his Dad’s little AM station – KGMO – on a hilltop on the outskirts of Cape Girardeau … Rush got to understand how it all works. How you talk into a microphone and your voice and/or music can be heard thru receivers dozens of miles away … or around the world if your transmitters are powerful enough.
He knew what “a megahertz” was. What “50,000 Watts” meant. He actually knew How It All Works.
Today’s Rush Wannabees might know how to turn their “mic” on … and when their producer / engineer on the other side of the glass counts down with their fingers and points at them … that means “start talking” … You Are ON.
Rush knew how to “run the board” … all those buttons and dials and meters … He learned that stuff spinning records at 6 AM on Winter mornings in the late 1960s … all alone at KGMO in a small building on a hilltop in Cape Girardeau.
Think that scene in Oh Brother Where Art Thou when the three convicts come upon the small shack in the middle of nowhere that is “a radio station”.
Like those early pioneers in NASCAR who were “gearheads” / “motorheads” first then “drivers”. Those guys – Petty, Johnson, Pearson, Roberts, Jarrett, Yarborough – understood the internal combustion engine. They could strip down an engine … take apart a carburetor and an alternator … and put them all back together running smoother than before.
They knew Why an automobile does what it does. Rush understood Why a radio works … and how to make “radio” work the best.
Radio is a one-sense medium … Hearing. It’s that VOICE that works the magic. You don’t need “good hair” or perfect teeth or be handsome or sexy looking … it’s not what the audience actually sees … it’s what that VOICE conveys to their imagination. Rush learned that in his teens and used that understanding for 32 years on EIB.
Could Wolfman Jack or Howard Stern or Don Imus or Larry King … or Rush have been the same success on TV? Probably not. You’ve heard the line … “He has a face made for Radio”.
Talk to “real radio guys” about Rush. Regardless of their politics, they were in awe of his ability to maximize what “Radio” can do. Real Radio Guys knew that Rush Knew “Radio”.
He had a rare sense of “timing”. As he was approaching “an obscene profit break” he could use his voice to hold you over until he returned.
Rush understood HOW it works … and WHY it works.
As Rush’s ” cancer & chemo” was taking its toll on him in those final weeks … it never took his “voice”. Rush always sounded like Rush. … to the very last show.
Whether you were driving across The Fruited Plain or at home or in an office … you reacted to that oh-so-familiar Bumper Music … and Rush’s oh-so-familiar voice
… from the EIB Southern Command Center in Sunny South Florida.
His enemies never “got it”. They never understood that Yes… Rush understood politics … and Rush had a wicked sense of humor … and Rush ABSOLUTELY truly believed in what he said … but his secret weapon was …
Rush Knew Radio. … and now You know.
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More of BobLee’s Rush Chronicles – HERE!
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