Thank all of you for listening to this podcast. Were as you know, this podcast is devoted to russlan Ball, my hero, my friend, my boss, the greatest broadcaster in my opinion, whoever lived. And behind every great broadcaster, though there's an organization, there are people that make what happens happen. You don't just go into a room one day and decide, Okay, I'm gonna be a broadcasters. Somebody's there turns on the mic,
well okay, and here you are. Know this happens as a result of a lot of hard work, not just on the part of what in the industry is referred to as talent. That would be what wrestling ball would be the talent, But behind every person that's the talent, there have to be so many other jobs. And people don't really realize a lot of people don't that are not in this industry. What it takes to have a
very successful radio career. Well, you need people that have a radio stations number one, and they want to put you on those radio stations. But you are not going to those radio stations yourself. There are people that do that for you. There are people who sell your program for you so that you have advertisers. There are people who market your program for you so that the country knows who you are the way that you want to be framed. There are people that do so many jobs,
and we have what in arnest is called traffic. Most people wouldn't know what that is. What traffic deals with the commercials, how they're placed, where they are placed. We have engineers like the great engineers like Brian Johnson and Mike Mamone, who you hear from at some point in this podcast series. But then there are the executives, the guys that say yay, the guys are saying nay, the
guys that make things happen behind the scenes. And in the radio industry, there is a man and I've referred to him in earlier episodes who would be the equivalent of a household name. You cannot be in the radio industry or not know who he is because he is the most successful executive there is in the broadcast industry. He's brought more people that have talent to light. He is one of the nicest men you will ever meet in life, unless you cross him, and then he'll be
your worst enemy. He is um. People don't know the generosity of his spirit. Maybe I'll be able to get some of that out because I know some things about him over the years that a lot of people don't. But he was with Rush for the last twenty years or some more. And he also runs This will show you the stature the Radio Hall of Fame. He's a legend. His name is Craig Kitchen, and Craig is here with
us today. Whether you listened every day, you are at the E I B Network and the Russia Limball Program heard on over six hundred great radio stations where every now and then nation's leading radio talk show, the most eagerly inticipated program in em are the stories you've never heard from the people behind the scenes who knew him best and loved him most. Rushman War having more fundily human being, it could be allowed to have Rush Limbaugh, the man behind the Golden E I D Microphone, hosted
by James Golden. Through the Stand Up for Betsy Ross campaign, you changed the lives of dozens of hero families in need. The campaign benefited The Tunnels Are Towers Foundation Tunnel to Towers Bills mortgage free smart homes for our nation's most catastrophically injured veterans and first responders to give them their independence.
For gold star families and fallen first respond to families with young children, Tunnel to Towers pays off mortgages in full for these families and provides them with the comfort of a home when their world has literally been turned upside down. And thanks to this campaign to Stand Up for Betsy Ross campaign, you have seen to it that we have been able to send a charitable donation in
total of five million dollars to Tunnel the Towers. Your kindness, generosity and patriotism brought hope when it was needed most but more of America's heroes in their families need your support. Donate eleven dollars a month to Tunnel to Towers at T two t dot org. That's the litteral t the number two t dot org. So Craig, welcome, Thank you, very kind to where it's I'm not sure I deserve all of them, but thank you you do deserve all of them. Now let me ask you a question, Craig,
how did you meet rush? I met Russia? When Premier Networks obtain the distribution rights of Russia's program From Ed McLaughlin and the FM Media a financial transaction, the first one that really really put Russia Lumball's radio program value on the map for the industry. It gave ed McLaughlin the funds to retire very comfortably on It gave rush Uh an incredible stipend to continue wanting to be on
radio and to focus on it. And most importantly, it gave him the the underwire and the current and the background and the backbone to say, I can do this for as long as I want to, because I've got a company that's got my back and got my resources and has every last thing he needs. And that was Premiere,
and you founded Premiere Radio Networks. There were six of us that founded Premiere, and it took ten years of growth and hard work to be able to earn the trust of personalities like Russia Lumbaugh to be able to say, that's a company that I can be with that I know we'll have my back. How did you get in radio? I mean, how do you what's your story? I was an air personality in nineteen eighty one, in nineteen eighty two, and I was very mediocre when I was behind the microphone,
very mediocre. But by eighty three I had discovered that I was very good behind the scenes helping people realize their full potential, and so I took some time to learn how to sell advertising and how the radio industry worked, and by nine eight seven I had found half a dozen partners who wanted to make what in the radio industry we call a radio network, a place where air personalities like yourself could come and be their very best, and that radio network would find radio stations to be
heard on and advertisers to pay your paycheck. What was it like when you first met Rush? What what when you for the first time? It was in New York City and Rush was broadcasting that week from w ABC, And like a lot of individuals that come to New York City and go to work, Rush was suit and tie that day and very very formal and very focused
on his radio program. And we had arranged some time in the morning to have a meeting, and in that time when I met him, I had no idea how focused he was between eight thirty and noon when he first went on the air. But for some reason, the meeting time that he had set up was at ten thirty in the morning, and so I went to have a meeting thinking we're going to spend the next hour,
hour and a half talking until noon. Because Rush made it look and listen so easy that to anybody who ever has tuned in to listen to him, it sounds like it is a gift from God that the microphones open, the music plays, and he just starts talking to you as your best friend. I had no idea that he spent the better part of fifteen hours leading up to
that moment preparing for that show. So on that morning in New York City, I find the equivalent suit and tie for that, and I go to w ABC to meet the man I'm just about to sign a new four year agreement with and start working with. And I'm thinking, we've got the better part of ninety minutes just to get to know each other. And you find out very quickly you have about eight minutes, and those eight minutes
better counts. And so we had a great eight minutes together, and we understood that we were going to be working together again, and he made it very clear to me that he's got it really all figured out, and I just and I needed to find my groove and my rhythm and my relationship with the different staff members that he was working with at the time, but he could not have been warmer and more gregarious in that period
of time. Rush has an ability, when he meets somebody for the first time, to be singularly focused on you and make sure you feel like you are the single most important person in his mind. And you have that. So I left feeling absolutely fantastic. I'm sure you have felt that, and others who have appeared on this podcast is said the same thing. Do you know who else
that that very description. There's one other person I've heard that very description about Bill Clinton, that ability to focus in on you so clearly that you think you're the only one, You're the only one that exists, and and he's there for you every single moment. And you've got that, You've got that that ability to Craig, thank you. You know it's it's it's either in your nature's or not in your nature. I don't stop and take inventory of
myself that way. But um I certainly saw that and felt that in the first time that I got to meet Russian if I were of the attitude that my primary goal was to go in that studio every day and make sure that America heard everything I said. And acted on it. You know, the ratings of the show, which is Plumber. I think I just happened to be saying what a whole lot of people think they don't have a chance to say themselves. That's why they called
me the most dangerous man in America. As you know, on this series, we've been talking with some of Russia's friends, his colleagues, and family members. Today we have a very special guest on Russia, Limbaugh, the man behind the Golden the I B. Mike. He's a special friend of our program. In fact, he's come down to our Southern Command to interview Rush for his television show any number of times.
Every time it was like a family reunion, A dear friend to Rush, a dear friend to the Russia Limbaugh Program. Sean Hannity The Life of Russia Limbaugh, Chapter three, narrated by Sean Hannity. After during a painful year of college at Southeastern Missouri University, young Rush Limbaugh, he bid farewell to college life and then immersed himself into his next big radio job. After loading up his nineteen sixty nine Pontiac Lamans, Rush headed east with dreams of making it
big in the Iron City. D J Rusty Sharp from Cape Dorado, Missouri, was soon reborn as Bachelor Jeff Christie, first hosting an afternoon drive shift and later holding down the morning show on Wixie thirteen sixty, known as one of Pittsburgh's premier top forty radio stations, continues with much slid rock and goal seven three in the morning. I wish he saw Jeff Radio networked from sixte want to have a big hand for Mr and Mrs Arnold Feluci, a couple of new members for the Christie Radio network
this morning, celebrating refrigerator favorites. Jeff Christie lasted barely eighteen months on w i Z before he was fired. I was in the fall of nineteen seventy two over what were described as quote differences over format. His departure from Wixie thirteen sixty quickly led to a bigger opportunity for Rush. It's a k h Jeff Christie and in early nineteen seventy three, Crosstown Top forty competitor k q V Radio Well they hired him to be their new nighttime DJ.
That afforded Rush an even bigger platform and another opportunity to further develop his on air persona hey qu V three g K Jeff Christy Rocky Roll radio show Friday Night Johnson minutes away from forty four not stopping right out of statistics. Jeff Christie was beginning to hone future on air skills would eventually become the trademarks of Rush Limbaugh's excellence in broadcasting. Now, Rush would soon learn success in radio is kind of fickle, especially a station ownership
change his hands, and a dramatic turn of events. The lame duck k QUB management well, they pushed the new program director to fire Rush, and ninety days later Rush Limbaugh Jeff Christie was out of work. When I got fired, I thought I was finished. I'd given it a shot. D J didn't work out. I didn't want to do anything else. This has been my one passion. And then
a stinging rebuke that Rush would remember for decades. The station's general manager told the twenty something Rush Limbaugh that he would quote never make it in radio as an air talent, and that he should strongly consider the sales end of the radio business. I had an interview with a sales manager at the station that the guy was a genuine lunatic. He's I'm just me. I'm interviewing for the job, and he's yelling and screaming at me about what his demands will be and what they are, and
I said, he's not gonna face this every day. So, after three years of trying to make a go of it in Pittsburgh, while Rush was out of another radio gig, Feeling defeated and dejected, he returned to the security and comfort of his home in Cape Girardo, Missouri. Russia was down, but as we all know, far from out, his determination for success far outweighed the idea of failure. The long version here telling you that this has been That's why I'm so fortunate I've I was able to end up
doing what I think I was born to do. I've never had passion for anything else, I mean, career wise, like I've got for this. Not long ago, Mike Lindell, the inventor of My Pillow, and his team fit me for my very own my pillow. They also introduced me to their other incredible products, like their mattress topper, sheets, towels, slippers, and more. Sleep is important to me, and I assumed to you too. It's time you give my pillow a
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robes and waffle blankets. All My Pillow products come with a sixty day money back guarantee into promo code icon. That's I c o N. You've been with all of us for so long. Let me go back through that that day because that day was so profound. Like I said, you could you called us at different times. Dawn said, I didn't know until today that you had talked to Dawn the night before you talked to me that morning you talked to Brian. When did you find out what
was going on with Rusha's illness? And what was your reaction when you heard it? And who did you hear it from? I heard it from Rush and Catherine and I had heard it the week before and late in the week before, and so I learned in a very very difficult conversation from Rush that he had advanced lung cancer. And like you, we had seen some irregularities in his on air behavior and his availability in a couple of
weeks leading up to that. Rush is a very private person and if he chooses to take a day off, it's for a very important reason, and typically he does not need to tell you you're on an information need to know basis. But he had taken several days off over the last three weeks leading up to February three UM, and so late the week before we had an afternoon phone conversation, which is rare because Rush typically did not
like to use the telephone for conversations. Email was one form, text messaging may have been another form, but in this particular case, he had asked to have a phone conversation that afternoon, and so he shared the new news that he had advanced lung cancer and that he had been diagnosed not once but twice, to get a confirmation that he was dealing with that. In my time with Rush, I have learned to um work with him. When he
lost his hearing like you did. I have worked with him when he's had some problems with other parts of his body, you know, one of them being you know, as a man gets older in life, is your heart working regularly? What do you do in terms of good
heart health? All of those things, And now along I hear advanced lung cancer, and I also heard a confidence in his voice that he had been diagnosed once but twice, but that there was a good group of doctors, a team of doctors and scientists that were going to come to help him. And because I had lived through the worst of life with Rush in his health and a
couple of different capacities. To me, Rush was a man who had incredible mental capabilities if he put his into something, if you focused on it, if he looked for the answers. And I was right behind him and saying, we're going to get all the resources that you need for this, knowing full well that he had his wife Catherine to help him, that he had a good group of people
to go to. So he shared with me several days before I had the chance to share with you, and he asked me to maintain my quietness, And so I carried that conversation in my mind apart from any other human being until that Monday when he wanted to be
the one to share with you. And aside from you James, and and Don and Brian, who were the nucleus the family of four in the studio, there were twenty more people that are on our team and they're all over the United States, and he felt it was important to share the news simultaneously with each of you because just like he has relationships with you that are so uniquely special, he has the same with individuals in New York and in Los Angeles and and other parts of the United
States that will work together to make the program, the website, the Limball letter, all of those pieces. So that was the day, and we took into account everybody's schedule so that we could get everybody together before the show. You talk to everybody on the staff pretty much. I did, so I tried my best to get in touch with each of the staff without disclosing to them what we are going to be talking about, and without putting fear
and worry. You know, one of our team members was driving that morning six and a half hours to get to that meeting, Dawn, and the thing that carried in My mind was, you don't want to tell somebody news that is gonna hinder their ability to safely drive. You want her to arrive safely for that meeting. Um, So you find a balance, You find a way to get it done and so that everybody is there together for what it's going to be one of the toughest days of their life. Rush was so stoic when he did.
I mean you, you know, there was not a lot of emotion going on, except which I still to this day, can I believe that he actually apologized to us and said that he and said somehow he thought he was letting us down. That still blows my mind. But aside from that, he was he could have been. He was so stoic about it all. He started that conversation as if it was just a staff meeting, and we did never had staff meetings, right, right, two of them in
twenty five years of working together. Right. But you're right he was stoic that moment. Did you get any hint to whether he was scared or what? You had another conversation with him, do you? And and and like all of us, we all have different relationships with him. Your relationship with Rush was was different than ourards. It was you as business partner. Yes, So what was what did
you get from him? Um? I got the fact that he was resolved to get the best medical treat meant I got the fact or I got the sensation that he was up against something that he had never come up against before. That it was much more serious than losing his hearing and making your living as a talk show host. It was much more serious than um, worrying about family health history and having it happened to you. I got mom Millie died of lung cancer, and Milly was for those I I had. I had a lot
of great interactions with Milly. Milly would would mail me cousettes of music. We love talking about music together. Um. When Rush in the early days, we'd go like places, Milly would would be there and Milli and I always hung out. I remember rocking Kristen to sleep, David's daughter when she was a baby while I was, you know, speaking with Milly and I were having a conversation when I was It's like memories like that that that that
stick out. Would you remember James, for instance, the fact that Rush talked to his mom, Millie every day until she passed away. How many adult grown men who do not live in the same city with their mother as high profile and is busy and in demand as that gentleman was, would find time to talk to his mother
every day. Every day, I'd go home to visit my mother, and I'd get there to be a hundred and fifty books stacked up on the table in the dining room that she'd collected from people have been sending them in. And I said, Mother, I'm coming here to get away from the no son you, but these people love you. You got to send me those books, and you've got to sign them so I can send them back. I said, I'm not gonna have time to talk to you. That's okay.
You have to pay attention to these people. She just the fact that people all over the country loved her little boy just was was the greatest thing that ever happened to her, and she wanted to make sure that they knew that our family appreciated him. It's just like his dad all over. He is just the political his dad's alcoholic city and got his smart from his dad. And I must say silliness from me. Do you know I found a picture it's not It's not the greatest
picture in the world. But I found over the weekend a picture of Rush had had rented a yacht for those of us on the show, and we this was when we were still up at w ABC and and so it was party night around Manhattan in this yacht and Milly was there. And I found a picture of Rush giving Milly a kiss on the lips and it was just the sweetest I just couldn't believe. It's like, Wow, I don't even remember taking that picture, but I but
I found that picture. I'm glad you have that. Yeah. Yeah, So Craig, before we I want to get back to talking about Rush, but I also want to talk about something that you do. Okay, I'm gonna say one word and Africa. I've been to Africa. What have you done in Africa? What do you what brought you to Africa. One of the other radio personalities that I work with is a woman by the name of Delilah I Love Ali,
Glad to hear it. She has a radio program at night where she plays love songs and takes dedications and I've had the chance to work with her every day since two thousand and four. So for the last seventeen years or so. Uh Delilah took an interest in two thousand and four in a woman who wrote her a letter asking if she would adopt her black children from Africa, from Ghana, in particular, because she had heard that she was a white woman living in America who adopted black children.
And it's true. Delilah has adopted some fifteen children in her life and at that time she had adopted six. Delilah thought the letter might have been bogus, and later it turned out to be real. And when she confirmed that it was real, she actually traveled for the first time outside of the United States, da Ghana, and when she was there, she met eighty thousand Liberians, or a population of eighty thousand Liberians living in a refugee camp in Ghana who had fled a war in Liberia, a
civil war in Liberia, and fled for their lives. And she went on that trip and came back very much changed and said, these are people who live without fresh water. I have to get them freshwater. It's the only way
they're going to live. And she went on to tell me that in the little clinic that was there serving all of them, most of the children born in that community passed away because of poor hygiene, poor water standards, and so I from Afar helped Delilah find a way to raise the money to build water wells, and unfortunately they turned out to be saltwater wells and they were unproductive.
And so in two thousand and eight I took myself to Ghana four times to negotiate with the country of Ghana and the municipalities there to bring fresh water to that population of Liberians. Still to this day they drank fresh water for the equivalent of about cents per family per week because of the generosity of Delilah and the intestinal affortitude that I found and just making a deal that the country of Ghana could not refuse. Greig Kitchen is a deal maker. But we have a nickname for you.
Are you going to reveal it or am I? I think it's best coming from the hostess Ray Donovan. We called Craig Kitchen. Ray Donovan is Craig gets it done, okay, like Brian gets it done. Craig gets it done, but it's on a whole another level, okay. So I aspire to be as productive and get it done as Brian Johnson boy, I thought it would be helpful to define conservatism for people because nobody else was Everybody has assumed conservatisms this or about small government, less taxes and all
this stuff. But it's really about people. It's about our understanding of people. It's about our faith trust in people. It's about the knowledge that it is people that make a great nation, and it's ordinary people pursuing an accomplishing extraordinary things with the freedom the ambition to do so. And I just thought it needed to be pointed out the love and compassion that you in this audience have
shown consistently for thirty one years. Greig, you know you were the first person I guess that Catherine told to in our organization would Rush. What was that conversation. She was and is a very strong woman when it comes to so many things, including looking out for the best
interest of Rush. And she was very composed and very strong when she shared the news that Rush was carrying cancer, lung cancer, advanced lung cancer, and she wanted to be there start to finish for him in every way, to organize the doctors that he could learn from the visits, that he could take, the medicines that he might benefit from the care when he was away from his doctors,
that she could arrange for the first time. She thought about the fact that with all this high profile nature and the tabloid press being what it is, that maybe there was a need for security during this period of time to ensure that Russia's privacy was kept intact. Because she shares a lot of interest with Rush and the rest of the family at that time that his legacy was very important, she wanted to pay attention to that too.
So all of that came in the form of some of the first conversations that we had once Rush shared with us that he had advanced lung cancer. When did you find out that Russia had passed in the morning, two hours before our radio program was to go on. UM you had seen him um for the last time in the studio on a Tuesday afternoon, I think about three o'clock, and as you know, he wanted to be on the air on that Wednesday, wanted to be on the air that Thursday, on that Friday, and UM, each
day was a day by day circumstance. You know, there was not a guarantee that he was going to be on the air, but we had guest hosts that were on standby and back up and made available. And that morning, at about ten o'clock Eastern, I heard from Catherine that our beloved Rush had passed away. And UM, you prepare for that day that it comes. I wasn't prepared until that day comes, and then you're not prepared. Nothing prepares
you for that. You could be the strongest human being on the planet Earth, but nothing prepares you for that loss. I still I always till the day that, till the day that did you call me and you told me? I thought that he was going to recover? And then I back on some things, and I'm like, wait a minute, I look back when things differently, Like he would tell us, like we were in the studio and he would say things like, well, I'm I'm around in a second and I won my way to third and I was like, okay,
well pretty soon you'll be home. And I thought home was, um was you know, we missioned the recovery. And lately I've been wondering about that. I don't I wonder whether he knew what was going on and he's you know, and whether he was really indicating that he was really headed to to home to return that talent back from whence it came, you know, So I wondered about that. I had a dream about Russia the other night, which I still don't continue to quite understand. You know, he
didn't have the beard his earnest hemingway. Look, and in the dream, Brian and Don and we were talking with Rush and um Rush, it was like present. He said, Look, I'm gonna beat this. I'm I'm we don't you guys, stop worrying. I'm gonna beat this. Everything is gonna be fine. And it's just weird. I'm wondering, like, well, what does that dream about? And I think the more I think about that one, the more that that I think that he's telling us to do what we need to do,
that he's cool, that he's fine. You know, it's weird because he cared about Rush had an ego that that any great performance has to have. He had an ego about his profession. He had an ego about who he was in the radio business. He had an ego about everything that he did in the radio business. At three o'clock, that ego was gone, and you came first. Whatever it was, it was about you first and not not him. He was really like selfless. So he worried a lot about
like this notion that that he's letting us down. And he that's not the only time he said it. He said before that that he has a lot of people on the staff depending on him. Well, unlike a lot of organizations and a lot of businesses, there was no turn off at the E I B Network, And if it was, it was so rare we could count them on less than one hand. He never asked for our loyalty. It just came about because you witnessed him giving you his very best, and you wanted to give him your
very best in return. And you saw the talent on loan from God, and you wanted to raise your game to be able to do it in your own way, in your own capacity. And so no one left the
E I B Network. And so it's it would make sense that a man who is as humble as he is, who is appreciative of the fact that James you stopped your life and your career on air in the year two thousand to come back to help Rush when he was suddenly losing his hearing and he needed somebody that he could trust to talk to listeners and to help him in the privacy of a three hour studio, just
like he welcomed Brian, just like he welcomed On. That's a man who broadcast by himself for years, turned on his own broadcast equipment, figured it out his own microphone, found his way through compu serve and any other computer iteration. He loved his privacy, So for him to give up his privacy at a time when you sacrificed your own on your career was something he never forgot. And I think that he displayed it to you in the way that he wanted to apologize to you for letting you
down that day. He never let me down every but that day that he was so together when he shared the news with us at the beginning, I think he felt that he needed to be strong for us, and that was honestly what that was. He found it inside of himself to find the strength to be strong for us at a time when he knew we were going to be at our weakest. And yes, he went into the studio and he closed the door, and he composed himself and at twelve oh five and forty seconds, lights
on great program. Even with all the nervousness that he knew that a two forty five that afternoon he had to tell his best kept secret, the worst possible news he could to an audience, because he knew that a secret that pregnant, no matter how guarded the doctors were, the scientists were, it would get out. And he knows what would happen if he did not control the news. And he always believed to be honest with your audience.
Over the years, a lot of people have been very nice telling me how much this program is meant to them. But whatever that is, it pales in comparison to what you all have meant to me. And I can't I can't describe this, but I know you're there every day, I can see you. It's it's strange how I but I know you're there. I know you're there in great numbers, and I know that you understand everything I say. The rest of the world may not when they hear it express a different way, but I know that you do.
You've been one of the greatest sources of confidence that I've had in my life. I've had in my life. So what's Russia's legacy can be? He will be remembered as a man who on air changed the course of conversation in America. He will be known as somebody who
made conservatism cool. He will be known as somebody who opened up a genre of conversation on radio that spread to television, that spread to the Internet, that spread to the printed word, that spawned hundreds of books being published, where all of a sudden, you could have a healthy discourse or you could be proud of your conservative beliefs.
He'll be known as an entertainer who transformed the radio medium one more time by giving life not just two hundreds of radio stations, six hundred and thirty three of them to be exact when he passed away, but at the same time, the thousands of employees that worked at those stations, who have families who depended on the financial welfare of those radio stations, and the tens of thousands of businesses who advertised on those sixty three radio stays.
But maybe most of all, what he will be remembered about is the fact that one voice could communicate to thirty million people a week and share his opinions and leave them saying I just talked with my friend, and he just shared with me what he felt and made me feel like the world was going to be okay, that's how Russia is going to be remembered. That will be his legacy and we're watching it start to unfold.
This podcast included, which is why I'm so appreciative that you would bear your soul and get others like Brian and Don and Mike Mamone and the other guests that are going to be on this podcast to tell the real truth about just a magnificent man. And thank you. And speaking of bearing souls, I have one more thing to bear with you, uh Craig today, you you were to go to Guy for a lot of things, but you wanted just to go to Guy for tuning, You to go to Guy for follow us on the staff, right.
And I remember one day in particular, this was and and there are a few things I want to say about this because Don and Brian in the room when this happened, and Dawn is always mommy comfort and when she needs to be and don't take this seriously, and Brian is always stoic, and hey, just just whatever. So this particular day, I had three bad calls in the row, which never happens to me, but I had three bad calls in a row. What happened? Yeah, I mean it
just this sounds how did this happen? And Rush looks up and he's the I f B and says, listen, if that's the best that you can do, you might as well go home. And I freaked out, first of all, the freaking burn of the tears involuntarily, and then I said and then I got on the I f B and I said, well, I'm not going home, so you can forget that. And then I just wiped every call off the board and started all over again. But I
was furious. I was angry. I was hurt. I was furious, but at the same time, I was appreciative and here so so through that order. So Mommy Dawn said, stop it. It's okay. We're all family in here, and you know that he doesn't mean it to hurt you. Brian. It's like, I, come on, we've been through this before. Everybody has a minute. Everybody has a minute, and and just just chill out. I was still so hurt. I went back to my office and I picked up the phone and I called you, said, Craig,
You're not gonna believe what just happened. He just told me to go home. And and and you did what you always do. You listened, first listened, and then you said, listen, I understand. I understand how you would feel the way that you feel, which was the second thing, you understand him. And the third thing was kind of like without saying it, not get your hands back to work without without saying those words. But see, this is what this is. But
this is the thing that I walk away with. So after all the emotions subsided, this is what I come out of that story with. And this this wasn't like ten years ago, this was two years ago. And this is the one of the things that I love about Rush. This show two years ago, by the way, is five hundred shows ago. Think about we talked about Rush performing in front of a microphone for three hours a day, five days a week, fifty or fifty one weeks of
the year. You in the capacity that you have, look at a bank of telephones and the lines coming in, and you go through probably twenty or twenty five phone calls before there's one person that you believe is talking about what's interesting to Rush in an articulate form on a good cell phone connection that's never been on the radio before. That can make the host look good and can get to their points sixcinctly, and that's it. So
you run through the gauntlet and that fifteen hours a week. Right, it's a hard job, the one that you had, a really hard job of the one you had. But I digress. That was two years ago, and we had a great conversation on the phone, and you came back to work the next day. Right. And the thing that always blew my mind, and it still blows my mind, is that
Rush was always the show was the thing. The first time I ever screwed up with Rush was I thought the show was over because we were at the last at the end of the last commercial break, and so I was starting to prepare something for that we needed for post production. This was in our studios in New York, and all of a sudden, it's like a minute left and he's like looking for a phone call that had dropped her something. And I was caught totally flat footed.
And after that he called me in the studio he said, listen, I don't care what's gonna happen after the show. The show is the thing. Never ever let that happen again. Right, And so to me, it's the same thing all these years later, all that success later, the most important thing to him was that show and making every single solitary moment of that show happened. And that's the professional That's one of the reasons I love I love working with Rush and I love him because he always was that.
He always set that bar of excellence when he said excellence in broadcasting, and he came up with that as the slogan for the network that he wanted to do. He meant it. He wanted everything to be excellent. And so I will say and close that with you this way, Craig, your career has been one of excellence. And and don what is it that's Donna and Brian had been in the room all this time, By the way, what is it that you want to say? Don wait, wait, get
a microphone, Come and get to a microphone. Boss. Why don't you ask Craig a k A. Ray Donovan if he has been a firsthand knowledge of how tough it is to be a call screener, because you just did. You can't ask somebody to do something for a living if you don't try it yourself. I know what kind of official recorder of the radio program I could be I don't dare try to do what Dawn did, although I studied it intensely to understand every tool that she
needed in her undivided attention. When you translate the phone calls from a caller calling in with a deep accent, and Rushi needs it in real time to be able to hear those words and read those words, and read the emotion in those words, so that on the air. Because the show is the thing and excellence is the thing, Rush did not want to delay his response because he had an audience expectation to meet. Right, we're having a conversation. You hear me, I hear you. The same thing is
true with Brian's expertise in the studio as well. How do you, as a broadcast engineer, put a man on the air who has lost the ability to hear himself, let alone any other sound effect or voice in the world,
and make him sound like he is present with that? Right, James, your job was one that I actually could at least audition for, and I saw it as being a place where humanity came into contact with the program in a I did not learn how to do that so that I could help you in a world that transformed from being landline to cell phone, from being one conservative talk program to fifteen on the air in any given day, where the listeners are actually more informed and smarter than
ever before. When the number of opposing liberals who wanted to get on the air and get past you the gatekeeper to embarrass the host. Occasionally Rush would take a day off and allow Todd Herman to fill in for him. Occasionally James Golden A K A bow snrdly deserved to take a day off so somebody could fill in for you. I was happy to do it. Thank you. Yeah, how was it? Did you like it? You felt, at the end of three hours as if you were emotionally exhausted.
You felt like you had just done battle in meeting eighty or ninety people for the first time on a phone call and got them queued up, and maybe, if you were lucky, nine of them would be on the air over the course of three hours, if were lucky. But a fresh had a day and the monologues were going in is in, his witticisms were happening, and he
was firing on all twelve cylinders. Maybe only four phone calls would get in, But you didn't worry about the fact that you just put all that effort into getting the best callers because you knew that he was absolutely in command of what needed to happen. Yeah, and so the excellence wasn't just for the radio program, the Russian Bull Show, greatest radio program that ever existed. The organization that you built amazing, the organization that still stands today
even though you formed a new organization amazing. Thank the team of people that we got to be with totally amazing, all four. But more importantly than that one put than any of that to me, Greg, is that any time that I needed to have a friend that I knew had my back, I could call you when you always there and you always had my back. And so thank you trusting me, Craig, all of that. More than anything else, I mean you, to me, you had the single greatest
radio executive that ever lived. And that's all cool, that's all well and good. I don't think that impresses God. I think that God gets impressed by what you do for you fellow man, and the way you treat people, and Craig, when it comes to that, you have no second. Thank you, Thank you, thank you, James, thank you very much. I'm I'm truly humbled, ladies and gentlemen. I I actually never thought this would happen, um, and I am I am truly gratified to to all of those responsible for it.
And the list is long. I'd like to start with how this radio program actually started. Five years ago. I was brought to New York by Ed McLaughlin to whom I probably owe everything as far as this national career of mine has has gone. And we wanted to try something that everybody in the business said wouldn't work. We were going to syndicate a national program in the daytime, without local issues, without local phone numb Bruce and so forth,
and nobody in the business thought it would work. And today, if I might say, most radio stations looking to succeed are looking to syndicated programming for their salvation. And Ed McLaughlin is the man responsible for this, and I would like to tip my hat to him tonight for the courage to take on that which nobody thought could be done.
I would also like to thank the American people. I have often been asked to go speak to associations, broadcast associations, and I've I've always turned down the request because I don't know what I would say to them. I say what I say to the American people. In any chance I have a chance to speak to them, I do, and I am so grateful and so honored for the
the overwhelming change in my life that they have brought. Uh. Regardless of what I mean to them, I am certain that I will never mean as much to them as they mean to me. When I moved to New York, I didn't plan on becoming a political spokesman, and fact politics X was the last thing I factored in in determining whether or not I would be a success. I was coming to be on radio and media guy, and
I love radio. I do television too, But that microphone is right here in that cameras twenty feet away, and there's intimacy on the radio, and there's naturalness on the radio that can never be replicated on TV. TV is the medium of our time, There's no question. But I am proud to be part of the marvelous resurgeons of radio as a political force in this country. Four years ago, when people went to vote, people said, oh my gosh,
there aren't enough people voting. There's apathy. The people don't care today, the Congress of the United States is attempting to shut talk radio up because people care too much, and I am proud to be a part of the Thanks for listening to this the third episode in our twelve part series Russ loom Law The Man Behind the Golden E I B Microphone, And thanks to our guest today Craig Kitchen, join us for episode for you won't want to miss it coming up next week, David Limbaugh.
Russia Limbaw The Man Behind the Golden E I B Microphone is produced by Chris Kelly and Phil Tower, the best producers in America, production assistants Mike Mamone and the executive producers Craig Kitchen and Julie Talbot. Our program distributed worldwide by Premier Networks, found on the I Heart Radio app or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. This is James Golden, This is both Nervely, This is James Golden.
I'm honored to be your host for this in every single episode of Russia Limbaugh The Man Behind the Golden E I B Microphone, and thank you for being with us.