It is hard to say something about Rush Limbaugh that hasn’t already been said, but I’ll try.

I was there on the day of his debut.

I was working at WPBR, an ocean-front radio station in Palm Beach, Florida. It was August of 1988 and I was doing one of a number of commercial radio gigs while in college. At WPBR, I did news on the hour but also ran the board. This particular day, a new and different show was debuting at noon – a talk show with a point of view.

For me, the news of this new show was a technical headache. I had to capture the commercials off of the satellite for the Associated Press newscast to run through the Limbaugh show. I also had to frantically change satellite frequencies at the top of the hour and six minutes after the top to get the Limbaugh frequency. These were sharp little dials at floor level on the receiver. It might sound easy, but in the days of tape, it wasn’t.

Before Rush, talk radio was different. Talk radio was about cotton-candy issues.  Larry King on the Mutual Broadcast Network hosted an overnight parade of callers talking about pets, childhood memories, landscaping, and just how they were doing. Scores of local talk show hosts – like Perry Marshall at KDKA in Pittsburgh – entertained with friendly chat, the sweet cotton candy that dissolves away quick into meaninglessness.

That was radio B.R. – Before Rush.

HEARTBREAKING: Rush Limbaugh Dies at 70

Running the board at WPBR on this August debut day, I could tell immediately this new brand of talk was revolutionary. It was listening to Sgt. Pepper for the first time. It was the first ride on the looping coaster that defied gravity. It was bold and brash and, most of all, it spoke to Americans about what America was. Rush spoke to what it means to be American, and what America means as an idea.

Rush was the “fairness doctrine” and mush-mouth radio put out to pasture. On Saturday the week of Rush’s debut, I would produce a radio show called “Our Eyes” where the elderly called into the eye-doctor host to talk about vision issues.

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