June 16, 2021 • 45 mins
Host James Golden shares very personal, never-before-told stories about Rush Limbaugh’s kindness and strength of character that his most loyal listeners - even many of Rush’s closest friends and family - have probably never heard. He’s also joined by staff from two radio stations inside the EIB Network, who personally witnessed Rush’s charitable nature in their own towns after tragedy struck, without any recognition or fanfare. This episode also includes an appearance from radio and tv personality Glenn Beck, who narrates a special feature dedicated to the early days of the national Rush Limbaugh Show. Additional audio courtesy of KZRG radio in Joplin, MO, and WDAY radio in Fargo, ND.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This episode of Russ Lumbaugh, The Man behind the Golden
E I B Microphone, includes an interview with Chad Elliott
recorded just three weeks ago in preparation for this release.
It's with great sorrow we share that Chad Elliot passed
away in June twelfth, just prior to this episode's release.
Our prayers and thoughts with Chad's family, friends, co workers,
(00:23):
and other loved ones at this very sad time. Um
Rush Lumba used to refer to himself as just the
guy on the radio, and to be fair, he was
on the radio, but he was far more than just
a guy. Over the years, as many of you know,
Rush raised a lot of money for various non profit
(00:44):
and charitable organizations, from relief to families of fallen heroes,
to Leakemia research and more. But those are things you've
heard about on the air. Those are the things that
Rush talked about. What you don't know, because Rush never
talked about it on the air, are the deeds that
he did for people off the air. And you know
he never wanted credit. He always would tell people or
(01:07):
tell those that he gave so generously too. Don't tell
anybody he didn't want people to know because it was
from his heart. Today, we're going to explore that generosity
that was so prevalent in Russia's character, and I'd like
(01:28):
to start this episode by telling you my own story
when Rush first came to w A b C. Before
the Russia Limbas Show became the mega success that it was,
when it was just the radio show with fifty six
stations and most people didn't know who Russia Limba was.
(01:48):
Yet Russia's spirit was still the same. I know this
because I'm one of the people that was affected by it.
I was a young guy in my third piece. For
those of you operating under the illusion that radio is
a high paying industry, well, when you're successful, it can
be very rewarding. But like a lot of media jobs,
(02:10):
if you're working behind the scenes, you're not making a
heck of a lot of money. You do it because
you love it. Well, I was one of those kids.
I loved what I did. I was in the media
and I wasn't making a hell of a lot of money.
Found myself in debt, so on the line talking to
bill collectors, not even aware that others could hear me.
(02:33):
And one of those others that did hear me was Rush.
I get a call over the intercom, James, can you
come back to my office? It's Rush. So I go
back to his office and he asked me to shut
the door. Rush said to me, you know, I'm not
(02:55):
trying to get in your business. I'm not trying to
intrude in your personal life. But I couldn't help. But
over here parts of your phone call, and I just
want to ask you, is everything okay? Are you? Are
you okay? Of course I'm embarrassed. You know who wouldn't be,
(03:15):
But I fessed up, you know, you know Russia. Look,
things are okay, but I'm having a little problem, you know,
money problems here and there. And he persisted, well, how
much you're gonna know for? How much are you in
debt for? And I reluctantly told him the amount. It
was about five thousand dollars on it all. And I
(03:35):
want to be really clear about something. Five thousand dollars
to me then was a lot of money to me.
Now it's a lot of money. He said, Look, I
want to tell you, Look, don't panic over it. Things
will work out. You're gonna be okay, and and don't
sweat it. Okay, so that little embarrassing session was over.
Go back to work, and let me just make it clear.
(03:57):
I wasn't working for Russia at this point. I hadn't
even been rotated on his shows. This was during the
stage when I was still just feeding in news stories
once in a while that I thought he would be
interested in. The Next day, I'm sitting in the newsroom
in a calm, James, can you come back to my office.
It's Rush. I go back to his office. Russ has
(04:24):
shut the door. I shut the door, and he hands
me an envelope. Is He says, this is for you.
This is uh, this is not alone. This is a gift.
(04:46):
Please don't tell anybody, but I did this for you.
But I'm doing this because you're a good guy, and
good guys deserved to have good things happened to him
once in a while. M open up the envelope and
there's to check in there for five thousand dollars. Rush.
(05:10):
I wasn't working for Rush. Rush wasn't trying to buy
my friendship because we were already friends. Rush was generous
to his heart, into his soul. It is something that
I will never forget. It is something that I have
(05:31):
tried in my way to make sure that I have
the same kind of generosity to people that I see
that are in need where I can help, because it
affected me so deeply. Now I want you to think
about something I've watched, and I've heard all of these
(05:52):
accusations about Rush Limbob from his political detractors over the years,
people that don't know him, people that never listened to him.
And one of the things that particularly has upset me
over the years as a black guy, as an African American,
a proud African American, is to hear my friend Rush
(06:17):
called a racist. This is a man who didn't have
a racist bone in his body. He wanted his staff
to be excellent, so he got excellent people. It just
so happened we had a very diverse staff. Gay, straight, black, white, Asian.
(06:41):
Didn't matter as long as you were good at what
you were doing. But Russia's heart was extended to people
that he could help. Here's this little black kid from
Queens we met just months before. This is before Rush
the multimillionaire. This is before Rush the guy that's the
king of the broadcast world. This is a guy who's
(07:01):
struggling to make it up the chain himself. Rush Limbaugh
had one of the most generous hearts of anyone I
have or will ever meet in my life. And that's
my story. Whether you listened every day you are at
(07:24):
the E I V Network and the Rush Limball program
heard on over six hundred great radio stations for every
now and then nation's leading radio and talk show. The
most eagerly anticipated program in Americans are the stories you've
never heard from the people behind the scenes who knew
him best and loved him most. Rush lim Ball having
more fundly human being, it could be allowed to have
Rush Limbaugh, the man behind the Golden E I V Microphone,
(07:48):
hosted by James Golden. Hey, James Golden here, you know
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(08:53):
that's my pillow dot Com promo code icon. You know,
national disasters are a terrible thing for all those affected,
all those that get swept away in their miss and
almost ten years ago to the date, there was a
(09:16):
natural disaster that will never forget Joplin, Missouri. Today, we're
gonna be speaking with Chat Elliott, who's the operations manager
of k z r G in Joplin, because the story
involves Rush, Rush and Catherine. Chad, Welcome to our podcast series.
(09:38):
It's an otter to be here. Thank you so much
for having me today. Well, Chad, let me, let me.
Let's talk about what happened. You were working at the
news talk Giant in Joplin, Missouri, k z RG. Tell
us what happened ten years ago and e f five
tornado towards Chaplin apart. About a quarter of town was destroyed.
(10:01):
A hundred and sixty one people passed away parish that day,
and it happened so quickly and there was really no
time to prepare. We were on the air that day
telling people take cover. That looks to be a pretty serious,
bad situation. Uh, but we had no idea of what
(10:23):
we were going to really see in the coming minutes.
It happened about five pm. It was a Sunday, was
and the Joplin High School UM graduation was happening that
day at our college here in town, Missouri, Southern State University.
(10:45):
And just as the graduation was ending and people were leaving,
and the tornado sirens went off and people were getting
in their cars trying to leave, and there were people
in Pact did at that time they were struck by
the tornado. Um, you just don't realize how bad a
(11:07):
situation is. You know, you see it on TV, you
hear about it on the radio, about devastation that comes
from hurricanes and tornadoes, But until you've been in a
situation like that or at ground zero, you don't really
you can't really fathom what it's like. I just remember
(11:29):
being on the air and just trying to warn people,
and the phone calls started coming in. People were panicked.
You had you could hear it in their voices that
there was something really really wrong that or that had
taken place in Joblin. They would tell us the hospital
was wiped out, the hospital's gone, and you're thinking the hospital.
(11:49):
Wait a minute, wait, well, how do you cope with that?
How did people cope with their hospital being destroyed in
the middle of this horrific tornado. It was chaos, utter chaos.
People were uh, just trying to get well, really trying
to get out of their homes. There are a lot
of people trapped in their homes at this point. Thankfully
we have a second hospital, we have to. We have Freeman,
(12:12):
and we have Mercy here in Chown in town, but
at the time it was Mercy St. John's and St.
John's was wiped out. I was destroyed. Um. Just horrific situation.
I remember trying to get home. My home was struck
and I'm trying to get home because I was on
the air telling this story, letting people know to take cover,
(12:33):
and my wife sent me a text message, Um, it said, honey,
I love you. I see the tornado, and then that
was it. That was the last thing I heard from
my wife until I could get home. It took me
thirty minutes, and I only live about three minutes from
our radio station, so it took me thirty minutes to
(12:55):
get home. Because power lines were down, I had to
park my car, I had to shim me underpower lines.
And I went through the destroyed hospital and I saw
people leaving that hospital in backs of pickup trucks. Uh.
There were nurses holding uh saline bags in the air
over these people while they're trying to load them in,
(13:15):
and people were more bloodied. It was it was like
a war zone, is the best way I could describe it.
So I'm making my way through this situation here. I'm
trying to find out do I have a home, Do
I have a wife? Do I have a daughter? Still,
and trying to get through town. And I go through
the hospital, and I hear the oxygen shooting into the air,
(13:40):
uh and natural gas also shooting into the air. You
can hear so candlestick waiting to go up if a
spark was were to happen. At that point, I noticed
that this this park. All the grass was gone. The
tornado sucked all the grass off the ground. It was
just as mud at this point. And I just remember
(14:04):
vivid things like that popping back into my mind here
ten years later. So I finally make it up to
my neighborhood and the homes are gone. So I keep
walking a little bit further, a little bit further, and
I see, okay, the homes are totally gone at one
end of my street. And then I start seeing some
homes that are still standing. I get to my home.
(14:26):
The roofs ripped off, and my wife is standing with
our daughter in the middle of the street. Thank god
they survived, but our home obviously was destroyed. Many people
didn't survive that day. The building is gone, joshable, people
(14:47):
trapped in their cars. I see cars scrumpled. The building
is just the windows are blown out. Oh my lord,
we've got power lines down all along here on Range Line. Uh.
They definitely people need help here tonight. Good Will is destroyed.
There are buildings missing, Josh. Right now, I see water
shooting up the building right now. There there's so much damage.
(15:08):
I cannot stress it enough. Please, if you don't need
to be out tonight, stay home, power lizer down everywhere.
There are people that are there have got to be
injured right now. There are probably people's topitalities right now.
People are trapped and buildings. There are Billy's missing that
used to be here. They're totally gone, wiped away from
the foundation. And this is a major hit. We have
taken a major hit here in the city of Joplin,
(15:30):
and there are people that are needing help. Sixty one
people died, many many others injured, and that's physically injured.
We're not talking about those whose psyche was injured by
going through all of this. Everybody in Joplin, everybody, every
(15:51):
single person had to be affected emotionally by what was
going on in your town. Rush and Katherine saw those pictures,
We saw the coverage, and the relief efforts got underway,
and Rush and Katherine decided they wanted to help. What
(16:14):
do you remember about that, Well, I remember Rush was trying.
He was kicking off two of by tea uh, and
he was looking for a location to come and host
an event, and he chose Joplin. He's I remember he
was on stage at the Fourth of July celebration and
(16:39):
he said that he chose Chaplin Um because of our perseverance,
because of our belief in our country, and how we
took ourselves and and picked ourselves up by the bootstraps
and we did what it was necessary to bring Choplin back,
to make Chaplin whole again as best as we could.
(17:00):
That was one of the interesting things here in Joplin,
the debris UH and all of the storm damage. With
a third of town destroyed, we had a lot of damage,
and we were able to clean that up in record time.
You had FEMA talking about they were just so surprised
by that, and I think that intrigued Rush, and that's
one of the reasons why Rush came to Joplin. And
(17:21):
it was a very hot day. I do remember that
on July the fourth year in Choplin, it was almost
a hundred degrees UH. And the tea was a welcome sight.
We really enjoyed it, and we had some groups of
people that came out and helped Rush and Russia's team
distribute the tea to the to the community. It was
(17:44):
standing room. There wasn't a lot of room. People were everywhere.
Just a chance to hear Rush speak. You may not
know it yet but you are the essence of what
the father had. You are You are the epitomey. You
are the people who make this country work. What happened
(18:08):
here is something that you are going to a race.
You're gonna build back. It is going to get fixed,
It is going to be rebuilt. It's going to be
better than it ever was. You are going to show
the rest of the country how it's done. You represent
(18:29):
the best of what this country has to offer. You
understand the principle of hard work and self reliance. You
understand the difference between self interests and selfishness, and you
are not selfish. You are all gonna be working in
your own self interests to rebuild your lives, and in
the process, everybody else's lives will be will rebuild right
(18:52):
along with yours. We are all part. We are all
part of a great part of this country that understands
the kind steps of hard work and self reliance, respect
for our neighbors, love, doing the best we can, playing
by the rules, understanding none of us are perfect, but
we're there for each other when times requiring. Joplin, Missouri,
(19:13):
you are defining that the world Cowe's he truly cared
about the people of Joplin. Being from Missouri as uh
Rush was, he really cared about what was happening and
the recovery effort here in Joplin, and I remember he
(19:35):
made a sizable donation to Joplin's recovery effort, and it
was just beautiful expression of love that Russian Catherine could
have done. And just coming here and and bringing some
a distraction. I think I've described it that way for
(19:56):
the last few years, is a distraction from what we've
been dealing with because a tornado of that magnitude, a
storm of that magnitude, it really affects a lot of
a lot of people. And we were still I mean,
we're forty three days post tornado, and we were trying
(20:16):
to clean our lives back up and get things back
on the right path, and it just seemed like every
day it was a burden, one thing after another. Rebuilding
we were trying to rebuild at that time. But Rush
coming was such a distraction, is such a welcomed distraction
from the chaos that we had been living for the
last forty three days. At that point, we're gonna have fireworks,
(20:38):
And I believe there was a band that was gonna
play uh and Rush was going to come out and speak. Uh.
So kind of the festivities were set up. Rush was
concerned about the vendors and you know about their loss
because he was there handing out too by tea. So
he went and made sure every vendor was taken care
of monetarily. I bet they were surprised. Absolutely. You know.
(21:03):
One of the things we heard in in town at
that time was why why are we bringing in someone
like Rush Limbaugh to speak to the crowd. And we
would always this would not only at that time, but
years later, you know, you would. You didn't hear from
Hollywood or the big celebrities coming in. We didn't have
any of that. And there were no donations by anyone
(21:26):
else of of that magnitude, nothing like what Rush did.
Rush's contribution to Joplin, he really did care and he
was here and he made sure Joplin was taken care of.
So what are you going to do. What I'm gonna
do is keep the spotlight on Joplin, Missouri and how
(21:47):
you were overcoming something that was just throwing your way.
So thank you all very much. You have a great future.
You are Americans. We are all Americans. I remembers all
stop and you whatever you want to be. In each episode,
(22:18):
we continue to document the biographical journey of Russia's life,
narrated by some of his friends and colleagues. Today, we're
pleased to welcome, like Russia, man of strong conviction, a
uniquely talented broadcast host, Glenn Beck. The Life of Russia Limbaugh,
Chapter six, narrated by Glenn Beck. The landscape of national
(22:40):
syndication of daytime talk radio shows in was lonely compared
to the daytime syndication space of today. The idea of
the time was bold and full of risk. But Ed
McLaughlin knew intimately the power of spoken word radio, and
he knew the time to strike was then you have
(23:01):
a giant in the radio business. Ed McLaughlin, who retires
from ABC, is given two hours of satellite time to
fill as he wishes. He could have chosen to do
anything with these two hours. He could have played music.
He could have done you know, polka, he could have
done Chinese opera. But he believed in the power of
(23:21):
spoken word radio. He believed it could win. So on
August one, nationwide syndication of the Rush Limbop program began
The initial offering was two hours a day, and fifty
six brave stations stood with Rush as true believers and
(23:43):
loyal affiliates. On day one, it took off. It took
off faster and bigger than anybody had expected. It took
off and exploded the way you dream about. The flagship
station of the Rush Limbaugh program was seventy seven w
a d C in New York. In the beginning, Rush
(24:05):
also hosted a local show from ten till noon, and
then his national radio program from noon to two pm
Eastern every day on the inaugural affiliates scattered all across America.
The reason I had to do that was that we
started with fifty six stations. That's not enough stations for
national advertisers to care. And I faced for a year
(24:26):
and a half derision and criticism and mockery and all
that for what I was trying to do and the
way we didn't. The reason I had to do that
in New York show is because that's where we were
given three minutes an hour to sell national advertising. So
we were able to tell advertisers their commercials would be
heard in New York City. Because if you couldn't do
(24:48):
that back then, you couldn't have a nationally syndicated program.
In a matter of months, the program expanded to three
hours of daily national syndication R noon to three, and
the program's rapid growth demanded more attention and focus from Rush,
ultimately leading to the end of his local midday program
(25:09):
on w ABC. ED McLaughlin's brilliant bet on daytime syndication
paid off, exceeding even the wildest expectations of his now
superstar host Rush Limbaugh. The show's growth was unstoppable, reaching
an unprecedented five hundred national affiliates in only three years,
(25:30):
and that's a number that only continued to grow in
the thirty that followed. The Tunnel to Towers Foundation has
been supporting America's heroes since nine eleven, on America's darkest day,
so many people gave their lives for us. The foundation
carries forward a legacy of courage and heroism by honoring
(25:53):
first responder and military heroes, great Americans who protect our
communities and our freedom, and they're willing to die for
you and me. When these heroes are killed in the
line of duty and young children are left behind, Tunnel
to Towers pays off their mortgage to lift the financial
(26:15):
burden and bring these families much needed stability. For catastrophically
injured veterans and first responders, Tunnel to Towers builds mortgage
free smart homes. It gives them back their independence. America's
heroes and their families need your help. Join Tunnel to
Towers on their mission to do good in their honor.
(26:39):
Donate eleven dollars a month by going to t T
t dot org. That's t the number two T dot org.
You are the most generous audience there is, and we
thank you for your support. Our other guests today from
(27:01):
the E I B Network Scott Hennan of W D, A,
Y and FAGO. Now this was something of a surprise.
Scott was interviewing me about the podcast and he revealed
a story about Russia's generosity that we just had to
include in this episode. When you hear it, you'll know why.
Here's a clip from that interview. I do remember after
(27:23):
the flood of nineties seven, Russia been the Grand Forks
in the early nineties on a rushed excellence tour and
he hated a restaurant called Sanders. Went back, talked about
Sanders on the air, got to know the owner and
the owner. Funny thing was the owners very liberal, but
he he loved Rush. And Rush found out about his
restaurant being destroyed during the flood and called one day
on the air talk to people, said, boy, you you
(27:43):
really inspire us, and how you're just picking up the bootstraps,
not waiting for government to getch you through the flood
of the century, and send a personal fifty tho dollar check, uh,
to the to the owner of that restaurant. Never forget
this when I found a firsthand just how generous he was.
Didn't want anybody to know about, didn't make a big
deal of it, but uh, just that kind of a
kind of a man, and very generous obviously to me.
(28:03):
Brought us down to a palm beach to record television
commercials for the launch of our Ama Love and handed
the flag and uh and just so sweet to my
mother in law who came along, and I just I
could go on and on and on. You know all
those stories, James, but it's a it's pretty incredible. We
told our audience that really Rush taught us a lot,
and now it's up to us, isn't if there will
never be enough another Rush limbla broll there. There will
(28:24):
never be another Rush Lim whatever. That is not a
story that I had heard. And see this is what
I mean. Every day we're learning more and more about
Rush and some of the things that he did, and
his legacy is just going to be filled with people
that come out and revel the nature of his humble
(28:45):
but very generous personality. Thank you for being so generous
with your time, Scott, and for telling us that incredible story.
Well that's easy to do. And I tell you he
is uh holds a special place in us our Heartedy
well forever both nerd like folks. There he is. James Golden.
Thanks James, appreciate you. We'll talk to you. So the
(29:06):
guy he was talking about was a liberal, and that's
where Russia's heart was it. You know, we're all Americans.
We go through natural disasters, we go through the ups
and the downs of life without our political affiliations tied
to us. Rush Catherine have given so much. They've given
so much of their time, they've given so much of
(29:28):
their energy, and they've helped raise money for those in need,
and that is part of his legacy that will never
be a raised. I also want to say a quick
note to all of you in the Russian Limball audience
and beyond to those of you who listened to talk radio,
to those of you involved this audience, the Russian Limbaugh audience,
(29:53):
the audiences of many, so many talk radio hosts around
the nation have proven to be the most generous souls
in America. You give, you give to help people, you
give to change people's lives. You earn and you give,
and very often without anyone saying thank you. So from
(30:13):
all of us who are working on this series, Rush Limbaugh,
the man behind the Golden eib Mike, we'd like to
say thank you. I thought it would be helpful to
define conservatism for people because nobody else was. Everybody has
assumed conservatisms this or that, small government, less taxes and
(30:39):
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. It's ordinary people pursuing an accomplishing extraordinary
things with the freedom the ambition to do so. And
I just thought it needs to be pointed out. The
(31:01):
reason I wanted to relive it is because we put
together a montage that will demonstrate the love and compassion
that you in this audience have shown consistently for thirty
one years. Despite all the attempts to impugne you and me,
(31:23):
to criticize us, to label us improperly as racist, sexist,
or bigots, for thirty one years, you have proven and
demonstrated time and time again my explanation of who we
as conservatives are. The Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation that
is now of Fisher is going to get in excess
(31:44):
of four point two million dollars because I am matching
Betty Casey's bid on eBay four point two million dollars
because of you too. If By Tea has donated over
a million dollars in product and monitor Harry donations to
incredible causes, including the Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation. Folks,
(32:06):
you have done it again. You exceeded one million dollars
in charitable donations to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of America.
We ended up a total take of two million, five
d nineteen thousand, six hundred and forty three dollars with
Leukemia Lymphoma Society Radio thon last week. Yes, my friends,
(32:28):
it was a record Leukemia Lymphoma Society Radio than excess
of three million dollars. It was another record amount donated,
and folks, it is phenomenal. The final number is gonna
come somewhere north of three million dollars. We sent a truck.
Laude was about three thousand cases of two of five
(32:51):
teen to the Joplin Fourth of July celebrations, Items of
interest to American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, Unchael Milken
and the Prostate Cancer Foundation, the Boys and Girls Clubs
of America, the Elves for Autism charity golf outing. All
the proceeds went to the Fisher Houses. The Adventure of
(33:12):
Rush Revere series is a proud sponsor of the Navy
Seals Museums. Liberty delivered a whole bunch of books so
the Toys for Touch program. Today we have thousands upon
thousands of donors here in the Adopted Soldier program. We
have zoomed past one hundred thousand t shirts and there
(33:35):
were fourteen thousand new orders today. The amount of money
that we were able to donate to Tunnel the Towers
is one point five million dollars. We had so many
more sales over the weekend. That we have upped the
donation to tunnel the towers from one and a half
million two million dollars today, a monumental achievement. We have
(33:56):
now raised three million dollars for the Tunnel of Towers
found Foundation. You know, today we've been talking a lot
about and you've been hearing a lot about Russia's charity work,
Russia's philanthropy, the work of Katherine and Rush in helping people.
There was another giver on our E. I. B Staff
(34:19):
and one that all of us miss terribly and will
never forget. And the Russia Limbus Show would not have
been the Russia Limbus Show that you know without him.
He was our chief of staff. His name was Kit Carson,
and Kit was very involved every year with the Lukmia
(34:41):
than That's just one of the things that he did.
Kit was a friend to everybody on the staff. He
always brought humor with him, He always brought honesty with him,
and Kit and I would have the most credible time.
Some people compared our relationship if you've ever seen the
(35:05):
the movie with the Trivolta and uh Sam Jackson pulp fiction,
they would compare the relationship that that that Kit and
I had to Uh to pulp fiction because he would
just go at it with each other in the control room.
I'll tell you a secret, this Kit had a nickname
(35:26):
from me and Uh and I had a nickname for him.
So Kid used to call me Shoka Zulu, and and
he did it with Hey, Shokazulu. And what he would
do is just I'd call Kit Casper the friendly ghost
because Kit was pale with this beautiful red hair, this
this full head of red hair. Kid was like a
(35:49):
brother to me. We were like brothers. And Kit and
his lovely wife Teresa, and his two kids, Jesse and
Jack were just, I mean, just the perfect family. And
one of the things that that happened in our show was,
I guess now when I look back on it on
kind of a preparation for loss, is that Kit had
(36:10):
a difficult bout with cancer and we lost Kid and
and Rush the whole staff was just and we still
are in mourning for Kid, even as we mourn Rush.
And I'd like for you to listen to a few
things that that Rush said about our dear friend, our
chief of staff, our beloved Kit Carson. I speak for
(36:33):
everybody here at the e IB Network when I say
that there's just we. We we feel a an overwhelming absence.
We feel an overwhelming m whole in the in the
normal ebb and flow of of energy and presence in
(36:56):
our network because of the passing yesterday morning of Chief
of Staff Christopher kit Carson, and it's going to take
a while. He was relevant member of the staff. Chief
of staff chiefs of staff are been with me longer
than anybody the twenty seven years. I can't possibly personally
(37:20):
respond to everyone who is sending me email condolences, but
they are. They're beautiful. And the people who are writing
me who knew Kit are telling me stories that I
didn't know, things that had happened with with when they
(37:41):
had interacted with Kitty. Funny funny stories. They were descriptions
of his magnanimous and gracious and hilarious personality. It's not
I don't misunderstand it's it's it's not that I didn't
know of the aspects of his personality. I didn't know
the specific details of these particular stories. We never told me. Yeah,
(38:02):
I went out last night, I was such and such
and here's what I told him, and here's what they
said back that that only happened when I wanted to
know what happened with certain things. And most of these
stories they're just they're just fabulous and they're great. You know,
Mark Stein had a great comment. He had a he
had a great piece by the way, I'm kid at
his website. It was really sweet. It was really, really
(38:24):
really good. Mark sneine and he said, pointed, this is
people joining IB and they never leave. And that's one
of the reasons why this show works so well. It's
because it's it's we've been a team here by twenty
seven years, folks, that we've either completed or we just started.
I get these anniversaries all screwed up in the in
(38:46):
the odd years, but it's a lot of years, and
everybody on the staff contributes in their own way. But
you know, I, I just have decided that based on
the things I've learned um on my little success track here,
(39:10):
they don't need to go home and have their families
scream at them about why are they staying in about
you one of the rush portugular I just it's it's
it's just better and safer for them if if they
remain out in a line of fire, pure and simple
That's that's why you haven't heard a whole bunch of
(39:33):
names mentioned all the time. Kit Carson's family's wife Teresa,
and his kids. I have have asked if there are
any remembrances, that they be donations to one of two places,
Leukemia Lymphoma Society of America or Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer
Center in New York, which is where kid was treated.
(39:56):
They loved him there. I've never seen this before. Doctor
cried when he was released to go home on I
guess it was Tuesdays last week, doctor right. She had
really grown attached to it. One of the reasons why, well,
it was I am an engaging personality, was how courageously
(40:20):
and good naturedly he fought it. None of us ever saw.
I'm sure he in his private moments was mad cursing
himself for whatever rotten luck. But as far as we
were concerned, it was just he was always in a
in an upbeat, engaging mood. He was very infectious, uplifting personality.
(40:46):
And every day or every other day, whenever, however, he
often he had to go get a treatment. Was like
you have got to go doctor, just got a doctor appointment.
There was no attempt to garner any sympathy. It was
the other way around. It was it was too not
(41:06):
cause the distraction. It was just the most amazing thing, folks.
Kit Carson. He took all kinds of pressure off of
me so I could stay focused on this and he
was able to do this getting to know me and
studying program. It was he could do it to sleep
after a while. That's why this isn't going to be
such a big void. And he knew when when the
(41:29):
program is over. This is tough to explain. When the
program's over, it's solved. I don't want to do anything
related to the program for at least three hours. I
am wrung out, but I'm not allowed. I've often said
other things, I've gotten a point where I don't have
to do what I don't want to do. That's not true.
Where Kid was involved, program would end every day three
(41:51):
o'clock and I would record the morning update for both
audio in the video version of it. So what he
would routine we do. I would do the two updates,
usually can get them both done in one take. What
are you and video at the same time, and Kit
would routinely say, well, that's it, that's it. I got
(42:14):
nothing here, and I'd say, fine, that's cool, except and
then he'd launched into ten things or five or whatever
it was. But he always prefaced it by saying, look,
I got nothing's nothing here, I'm free and queered. Oh wait.
It always softened my reaction. He had it down to
(42:37):
a science. That's why all of that stuff us And
that's as much inside Baseball as we need to bore
you with. We just we feel like a giant that
we just miss him. There's a there's a void and
emptiness here. It's gonna be a long time uh to
get used to, but we uh we hope God bless
(43:02):
us kidneys family. After Rush passed, a lot of us
are talking now and we're sharing stories among ourselves, people
that worked within the organization, and there are a lot
of stories that you will never hear because Rush wanted
(43:23):
it that way. But let me tell you something, this
man was a giver. He was a giver. That's who
wrestling ball was a very sincere thanks today to Chat
Elliott and Scott Hennings for telling their stories about how
Rush directly affected the markets that they live and work
(43:44):
in with his generosity. And we'd also like to thank
the many other thousands of program directors, general managers, radio
personalities all across the E I B Network who for
over thirty years have stood with us with their loyalty
and their dedication to the Russia Limbas Show. On our
next episode, we get to have some fun. We're going
(44:06):
to explore the lighter side of the Russia Limb Bass
Show with impressionists and parody writer Paul Shanklin, and we're
gonna hear some of Russia's greatest bits, plus some stories
about just how funny Rush was off the air. All
that and more on our next episode. Russia Limbaugh, The
(44:26):
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
(44:47):
listen to your favorite podcast. This is James Golden, this
is both Snerveley, This is James Golden. I'm honored to
be your host for this. In every single episode of
Rush Limbaugh The Man Behind the Golden I B microphone.
Thank you for being with us, H
This episode of Russ Lumbaugh, The Man behind the Golden
E I B Microphone, includes an interview with Chad Elliott
recorded just three weeks ago in preparation for this release.
It's with great sorrow we share that Chad Elliot passed
away in June twelfth, just prior to this episode's release.
Our prayers and thoughts with Chad's family, friends, co workers,
(00:23):
and other loved ones at this very sad time. Um
Rush Lumba used to refer to himself as just the
guy on the radio, and to be fair, he was
on the radio, but he was far more than just
a guy. Over the years, as many of you know,
Rush raised a lot of money for various non profit
(00:44):
and charitable organizations, from relief to families of fallen heroes,
to Leakemia research and more. But those are things you've
heard about on the air. Those are the things that
Rush talked about. What you don't know, because Rush never
talked about it on the air, are the deeds that
he did for people off the air. And you know
he never wanted credit. He always would tell people or
(01:07):
tell those that he gave so generously too. Don't tell
anybody he didn't want people to know because it was
from his heart. Today, we're going to explore that generosity
that was so prevalent in Russia's character, and I'd like
(01:28):
to start this episode by telling you my own story
when Rush first came to w A b C. Before
the Russia Limbas Show became the mega success that it was,
when it was just the radio show with fifty six
stations and most people didn't know who Russia Limba was.
(01:48):
Yet Russia's spirit was still the same. I know this
because I'm one of the people that was affected by it.
I was a young guy in my third piece. For
those of you operating under the illusion that radio is
a high paying industry, well, when you're successful, it can
be very rewarding. But like a lot of media jobs,
(02:10):
if you're working behind the scenes, you're not making a
heck of a lot of money. You do it because
you love it. Well, I was one of those kids.
I loved what I did. I was in the media
and I wasn't making a hell of a lot of money.
Found myself in debt, so on the line talking to
bill collectors, not even aware that others could hear me.
(02:33):
And one of those others that did hear me was Rush.
I get a call over the intercom, James, can you
come back to my office? It's Rush. So I go
back to his office and he asked me to shut
the door. Rush said to me, you know, I'm not
(02:55):
trying to get in your business. I'm not trying to
intrude in your personal life. But I couldn't help. But
over here parts of your phone call, and I just
want to ask you, is everything okay? Are you? Are
you okay? Of course I'm embarrassed. You know who wouldn't be,
(03:15):
But I fessed up, you know, you know Russia. Look,
things are okay, but I'm having a little problem, you know,
money problems here and there. And he persisted, well, how
much you're gonna know for? How much are you in
debt for? And I reluctantly told him the amount. It
was about five thousand dollars on it all. And I
(03:35):
want to be really clear about something. Five thousand dollars
to me then was a lot of money to me.
Now it's a lot of money. He said, Look, I
want to tell you, Look, don't panic over it. Things
will work out. You're gonna be okay, and and don't
sweat it. Okay, so that little embarrassing session was over.
Go back to work, and let me just make it clear.
(03:57):
I wasn't working for Russia at this point. I hadn't
even been rotated on his shows. This was during the
stage when I was still just feeding in news stories
once in a while that I thought he would be
interested in. The Next day, I'm sitting in the newsroom
in a calm, James, can you come back to my office.
It's Rush. I go back to his office. Russ has
(04:24):
shut the door. I shut the door, and he hands
me an envelope. Is He says, this is for you.
This is uh, this is not alone. This is a gift.
(04:46):
Please don't tell anybody, but I did this for you.
But I'm doing this because you're a good guy, and
good guys deserved to have good things happened to him
once in a while. M open up the envelope and
there's to check in there for five thousand dollars. Rush.
(05:10):
I wasn't working for Rush. Rush wasn't trying to buy
my friendship because we were already friends. Rush was generous
to his heart, into his soul. It is something that
I will never forget. It is something that I have
(05:31):
tried in my way to make sure that I have
the same kind of generosity to people that I see
that are in need where I can help, because it
affected me so deeply. Now I want you to think
about something I've watched, and I've heard all of these
(05:52):
accusations about Rush Limbob from his political detractors over the years,
people that don't know him, people that never listened to him.
And one of the things that particularly has upset me
over the years as a black guy, as an African American,
a proud African American, is to hear my friend Rush
(06:17):
called a racist. This is a man who didn't have
a racist bone in his body. He wanted his staff
to be excellent, so he got excellent people. It just
so happened we had a very diverse staff. Gay, straight, black, white, Asian.
(06:41):
Didn't matter as long as you were good at what
you were doing. But Russia's heart was extended to people
that he could help. Here's this little black kid from
Queens we met just months before. This is before Rush
the multimillionaire. This is before Rush the guy that's the
king of the broadcast world. This is a guy who's
(07:01):
struggling to make it up the chain himself. Rush Limbaugh
had one of the most generous hearts of anyone I
have or will ever meet in my life. And that's
my story. Whether you listened every day you are at
(07:24):
the E I V Network and the Rush Limball program
heard on over six hundred great radio stations for every
now and then nation's leading radio and talk show. The
most eagerly anticipated program in Americans are the stories you've
never heard from the people behind the scenes who knew
him best and loved him most. Rush lim Ball having
more fundly human being, it could be allowed to have
Rush Limbaugh, the man behind the Golden E I V Microphone,
(07:48):
hosted by James Golden. Hey, James Golden here, you know
what It's time that you treat yourself to a little
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But what you may not know is that my pillow
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Pillows Sheets. Don't forget the incredible slippers from my Pillow.
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use promo code icon. Lots of incredible offers there. Now
(08:53):
that's my pillow dot Com promo code icon. You know,
national disasters are a terrible thing for all those affected,
all those that get swept away in their miss and
almost ten years ago to the date, there was a
(09:16):
natural disaster that will never forget Joplin, Missouri. Today, we're
gonna be speaking with Chat Elliott, who's the operations manager
of k z r G in Joplin, because the story
involves Rush, Rush and Catherine. Chad, Welcome to our podcast series.
(09:38):
It's an otter to be here. Thank you so much
for having me today. Well, Chad, let me, let me.
Let's talk about what happened. You were working at the
news talk Giant in Joplin, Missouri, k z RG. Tell
us what happened ten years ago and e f five
tornado towards Chaplin apart. About a quarter of town was destroyed.
(10:01):
A hundred and sixty one people passed away parish that day,
and it happened so quickly and there was really no
time to prepare. We were on the air that day
telling people take cover. That looks to be a pretty serious,
bad situation. Uh, but we had no idea of what
(10:23):
we were going to really see in the coming minutes.
It happened about five pm. It was a Sunday, was
and the Joplin High School UM graduation was happening that
day at our college here in town, Missouri, Southern State University.
(10:45):
And just as the graduation was ending and people were leaving,
and the tornado sirens went off and people were getting
in their cars trying to leave, and there were people
in Pact did at that time they were struck by
the tornado. Um, you just don't realize how bad a
(11:07):
situation is. You know, you see it on TV, you
hear about it on the radio, about devastation that comes
from hurricanes and tornadoes, But until you've been in a
situation like that or at ground zero, you don't really
you can't really fathom what it's like. I just remember
(11:29):
being on the air and just trying to warn people,
and the phone calls started coming in. People were panicked.
You had you could hear it in their voices that
there was something really really wrong that or that had
taken place in Joblin. They would tell us the hospital
was wiped out, the hospital's gone, and you're thinking the hospital.
(11:49):
Wait a minute, wait, well, how do you cope with that?
How did people cope with their hospital being destroyed in
the middle of this horrific tornado. It was chaos, utter chaos.
People were uh, just trying to get well, really trying
to get out of their homes. There are a lot
of people trapped in their homes at this point. Thankfully
we have a second hospital, we have to. We have Freeman,
(12:12):
and we have Mercy here in Chown in town, but
at the time it was Mercy St. John's and St.
John's was wiped out. I was destroyed. Um. Just horrific situation.
I remember trying to get home. My home was struck
and I'm trying to get home because I was on
the air telling this story, letting people know to take cover,
(12:33):
and my wife sent me a text message, Um, it said, honey,
I love you. I see the tornado, and then that
was it. That was the last thing I heard from
my wife until I could get home. It took me
thirty minutes, and I only live about three minutes from
our radio station, so it took me thirty minutes to
(12:55):
get home. Because power lines were down, I had to
park my car, I had to shim me underpower lines.
And I went through the destroyed hospital and I saw
people leaving that hospital in backs of pickup trucks. Uh.
There were nurses holding uh saline bags in the air
over these people while they're trying to load them in,
(13:15):
and people were more bloodied. It was it was like
a war zone, is the best way I could describe it.
So I'm making my way through this situation here. I'm
trying to find out do I have a home, Do
I have a wife? Do I have a daughter? Still,
and trying to get through town. And I go through
the hospital, and I hear the oxygen shooting into the air,
(13:40):
uh and natural gas also shooting into the air. You
can hear so candlestick waiting to go up if a
spark was were to happen. At that point, I noticed
that this this park. All the grass was gone. The
tornado sucked all the grass off the ground. It was
just as mud at this point. And I just remember
(14:04):
vivid things like that popping back into my mind here
ten years later. So I finally make it up to
my neighborhood and the homes are gone. So I keep
walking a little bit further, a little bit further, and
I see, okay, the homes are totally gone at one
end of my street. And then I start seeing some
homes that are still standing. I get to my home.
(14:26):
The roofs ripped off, and my wife is standing with
our daughter in the middle of the street. Thank god
they survived, but our home obviously was destroyed. Many people
didn't survive that day. The building is gone, joshable, people
(14:47):
trapped in their cars. I see cars scrumpled. The building
is just the windows are blown out. Oh my lord,
we've got power lines down all along here on Range Line. Uh.
They definitely people need help here tonight. Good Will is destroyed.
There are buildings missing, Josh. Right now, I see water
shooting up the building right now. There there's so much damage.
(15:08):
I cannot stress it enough. Please, if you don't need
to be out tonight, stay home, power lizer down everywhere.
There are people that are there have got to be
injured right now. There are probably people's topitalities right now.
People are trapped and buildings. There are Billy's missing that
used to be here. They're totally gone, wiped away from
the foundation. And this is a major hit. We have
taken a major hit here in the city of Joplin,
(15:30):
and there are people that are needing help. Sixty one
people died, many many others injured, and that's physically injured.
We're not talking about those whose psyche was injured by
going through all of this. Everybody in Joplin, everybody, every
(15:51):
single person had to be affected emotionally by what was
going on in your town. Rush and Katherine saw those pictures,
We saw the coverage, and the relief efforts got underway,
and Rush and Katherine decided they wanted to help. What
(16:14):
do you remember about that, Well, I remember Rush was trying.
He was kicking off two of by tea uh, and
he was looking for a location to come and host
an event, and he chose Joplin. He's I remember he
was on stage at the Fourth of July celebration and
(16:39):
he said that he chose Chaplin Um because of our perseverance,
because of our belief in our country, and how we
took ourselves and and picked ourselves up by the bootstraps
and we did what it was necessary to bring Choplin back,
to make Chaplin whole again as best as we could.
(17:00):
That was one of the interesting things here in Joplin,
the debris UH and all of the storm damage. With
a third of town destroyed, we had a lot of damage,
and we were able to clean that up in record time.
You had FEMA talking about they were just so surprised
by that, and I think that intrigued Rush, and that's
one of the reasons why Rush came to Joplin. And
(17:21):
it was a very hot day. I do remember that
on July the fourth year in Choplin, it was almost
a hundred degrees UH. And the tea was a welcome sight.
We really enjoyed it, and we had some groups of
people that came out and helped Rush and Russia's team
distribute the tea to the to the community. It was
(17:44):
standing room. There wasn't a lot of room. People were everywhere.
Just a chance to hear Rush speak. You may not
know it yet but you are the essence of what
the father had. You are You are the epitomey. You
are the people who make this country work. What happened
(18:08):
here is something that you are going to a race.
You're gonna build back. It is going to get fixed,
It is going to be rebuilt. It's going to be
better than it ever was. You are going to show
the rest of the country how it's done. You represent
(18:29):
the best of what this country has to offer. You
understand the principle of hard work and self reliance. You
understand the difference between self interests and selfishness, and you
are not selfish. You are all gonna be working in
your own self interests to rebuild your lives, and in
the process, everybody else's lives will be will rebuild right
(18:52):
along with yours. We are all part. We are all
part of a great part of this country that understands
the kind steps of hard work and self reliance, respect
for our neighbors, love, doing the best we can, playing
by the rules, understanding none of us are perfect, but
we're there for each other when times requiring. Joplin, Missouri,
(19:13):
you are defining that the world Cowe's he truly cared
about the people of Joplin. Being from Missouri as uh
Rush was, he really cared about what was happening and
the recovery effort here in Joplin, and I remember he
(19:35):
made a sizable donation to Joplin's recovery effort, and it
was just beautiful expression of love that Russian Catherine could
have done. And just coming here and and bringing some
a distraction. I think I've described it that way for
(19:56):
the last few years, is a distraction from what we've
been dealing with because a tornado of that magnitude, a
storm of that magnitude, it really affects a lot of
a lot of people. And we were still I mean,
we're forty three days post tornado, and we were trying
(20:16):
to clean our lives back up and get things back
on the right path, and it just seemed like every
day it was a burden, one thing after another. Rebuilding
we were trying to rebuild at that time. But Rush
coming was such a distraction, is such a welcomed distraction
from the chaos that we had been living for the
last forty three days. At that point, we're gonna have fireworks,
(20:38):
And I believe there was a band that was gonna
play uh and Rush was going to come out and speak. Uh.
So kind of the festivities were set up. Rush was
concerned about the vendors and you know about their loss
because he was there handing out too by tea. So
he went and made sure every vendor was taken care
of monetarily. I bet they were surprised. Absolutely. You know.
(21:03):
One of the things we heard in in town at
that time was why why are we bringing in someone
like Rush Limbaugh to speak to the crowd. And we
would always this would not only at that time, but
years later, you know, you would. You didn't hear from
Hollywood or the big celebrities coming in. We didn't have
any of that. And there were no donations by anyone
(21:26):
else of of that magnitude, nothing like what Rush did.
Rush's contribution to Joplin, he really did care and he
was here and he made sure Joplin was taken care of.
So what are you going to do. What I'm gonna
do is keep the spotlight on Joplin, Missouri and how
(21:47):
you were overcoming something that was just throwing your way.
So thank you all very much. You have a great future.
You are Americans. We are all Americans. I remembers all
stop and you whatever you want to be. In each episode,
(22:18):
we continue to document the biographical journey of Russia's life,
narrated by some of his friends and colleagues. Today, we're
pleased to welcome, like Russia, man of strong conviction, a
uniquely talented broadcast host, Glenn Beck. The Life of Russia Limbaugh,
Chapter six, narrated by Glenn Beck. The landscape of national
(22:40):
syndication of daytime talk radio shows in was lonely compared
to the daytime syndication space of today. The idea of
the time was bold and full of risk. But Ed
McLaughlin knew intimately the power of spoken word radio, and
he knew the time to strike was then you have
(23:01):
a giant in the radio business. Ed McLaughlin, who retires
from ABC, is given two hours of satellite time to
fill as he wishes. He could have chosen to do
anything with these two hours. He could have played music.
He could have done you know, polka, he could have
done Chinese opera. But he believed in the power of
(23:21):
spoken word radio. He believed it could win. So on
August one, nationwide syndication of the Rush Limbop program began
The initial offering was two hours a day, and fifty
six brave stations stood with Rush as true believers and
(23:43):
loyal affiliates. On day one, it took off. It took
off faster and bigger than anybody had expected. It took
off and exploded the way you dream about. The flagship
station of the Rush Limbaugh program was seventy seven w
a d C in New York. In the beginning, Rush
(24:05):
also hosted a local show from ten till noon, and
then his national radio program from noon to two pm
Eastern every day on the inaugural affiliates scattered all across America.
The reason I had to do that was that we
started with fifty six stations. That's not enough stations for
national advertisers to care. And I faced for a year
(24:26):
and a half derision and criticism and mockery and all
that for what I was trying to do and the
way we didn't. The reason I had to do that
in New York show is because that's where we were
given three minutes an hour to sell national advertising. So
we were able to tell advertisers their commercials would be
heard in New York City. Because if you couldn't do
(24:48):
that back then, you couldn't have a nationally syndicated program.
In a matter of months, the program expanded to three
hours of daily national syndication R noon to three, and
the program's rapid growth demanded more attention and focus from Rush,
ultimately leading to the end of his local midday program
(25:09):
on w ABC. ED McLaughlin's brilliant bet on daytime syndication
paid off, exceeding even the wildest expectations of his now
superstar host Rush Limbaugh. The show's growth was unstoppable, reaching
an unprecedented five hundred national affiliates in only three years,
(25:30):
and that's a number that only continued to grow in
the thirty that followed. The Tunnel to Towers Foundation has
been supporting America's heroes since nine eleven, on America's darkest day,
so many people gave their lives for us. The foundation
carries forward a legacy of courage and heroism by honoring
(25:53):
first responder and military heroes, great Americans who protect our
communities and our freedom, and they're willing to die for
you and me. When these heroes are killed in the
line of duty and young children are left behind, Tunnel
to Towers pays off their mortgage to lift the financial
(26:15):
burden and bring these families much needed stability. For catastrophically
injured veterans and first responders, Tunnel to Towers builds mortgage
free smart homes. It gives them back their independence. America's
heroes and their families need your help. Join Tunnel to
Towers on their mission to do good in their honor.
(26:39):
Donate eleven dollars a month by going to t T
t dot org. That's t the number two T dot org.
You are the most generous audience there is, and we
thank you for your support. Our other guests today from
(27:01):
the E I B Network Scott Hennan of W D, A,
Y and FAGO. Now this was something of a surprise.
Scott was interviewing me about the podcast and he revealed
a story about Russia's generosity that we just had to
include in this episode. When you hear it, you'll know why.
Here's a clip from that interview. I do remember after
(27:23):
the flood of nineties seven, Russia been the Grand Forks
in the early nineties on a rushed excellence tour and
he hated a restaurant called Sanders. Went back, talked about
Sanders on the air, got to know the owner and
the owner. Funny thing was the owners very liberal, but
he he loved Rush. And Rush found out about his
restaurant being destroyed during the flood and called one day
on the air talk to people, said, boy, you you
(27:43):
really inspire us, and how you're just picking up the bootstraps,
not waiting for government to getch you through the flood
of the century, and send a personal fifty tho dollar check, uh,
to the to the owner of that restaurant. Never forget
this when I found a firsthand just how generous he was.
Didn't want anybody to know about, didn't make a big
deal of it, but uh, just that kind of a
kind of a man, and very generous obviously to me.
(28:03):
Brought us down to a palm beach to record television
commercials for the launch of our Ama Love and handed
the flag and uh and just so sweet to my
mother in law who came along, and I just I
could go on and on and on. You know all
those stories, James, but it's a it's pretty incredible. We
told our audience that really Rush taught us a lot,
and now it's up to us, isn't if there will
never be enough another Rush limbla broll there. There will
(28:24):
never be another Rush Lim whatever. That is not a
story that I had heard. And see this is what
I mean. Every day we're learning more and more about
Rush and some of the things that he did, and
his legacy is just going to be filled with people
that come out and revel the nature of his humble
(28:45):
but very generous personality. Thank you for being so generous
with your time, Scott, and for telling us that incredible story.
Well that's easy to do. And I tell you he
is uh holds a special place in us our Heartedy
well forever both nerd like folks. There he is. James Golden.
Thanks James, appreciate you. We'll talk to you. So the
(29:06):
guy he was talking about was a liberal, and that's
where Russia's heart was it. You know, we're all Americans.
We go through natural disasters, we go through the ups
and the downs of life without our political affiliations tied
to us. Rush Catherine have given so much. They've given
so much of their time, they've given so much of
(29:28):
their energy, and they've helped raise money for those in need,
and that is part of his legacy that will never
be a raised. I also want to say a quick
note to all of you in the Russian Limball audience
and beyond to those of you who listened to talk radio,
to those of you involved this audience, the Russian Limbaugh audience,
(29:53):
the audiences of many, so many talk radio hosts around
the nation have proven to be the most generous souls
in America. You give, you give to help people, you
give to change people's lives. You earn and you give,
and very often without anyone saying thank you. So from
(30:13):
all of us who are working on this series, Rush Limbaugh,
the man behind the Golden eib Mike, we'd like to
say thank you. I thought it would be helpful to
define conservatism for people because nobody else was. Everybody has
assumed conservatisms this or that, small government, less taxes and
(30:39):
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. It's ordinary people pursuing an accomplishing extraordinary
things with the freedom the ambition to do so. And
I just thought it needs to be pointed out. The
(31:01):
reason I wanted to relive it is because we put
together a montage that will demonstrate the love and compassion
that you in this audience have shown consistently for thirty
one years. Despite all the attempts to impugne you and me,
(31:23):
to criticize us, to label us improperly as racist, sexist,
or bigots, for thirty one years, you have proven and
demonstrated time and time again my explanation of who we
as conservatives are. The Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation that
is now of Fisher is going to get in excess
(31:44):
of four point two million dollars because I am matching
Betty Casey's bid on eBay four point two million dollars
because of you too. If By Tea has donated over
a million dollars in product and monitor Harry donations to
incredible causes, including the Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation. Folks,
(32:06):
you have done it again. You exceeded one million dollars
in charitable donations to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of America.
We ended up a total take of two million, five
d nineteen thousand, six hundred and forty three dollars with
Leukemia Lymphoma Society Radio thon last week. Yes, my friends,
(32:28):
it was a record Leukemia Lymphoma Society Radio than excess
of three million dollars. It was another record amount donated,
and folks, it is phenomenal. The final number is gonna
come somewhere north of three million dollars. We sent a truck.
Laude was about three thousand cases of two of five
(32:51):
teen to the Joplin Fourth of July celebrations, Items of
interest to American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, Unchael Milken
and the Prostate Cancer Foundation, the Boys and Girls Clubs
of America, the Elves for Autism charity golf outing. All
the proceeds went to the Fisher Houses. The Adventure of
(33:12):
Rush Revere series is a proud sponsor of the Navy
Seals Museums. Liberty delivered a whole bunch of books so
the Toys for Touch program. Today we have thousands upon
thousands of donors here in the Adopted Soldier program. We
have zoomed past one hundred thousand t shirts and there
(33:35):
were fourteen thousand new orders today. The amount of money
that we were able to donate to Tunnel the Towers
is one point five million dollars. We had so many
more sales over the weekend. That we have upped the
donation to tunnel the towers from one and a half
million two million dollars today, a monumental achievement. We have
(33:56):
now raised three million dollars for the Tunnel of Towers
found Foundation. You know, today we've been talking a lot
about and you've been hearing a lot about Russia's charity work,
Russia's philanthropy, the work of Katherine and Rush in helping people.
There was another giver on our E. I. B Staff
(34:19):
and one that all of us miss terribly and will
never forget. And the Russia Limbus Show would not have
been the Russia Limbus Show that you know without him.
He was our chief of staff. His name was Kit Carson,
and Kit was very involved every year with the Lukmia
(34:41):
than That's just one of the things that he did.
Kit was a friend to everybody on the staff. He
always brought humor with him, He always brought honesty with him,
and Kit and I would have the most credible time.
Some people compared our relationship if you've ever seen the
(35:05):
the movie with the Trivolta and uh Sam Jackson pulp fiction,
they would compare the relationship that that that Kit and
I had to Uh to pulp fiction because he would
just go at it with each other in the control room.
I'll tell you a secret, this Kit had a nickname
(35:26):
from me and Uh and I had a nickname for him.
So Kid used to call me Shoka Zulu, and and
he did it with Hey, Shokazulu. And what he would
do is just I'd call Kit Casper the friendly ghost
because Kit was pale with this beautiful red hair, this
this full head of red hair. Kid was like a
(35:49):
brother to me. We were like brothers. And Kit and
his lovely wife Teresa, and his two kids, Jesse and
Jack were just, I mean, just the perfect family. And
one of the things that that happened in our show was,
I guess now when I look back on it on
kind of a preparation for loss, is that Kit had
(36:10):
a difficult bout with cancer and we lost Kid and
and Rush the whole staff was just and we still
are in mourning for Kid, even as we mourn Rush.
And I'd like for you to listen to a few
things that that Rush said about our dear friend, our
chief of staff, our beloved Kit Carson. I speak for
(36:33):
everybody here at the e IB Network when I say
that there's just we. We we feel a an overwhelming absence.
We feel an overwhelming m whole in the in the
normal ebb and flow of of energy and presence in
(36:56):
our network because of the passing yesterday morning of Chief
of Staff Christopher kit Carson, and it's going to take
a while. He was relevant member of the staff. Chief
of staff chiefs of staff are been with me longer
than anybody the twenty seven years. I can't possibly personally
(37:20):
respond to everyone who is sending me email condolences, but
they are. They're beautiful. And the people who are writing
me who knew Kit are telling me stories that I
didn't know, things that had happened with with when they
(37:41):
had interacted with Kitty. Funny funny stories. They were descriptions
of his magnanimous and gracious and hilarious personality. It's not
I don't misunderstand it's it's it's not that I didn't
know of the aspects of his personality. I didn't know
the specific details of these particular stories. We never told me. Yeah,
(38:02):
I went out last night, I was such and such
and here's what I told him, and here's what they
said back that that only happened when I wanted to
know what happened with certain things. And most of these
stories they're just they're just fabulous and they're great. You know,
Mark Stein had a great comment. He had a he
had a great piece by the way, I'm kid at
his website. It was really sweet. It was really, really
(38:24):
really good. Mark sneine and he said, pointed, this is
people joining IB and they never leave. And that's one
of the reasons why this show works so well. It's
because it's it's we've been a team here by twenty
seven years, folks, that we've either completed or we just started.
I get these anniversaries all screwed up in the in
(38:46):
the odd years, but it's a lot of years, and
everybody on the staff contributes in their own way. But
you know, I, I just have decided that based on
the things I've learned um on my little success track here,
(39:10):
they don't need to go home and have their families
scream at them about why are they staying in about
you one of the rush portugular I just it's it's
it's just better and safer for them if if they
remain out in a line of fire, pure and simple
That's that's why you haven't heard a whole bunch of
(39:33):
names mentioned all the time. Kit Carson's family's wife Teresa,
and his kids. I have have asked if there are
any remembrances, that they be donations to one of two places,
Leukemia Lymphoma Society of America or Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer
Center in New York, which is where kid was treated.
(39:56):
They loved him there. I've never seen this before. Doctor
cried when he was released to go home on I
guess it was Tuesdays last week, doctor right. She had
really grown attached to it. One of the reasons why, well,
it was I am an engaging personality, was how courageously
(40:20):
and good naturedly he fought it. None of us ever saw.
I'm sure he in his private moments was mad cursing
himself for whatever rotten luck. But as far as we
were concerned, it was just he was always in a
in an upbeat, engaging mood. He was very infectious, uplifting personality.
(40:46):
And every day or every other day, whenever, however, he
often he had to go get a treatment. Was like
you have got to go doctor, just got a doctor appointment.
There was no attempt to garner any sympathy. It was
the other way around. It was it was too not
(41:06):
cause the distraction. It was just the most amazing thing, folks.
Kit Carson. He took all kinds of pressure off of
me so I could stay focused on this and he
was able to do this getting to know me and
studying program. It was he could do it to sleep
after a while. That's why this isn't going to be
such a big void. And he knew when when the
(41:29):
program is over. This is tough to explain. When the
program's over, it's solved. I don't want to do anything
related to the program for at least three hours. I
am wrung out, but I'm not allowed. I've often said
other things, I've gotten a point where I don't have
to do what I don't want to do. That's not true.
Where Kid was involved, program would end every day three
(41:51):
o'clock and I would record the morning update for both
audio in the video version of it. So what he
would routine we do. I would do the two updates,
usually can get them both done in one take. What
are you and video at the same time, and Kit
would routinely say, well, that's it, that's it. I got
(42:14):
nothing here, and I'd say, fine, that's cool, except and
then he'd launched into ten things or five or whatever
it was. But he always prefaced it by saying, look,
I got nothing's nothing here, I'm free and queered. Oh wait.
It always softened my reaction. He had it down to
(42:37):
a science. That's why all of that stuff us And
that's as much inside Baseball as we need to bore
you with. We just we feel like a giant that
we just miss him. There's a there's a void and
emptiness here. It's gonna be a long time uh to
get used to, but we uh we hope God bless
(43:02):
us kidneys family. After Rush passed, a lot of us
are talking now and we're sharing stories among ourselves, people
that worked within the organization, and there are a lot
of stories that you will never hear because Rush wanted
(43:23):
it that way. But let me tell you something, this
man was a giver. He was a giver. That's who
wrestling ball was a very sincere thanks today to Chat
Elliott and Scott Hennings for telling their stories about how
Rush directly affected the markets that they live and work
(43:44):
in with his generosity. And we'd also like to thank
the many other thousands of program directors, general managers, radio
personalities all across the E I B Network who for
over thirty years have stood with us with their loyalty
and their dedication to the Russia Limbas Show. On our
next episode, we get to have some fun. We're going
(44:06):
to explore the lighter side of the Russia Limb Bass
Show with impressionists and parody writer Paul Shanklin, and we're
gonna hear some of Russia's greatest bits, plus some stories
about just how funny Rush was off the air. All
that and more on our next episode. Russia Limbaugh, The
(44:26):
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
(44:47):
listen to your favorite podcast. This is James Golden, this
is both Snerveley, This is James Golden. I'm honored to
be your host for this. In every single episode of
Rush Limbaugh The Man Behind the Golden I B microphone.
Thank you for being with us, H
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