May 26, 2021 • 48 mins
For more than 20 years, broadcast executive and Radio Hall of Fame President Kraig Kitchin worked side by side with Rush Limbaugh as a business partner, friend, and confidant in developing the most successful radio talk show in history. James Golden, a.k.a. Bo Snerdley, sits down with Kraig to discuss how the Rush Limbaugh Show came to be what it is today. From the early days in New York City to the addition of several hundred affiliates across the country (plus a few pirate stations in the Caribbean, as Rush might say), Kraig gives you a unique perspective of Rush’s business acumen, in addition to sharing intimate details of how he learned of his advanced lung cancer diagnosis and how the decisions were made to carry on with the program during his treatment. This episode also contains an appearance from radio and Fox News personality Sean Hannity, who narrates a special feature dedicated to Rush’s early Top 40 radio days in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
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.
(00:27):
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
(00:49):
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
(01:10):
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
(01:33):
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
(01:55):
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
(02:17):
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
(02:40):
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
(03:01):
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,
(03:24):
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
(03:47):
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
(04:10):
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
(04:32):
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,
(04:53):
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
(05:16):
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
(05:37):
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,
(05:58):
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
(06:22):
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
(06:44):
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
(07:08):
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
(07:29):
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
(07:51):
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
(08:11):
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
(08:35):
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.
(08:56):
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
(09:20):
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
(09:40):
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,
(10:03):
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
(10:27):
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
(10:50):
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
(11:13):
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
(11:41):
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
(12:04):
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
(12:26):
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
(12:47):
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
(13:09):
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
(13:31):
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
(13:54):
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,
(14:17):
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
try and see for yourself. Listeners have helped build My
(14:41):
Pillow into the incredible company it is today, and Mike
Lindell wants to give back to you now. Get great
discounts on My Pillow products by going to my pillow
dot com right now and cooking on the radio listener
special Square. You'll see offers up to sixty six percent
(15:02):
off on products like their pillows, mattress, Tappa and Geza
sheets as well or new products like their slippers, weighted blankets,
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
(15:28):
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
(15:51):
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
(16:15):
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,
(16:37):
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
(17:00):
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
(17:21):
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,
(17:42):
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.
(18:03):
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
(18:27):
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
(18:48):
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
(19:11):
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
(19:34):
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
(19:55):
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
(20:16):
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
(20:38):
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
(21:00):
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.
(21:20):
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
(21:43):
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
(22:07):
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
(22:29):
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
(22:49):
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
(23:11):
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
(23:32):
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.
(23:55):
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
(24:17):
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.
(24:38):
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
(25:00):
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,
(25:25):
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
(25:46):
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
(26:06):
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
(26:29):
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
(26:50):
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
(27:13):
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
(27:35):
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
(27:56):
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
(28:17):
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
(28:40):
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
(29:04):
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
(29:27):
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.
(29:47):
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
(30:07):
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
(30:28):
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,
(30:53):
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
(31:14):
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,
(31:36):
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
(31:59):
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
(32:22):
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
(32:44):
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
(33:06):
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
(33:28):
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
(33:50):
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
(34:12):
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
(34:33):
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
(34:57):
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
(35:17):
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
(35:41):
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
(36:03):
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.
(36:23):
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
(36:44):
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
(37:05):
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,
(37:26):
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
(37:46):
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,
(38:07):
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
(38:33):
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
(38:58):
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
(39:19):
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
(39:41):
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,
(40:02):
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
(40:23):
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,
(40:45):
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
(41:07):
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
(41:28):
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
(41:50):
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,
(42:11):
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
(42:33):
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
(42:56):
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
(43:20):
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
(43:42):
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
(44:02):
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
(44:26):
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
(44:51):
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
(45:12):
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.
(45:35):
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,
(45:57):
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.
(46:23):
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
(46:43):
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
(47:04):
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
(47:24):
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
(47:55):
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
(48:15):
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
(48:37):
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.
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.
(00:27):
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
(00:49):
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
(01:10):
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
(01:33):
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
(01:55):
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
(02:17):
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
(02:40):
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
(03:01):
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,
(03:24):
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
(03:47):
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
(04:10):
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
(04:32):
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,
(04:53):
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
(05:16):
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
(05:37):
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,
(05:58):
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
(06:22):
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
(06:44):
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
(07:08):
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
(07:29):
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
(07:51):
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
(08:11):
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
(08:35):
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.
(08:56):
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
(09:20):
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
(09:40):
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,
(10:03):
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
(10:27):
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
(10:50):
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
(11:13):
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
(11:41):
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
(12:04):
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
(12:26):
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
(12:47):
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
(13:09):
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
(13:31):
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
(13:54):
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,
(14:17):
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
try and see for yourself. Listeners have helped build My
(14:41):
Pillow into the incredible company it is today, and Mike
Lindell wants to give back to you now. Get great
discounts on My Pillow products by going to my pillow
dot com right now and cooking on the radio listener
special Square. You'll see offers up to sixty six percent
(15:02):
off on products like their pillows, mattress, Tappa and Geza
sheets as well or new products like their slippers, weighted blankets,
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
(15:28):
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
(15:51):
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
(16:15):
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,
(16:37):
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
(17:00):
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
(17:21):
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,
(17:42):
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.
(18:03):
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
(18:27):
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
(18:48):
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
(19:11):
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
(19:34):
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
(19:55):
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
(20:16):
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
(20:38):
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
(21:00):
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.
(21:20):
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
(21:43):
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
(22:07):
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
(22:29):
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
(22:49):
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
(23:11):
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
(23:32):
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.
(23:55):
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
(24:17):
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.
(24:38):
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
(25:00):
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,
(25:25):
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
(25:46):
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
(26:06):
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
(26:29):
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
(26:50):
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
(27:13):
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
(27:35):
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
(27:56):
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
(28:17):
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
(28:40):
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
(29:04):
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
(29:27):
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.
(29:47):
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
(30:07):
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
(30:28):
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,
(30:53):
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
(31:14):
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,
(31:36):
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
(31:59):
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
(32:22):
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
(32:44):
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
(33:06):
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
(33:28):
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
(33:50):
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
(34:12):
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
(34:33):
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
(34:57):
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
(35:17):
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
(35:41):
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
(36:03):
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.
(36:23):
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
(36:44):
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
(37:05):
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,
(37:26):
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
(37:46):
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,
(38:07):
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
(38:33):
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
(38:58):
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
(39:19):
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
(39:41):
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,
(40:02):
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
(40:23):
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,
(40:45):
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
(41:07):
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
(41:28):
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
(41:50):
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,
(42:11):
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
(42:33):
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
(42:56):
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
(43:20):
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
(43:42):
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
(44:02):
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
(44:26):
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
(44:51):
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
(45:12):
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.
(45:35):
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,
(45:57):
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.
(46:23):
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
(46:43):
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
(47:04):
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
(47:24):
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
(47:55):
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
(48:15):
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
(48:37):
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.
Popular Podcasts
40s and Free Agents: NFL Draft Season
Daniel Jeremiah of Move the Sticks and Gregg Rosenthal of NFL Daily join forces to break down every team's needs this offseason.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Bobby Bones Show
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.