Rush Honors McLaughlin

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On his program yesterday, Rush Limbaugh took several segments to talk about his relationship with Ed McLaughlin, the media executive that died last week at the age of 91. Rush said if it wasn’t for the chance McLaughlin took on him, his show wouldn’t exist today.

Rush told his millions of listeners Monday that Ed McLaughlin, as part of his retirement package, was given two hours of satellite time from 12 noon to 2 Eastern during a time daytime syndication of talk radio programming had not succeeded. “That’s why Ed took one of the biggest risks anybody ever took in radio. He could have chosen to do anything with these two hours. He could have played music. He could have done, you know, polka, he could have done Chinese opera. But he believed in the power of spoken word radio opinion he believed it could win. There are any number of people Ed McLaughlin could have chosen, any number of people Ed McLaughlin could have invested in. And when he was looking, unbeknownst to me, my name is in the list of people he should look into. So Ed came out to Sacramento and parked himself in a total for a week or two and listened. And then one day I got a phone call and was asked if I had any interest in meeting a man who was interested in syndicating me nationally.”

Rush Limbaugh

Rush was working at KFBK in Sacramento at the time and had an out in his contract if he was able to get a job in a top ten market. And he says, when McLaughlin gave him that first break, everything took off. He was on 56 stations right off the bat. They added New York City to help boost national advertising. By year three Rush was on 500 stations.

Rush credits Ed McLaughlin with saving AM Radio. “There’s a lot of luck when I met Ed McLaughlin — I didn’t realize what national syndication, I knew what that was.  I had no idea, I’ve always told people I dreamed about success all those years, but it’s nothing like I ever imagined it to be. And so I was unprepared for the growth and the evolution and how to maintain it and stay ahead of it. And it was all because of Ed McLaughlin and his commitment and his patience, his adaptability, his good nature.”

1 COMMENT

  1. A great tribute from Rush. It should also be mentioned that his name got on that list from a dear friend of mine Bruce Marr. Bruce had heard Rush on KFBK and knew something was there.

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