WEBVTT - Remembering Rush 0:00:00.640 --> 0:00:05.280 Kaboom. If you thought four hours a day, dred minutes 0:00:05.320 --> 0:00:08.520 a week was enough, I think again. He's the last 0:00:08.640 --> 0:00:12.240 remnants of the old Republic, a sole fashion of fairness. 0:00:12.320 --> 0:00:15.320 He treats crackheads in the ghetto cutter the same as 0:00:15.360 --> 0:00:19.560 the rich pill poppers in the penthouse, the Clearinghouse of 0:00:19.560 --> 0:00:23.360 hot takes break free for something special. The Fifth Hour 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:33.680 with Ben Maller starts right now in the air everywhere, 0:00:33.720 --> 0:00:38.839 back at it again a Saturday Saturday, Saturday Saturday addition 0:00:39.159 --> 0:00:43.880 of the Fifth Hour with Ben Maller and not David 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:47.600 Gascon not here again. But we do this eight days 0:00:47.640 --> 0:00:52.080 a week, eight days a week, a spinoff of the 0:00:52.200 --> 0:00:57.600 Overnight Show, because clearly that is not enough audio content. 0:00:57.720 --> 0:00:59.959 So we are here for you when you have your 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:04.760 honeydew list on the weekends, or you're working out, get 0:01:04.760 --> 0:01:08.640 a little exercise, getting on the treadmill, whatever brings you 0:01:08.880 --> 0:01:13.200 to the show. I know our guy moving man, Matt 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:17.520 in Boston. He listens. He saves up the podcast when 0:01:17.520 --> 0:01:20.240 he's back home and Massachusetts. But then when he goes 0:01:20.280 --> 0:01:23.280 out on the road, he'll he'll have a full archive 0:01:23.360 --> 0:01:25.959 and he'll catch up. He'll he'll listen to old podcasts, 0:01:25.959 --> 0:01:27.920 which we like. We obviously, I mean, anytime you listen, 0:01:27.959 --> 0:01:31.160 that's a good thing. Now, before we get into it, cameo, cameo, 0:01:31.280 --> 0:01:34.600 cameo I did speaking of Moving Man, Matt. We did 0:01:34.680 --> 0:01:40.760 a wonderful, wonderful cameo for Matt. He surprised his wife, 0:01:41.800 --> 0:01:45.640 who hates the show. His wife does not enjoy our 0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:51.840 little radio show because the Moving Man is obsessed, obsessed 0:01:51.880 --> 0:01:53.720 with the show and he's a big super fan and 0:01:53.840 --> 0:01:56.720 we man, we really appreciate that. But his wife's not 0:01:56.760 --> 0:01:59.960 as much a fan. And so he wanted a super 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:03.800 rise his wife with a very nice trip, and so 0:02:04.040 --> 0:02:08.240 he he used cameo and then I I did a rant. 0:02:08.320 --> 0:02:12.080 It was on Valentine's Day for his wife, who I 0:02:12.120 --> 0:02:14.639 know hates me. And then at the end of it, 0:02:14.720 --> 0:02:20.480 the big surprise is we revealed the trip. So it 0:02:20.600 --> 0:02:22.760 was it was pretty good. And for those who don't know, 0:02:23.080 --> 0:02:27.000 you know Moving Man, Uh, he's the guy that has 0:02:27.280 --> 0:02:34.240 the mouth the roving Mallard Militia billboard on his on 0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:40.480 his truck on his truck there and uh, very very cool. 0:02:40.520 --> 0:02:44.400 And he's met him several times over the years, and 0:02:44.840 --> 0:02:46.720 so he is he's the guy. So we did a 0:02:46.720 --> 0:02:50.160 cameo last week if you would like your own cameo Cameo. 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:53.440 Cameo Cameo, we were on their personalized video message. It's 0:02:53.440 --> 0:02:56.600 not free, um, but it's not that much. It's not 0:02:56.639 --> 0:02:59.320 that much. You can check that out on cameo dot com. 0:02:59.360 --> 0:03:02.440 So on this edition to the podcast, We've got Bow 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:06.200 the show Who's in Here? Bow occasionally fills in for 0:03:07.639 --> 0:03:10.840 Cooper Loop. You were in the other night, although it 0:03:10.880 --> 0:03:12.640 was weird the other night, Bow, because you were not 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:17.240 actually in the studio. You were at home, right, you 0:03:17.240 --> 0:03:21.120 were at home. Yeah, so things were a little wonky, right, 0:03:21.160 --> 0:03:23.560 things with a little wonky that. Yeah, No, it was different, 0:03:23.600 --> 0:03:27.040 but uh still a joy to listen and all that stuff. Well, 0:03:27.040 --> 0:03:28.880 thank you, bo, I appreciate that. Now you're gonna be 0:03:28.880 --> 0:03:30.880 singing because one of the your famous bits on our 0:03:30.880 --> 0:03:33.440 show was when you we had you sing a song 0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:36.520 parody and you really got into it. You really just 0:03:36.560 --> 0:03:39.080 embraced that role. I mean, I gotta start charging when 0:03:39.080 --> 0:03:41.360 I do that. It's it's not right that I do 0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:45.000 that for free. So I don't know, we'll see, we'll see, yeah, no, 0:03:45.160 --> 0:03:47.760 I understand. Well, maybe we'll at the end, we'll have 0:03:47.800 --> 0:03:51.720 you do a little so on this podcast, We've got 0:03:52.080 --> 0:03:57.560 Mega Dittos, the Tribute. We also have Fake Famous Fake 0:03:57.840 --> 0:04:01.320 Famous and we will we'll get into that, and we 0:04:01.440 --> 0:04:04.320 have pop Quiz al right, so we have all of 0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:07.800 those things and we will form this edition of The 0:04:07.800 --> 0:04:10.280 Fifth Hour, the Saturday edition of The Fifth Hour. Now 0:04:10.320 --> 0:04:13.520 I wanted to start. We touched on this yesterday with 0:04:14.640 --> 0:04:18.840 Mike Harmon and the impact of Rush Limball on the 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:24.160 broadcasting business and the fact that we we all work 0:04:24.240 --> 0:04:27.479 under the same roof here at the Premier Networks, which 0:04:27.560 --> 0:04:29.960 is Fox Sports Radio is a part of the Premiere 0:04:29.960 --> 0:04:33.160 Networks on I Heart Media, and some of the biggest 0:04:33.240 --> 0:04:38.520 names in syndicated talk radio work at Premier. But the foundation, 0:04:38.600 --> 0:04:43.640 the bedrock of the company has been since I've been here, 0:04:43.839 --> 0:04:48.760 and before I was here, Rush Limball U, the conservative 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:53.080 radio icon political pundit Rush Limbaugh, who died this week 0:04:53.200 --> 0:04:56.039 at the age of seventy after a fight with cancer. 0:04:56.400 --> 0:04:59.280 And I wanted to share a couple of stories about 0:04:59.400 --> 0:05:04.239 Rush uh And a lot of these are by proxy, um, 0:05:04.400 --> 0:05:06.479 but we've told it a few times. I to to 0:05:06.560 --> 0:05:08.440 kind of expand on where I'm at. He rushed at 0:05:08.480 --> 0:05:11.880 the show from his house in Florida. And he had 0:05:11.960 --> 0:05:13.560 worked in New York for a long time, but he 0:05:13.600 --> 0:05:16.560 was in Florida for many many years and occasionally he 0:05:16.600 --> 0:05:18.520 had a lot of money. You would travel around and 0:05:18.680 --> 0:05:21.680 live his best life. And uh, he would work out 0:05:21.720 --> 0:05:26.039 of the premier studios in Los Angeles when he would 0:05:26.040 --> 0:05:32.159 come through, and he the studio Rush used was this 0:05:32.680 --> 0:05:36.239 massive studio. Was its bigger than the Fox Sports Radio studie? 0:05:36.240 --> 0:05:40.200 It is probably it is um and it was just 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:45.120 for Rush. It was just for Rush. And if you 0:05:45.279 --> 0:05:47.840 ever visit our shop, which I don't think you're allowed 0:05:47.880 --> 0:05:50.120 to do, but if you come in there and you 0:05:50.160 --> 0:05:52.279 go into the Fox Sports Radio studio, and then the 0:05:52.320 --> 0:05:54.840 first thing is if if you didn't come out of 0:05:54.880 --> 0:05:58.720 the the studio and you make a right turn, there's 0:05:58.760 --> 0:06:01.719 a very small hallway and then as you make a 0:06:01.800 --> 0:06:04.719 right turn out of there, and then you make a 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:08.080 left turn and then there's a kind of a not 0:06:08.200 --> 0:06:10.520 really courtyard, but there's a couple of couches there and 0:06:10.560 --> 0:06:14.240 there's doors to different studios, and then across to the 0:06:14.320 --> 0:06:19.440 right was the Rush studio. And uh, some some memories 0:06:19.480 --> 0:06:22.680 of that. I remember when it was Rush week because 0:06:22.760 --> 0:06:24.840 Rush would usually come out for a couple of days 0:06:24.920 --> 0:06:28.680 or a week, and it was Rush week, and people 0:06:28.720 --> 0:06:31.839 would be running around all hours of the day and 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:37.880 night there to make sure everything was perfect for Rush 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:40.960 when he when he arrived. Me, this is the big 0:06:41.000 --> 0:06:42.880 star of the company. You would expect that, and they 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:45.760 would roll out the red carpet, v I P. Status 0:06:46.360 --> 0:06:48.760 Um seeing the famous. If you're in radio and you're 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:52.880 a radio nerd like me, the gold microphone that Rush 0:06:53.040 --> 0:06:56.000 used is a big deal. And he had his own 0:06:56.440 --> 0:06:59.840 private studio, which he didn't use all that much. It 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:02.240 not like Rush was in Los Angeles all the time. 0:07:02.279 --> 0:07:04.760 He wasn't. He'd come out a few times a year, 0:07:05.680 --> 0:07:08.160 and nobody else had access to it. As I remember, 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:14.720 and one of my my famous Rush stories, and it's 0:07:14.760 --> 0:07:16.600 more about me than it is about Rush, of course, 0:07:16.720 --> 0:07:20.240 is that one night Russia had been there and I 0:07:20.280 --> 0:07:24.000 was coming into the overnight show, and so I even 0:07:24.040 --> 0:07:25.560 Rushi had been there for a couple of days. It 0:07:25.600 --> 0:07:28.280 was a Friday. I was doing a Friday night overnight show, 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:31.560 and Russia had left to go back to Florida or wherever, 0:07:32.720 --> 0:07:37.520 and for some reason they forgot to close and lock 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:40.320 the door to his studio. I guess maybe they were 0:07:40.320 --> 0:07:43.559 cleaning it or something like that. And so I still 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:47.040 remember it was like the middle of the night, and 0:07:47.120 --> 0:07:49.360 you know, it's like two or three in the morning. 0:07:50.120 --> 0:07:52.480 No one else is around, no one else, you know, 0:07:52.520 --> 0:07:55.040 weekend overnight. They're not cleaning. They don't clean on the weekends. 0:07:56.120 --> 0:07:57.360 So I said, you know what, I'm I'm gonna go 0:07:57.440 --> 0:07:58.960 in there. I want to see where the king works. 0:07:59.000 --> 0:08:01.480 I want to look at the king his throne. Of course, 0:08:01.880 --> 0:08:04.360 realizing that, you know, I'm not really allowed in there, 0:08:04.360 --> 0:08:05.960 one's supposed to be there, but I went over there. 0:08:06.000 --> 0:08:07.640 I just want to look. I wanted, you know, because 0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:10.320 this guy's the god of radio, one of the the 0:08:10.640 --> 0:08:12.280 icons of the business, and I wanted to in there. 0:08:12.280 --> 0:08:15.040 So I I went over there, and I just I 0:08:15.040 --> 0:08:16.800 didn't really, I just want to look in the studio 0:08:16.840 --> 0:08:18.800 and uh and see what it was all about and 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:22.760 all that. And that is when I saw it and 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:25.520 a little sparkle to it. What is it? And as 0:08:25.560 --> 0:08:30.040 your pronounced, uh, rush in the in the chair that 0:08:30.080 --> 0:08:32.680 he was doing the show from had left a pen 0:08:33.600 --> 0:08:38.880 behind uh and uh, so I went over there and uh, 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:41.480 he had disguarded it. He didn't need the pen anymore, 0:08:42.840 --> 0:08:46.680 and that became my personal and I added this to 0:08:46.760 --> 0:08:49.480 my my Michigas is these pens. I am a big 0:08:49.559 --> 0:08:53.600 pen guy, and so I I have a Rush limball 0:08:53.679 --> 0:08:56.599 pen that he left behind, which I don't know that 0:08:56.640 --> 0:09:00.199 anyone realizes is his pen other than me. Uh me know, 0:09:00.240 --> 0:09:03.040 I've picked up pens from different people that have quasi 0:09:03.120 --> 0:09:06.920 celebrities that have worked at Fox Sports Radio and in 0:09:06.920 --> 0:09:09.600 the Premier Building over the years, whether it's my guy 0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:12.040 p O B who we've had on the podcast, Tony 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:14.000 Bruno who we've had on J More We've gotta get 0:09:14.040 --> 0:09:18.440 J on the podcast, uh, and whatnot? But uh, Rush 0:09:18.800 --> 0:09:22.840 talent on Loan from God. Also, Mike Harmon brought up 0:09:22.880 --> 0:09:26.840 the the point of security and because Rush such a 0:09:26.960 --> 0:09:31.160 polarizing figure and a lot of whacka doodles outlooking to 0:09:31.200 --> 0:09:33.920 attack people who are on the other side politically, even 0:09:34.040 --> 0:09:37.280 you know years ago, it's gotten worse, but there would 0:09:37.280 --> 0:09:41.760 always be a lot of security and people with guns 0:09:42.240 --> 0:09:47.000 to make sure that nobody messed with with Rush back 0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:51.720 when he would visit the studio. And uh, the catch 0:09:51.720 --> 0:09:54.360 phrase I mentioned Talent on Loan from God? Half my 0:09:54.480 --> 0:09:56.559 brain tied behind my back just to make it fair, 0:09:56.640 --> 0:09:58.720 those kind of things. But when I was a young pop, 0:09:58.760 --> 0:10:00.800 and I mentioned this also in a pre vious episode, 0:10:01.000 --> 0:10:03.080 when I was a young pop, I wanted to learn 0:10:03.120 --> 0:10:06.720 as much as I could about people in the radio business. 0:10:06.760 --> 0:10:09.960 So my Mom's like, well, you gotta get some autobiographies, 0:10:09.960 --> 0:10:12.040 you gotta learn their stories and stuff. So I did. 0:10:12.120 --> 0:10:13.800 I got as many as I could. I read about 0:10:14.120 --> 0:10:18.600 the legends when I was younger in radio, Rush Limball, 0:10:18.760 --> 0:10:23.160 Howard Stern, Paul Harvey, people along those lines who were 0:10:23.160 --> 0:10:25.240 the big titans of the business, and I just wanted 0:10:25.280 --> 0:10:29.800 to kind of learn what made them tick. And Rush 0:10:29.920 --> 0:10:34.920 Limball and his experience really resonated. And I mentioned this 0:10:35.000 --> 0:10:42.120 the college dropout DJ Vagabond, DJ Journeyman d J I 0:10:42.120 --> 0:10:44.880 had a couple of names. He was Jeff Christy and 0:10:45.080 --> 0:10:49.040 Rusty Sharp, where his stage names as a top forty DJ, 0:10:49.200 --> 0:10:51.480 and he bounced around and then he got out of 0:10:51.520 --> 0:10:53.720 the radio business for a while. He got a job 0:10:54.600 --> 0:10:59.520 with Major League Baseball's Kansas City Royals very briefly. But 0:10:59.679 --> 0:11:02.000 once radios in your blood, and I know this having 0:11:02.040 --> 0:11:04.400 been in radio. Once it's in your blood, it's hard 0:11:04.440 --> 0:11:06.280 to get out of it. It's hard to get out 0:11:06.320 --> 0:11:09.640 of the it's in your inner being. And so Rush 0:11:09.720 --> 0:11:12.280 eventually worked his way back to radio. He left the Royals. 0:11:12.320 --> 0:11:16.880 He was the promotions director, which gives out the the 0:11:16.960 --> 0:11:19.160 bobble heads and sets all that stuff up and that 0:11:19.240 --> 0:11:21.320 kind of crap. And who knows what they did in 0:11:21.320 --> 0:11:23.240 the nineteen seventies. I have no idea, but I assume 0:11:23.280 --> 0:11:26.760 it's much of the same stuff. And so he left. 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:29.960 He went to Sacramento and then eventually he worked his magic. 0:11:30.040 --> 0:11:34.440 It's it's It is a little similar to Phil Henry, 0:11:34.480 --> 0:11:37.440 although Phil as good as Phil Henry has been in broadcasting, 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:40.560 did not reach the level that Rush reach. But but 0:11:41.000 --> 0:11:44.040 Phil Henry, you know, he went out kind of re 0:11:44.440 --> 0:11:47.720 He was a lifetime radio guy, and he just out 0:11:47.760 --> 0:11:51.240 of necessity, out of necessity. You know that that old 0:11:51.240 --> 0:11:55.320 line that the you know, the necessity is the mother 0:11:55.400 --> 0:12:00.200 of all invention, right, And so remember reading about the 0:12:00.320 --> 0:12:02.880 voices of Phil Henry. And he did that because he 0:12:02.920 --> 0:12:05.760 was at a small, crappy radio station that nobody was 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:08.120 listening to, and nobody was calling, and he was by himself, 0:12:08.559 --> 0:12:11.880 and so in order to make it seem like there 0:12:11.920 --> 0:12:14.200 was a lot going on. He created all these characters 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:17.480 and these evil alter egos and all that, and it 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:19.960 worked out and he he had a very popular syndicated 0:12:20.000 --> 0:12:23.880 show for years and he's still still doing some stuff there. 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:27.800 Phil Henry, but Rush, the Rush Limbough shows, I understand it. 0:12:28.559 --> 0:12:32.560 It it it just kind of organically happened after twenty 0:12:32.640 --> 0:12:34.600 years of being in the radio business and being a DJ, 0:12:34.720 --> 0:12:38.360 and it just kind of developed that. So rest in peace, 0:12:38.440 --> 0:12:41.240 Rush and uh tremendous impact. We'll see what happens to 0:12:41.720 --> 0:12:45.240 that type of radio, political talk radio. And there's other 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:48.319 legends now and been able to meet some of them 0:12:48.440 --> 0:12:51.600 over the years here at Fox Sports Radio, Slash the 0:12:51.600 --> 0:12:54.840 premier networks. But Harmon was mentioning all the different big 0:12:54.920 --> 0:12:57.000 names that have come through the building over the years, 0:12:57.160 --> 0:12:59.800 and I was trying to think of and I don't 0:12:59.800 --> 0:13:02.240 want to a list here because I do not do 0:13:02.480 --> 0:13:06.760 list podcasting or radio, but just off the top of 0:13:06.800 --> 0:13:10.000 my head, some of the people that came through I 0:13:10.080 --> 0:13:14.360 remember seeing and I'm not a big music person, but 0:13:14.440 --> 0:13:17.400 NICKI six did a syndicated show for a while out 0:13:17.400 --> 0:13:22.439 of the building. But then I remember Slash with the 0:13:23.320 --> 0:13:27.679 distinctive trademark top hat and uh, it's a little lot 0:13:27.679 --> 0:13:30.040 when you pull up to work and uh, and Slash 0:13:30.120 --> 0:13:32.040 is walking around. Look at you know, there's an A 0:13:32.080 --> 0:13:33.560 T M in our building and he's going to get 0:13:33.600 --> 0:13:36.240 some cash out of the A T M. Uh. There 0:13:36.320 --> 0:13:39.400 used to be a country music show that was in 0:13:39.440 --> 0:13:41.120 the building and some of the big names. And I'm 0:13:41.120 --> 0:13:42.760 not a big country at that time. I wasn't a 0:13:42.760 --> 0:13:45.200 big country music. Right now, I actually like country music. 0:13:45.240 --> 0:13:46.840 I listened to it some of the old style, like 0:13:46.880 --> 0:13:48.440 the old stuff, not so much the new stuff. But 0:13:48.640 --> 0:13:52.440 Reba McIntyre was in their big star in country music. 0:13:52.520 --> 0:13:56.839 More recently, Steve Harvey had a chance to to see him. 0:13:56.840 --> 0:13:58.280 And back in the old days when we used to 0:13:58.280 --> 0:14:01.760 have these big Galla Christmas parties, Premier Networks Christmas parties, 0:14:02.320 --> 0:14:05.680 like they'd bring in all the heavyweights. Dr Laura with 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:08.560 a big star. Dr Laura did her advice show during 0:14:08.559 --> 0:14:13.120 the day. Jim Rome would come in there, and Art Bell, 0:14:13.400 --> 0:14:17.280 the legendary Art Bell from Perempt, Nevada, And uh, you 0:14:17.320 --> 0:14:20.000 know still to this day the man that replaced Art Bell, 0:14:20.080 --> 0:14:24.000 George nor on Coast to Coast, is out of that building. 0:14:24.040 --> 0:14:29.400 And Steve Harvey his radio show. Remember the famous situation 0:14:29.640 --> 0:14:33.240 Steve Harvey, Uh liked the color of the Mallamobile. We 0:14:33.320 --> 0:14:36.880 bonded in the parking lot at three thirty in the morning. 0:14:37.920 --> 0:14:39.760 He walked in with his security guard and he pointed 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:41.320 at the car. So I like the color of that car. 0:14:41.800 --> 0:14:45.560 He enjoyed the color of the Mallamobile. So those are 0:14:45.560 --> 0:14:52.000 some of my stories about about Rush and recall also 0:14:52.320 --> 0:14:55.280 before I get off his off this topic, I I 0:14:55.280 --> 0:14:57.680 I do remember the one time I was supposed to 0:14:57.680 --> 0:15:01.840 meet Russia Limbaugh my ball loss the late grade Andrew Ashwood, 0:15:02.320 --> 0:15:06.160 May he rest in peace. He he was a radio junkie, 0:15:06.200 --> 0:15:10.360 also program director, a big legend in the business, bigger 0:15:10.400 --> 0:15:15.960 than life. Uh, Andrew Ashwood is a programmer. And I 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:18.600 had mentioned, Hey, I want to meet you know Limbaugh, 0:15:18.680 --> 0:15:21.320 and yeah, I'm gonna make that happen. Of course it 0:15:21.440 --> 0:15:23.640 was it was this weird deal. Even though Rush, you know, 0:15:23.680 --> 0:15:26.040 he listened, he was people that knew him, he was 0:15:26.120 --> 0:15:27.880 very great, you know, good person to people knew him. 0:15:27.920 --> 0:15:29.200 But if you didn't know him, he was kind of 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:32.640 you know, anybody in in that genre. You know, it's 0:15:32.640 --> 0:15:34.320 a little bit of like, hey, you want to step 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:36.320 on any toes, and certainly if you're in the company, 0:15:36.320 --> 0:15:38.720 you don't want to step on Russia's toes. But he's like, listen, 0:15:39.600 --> 0:15:41.840 here's when Russia's It was Rush Week. It was gonna 0:15:41.880 --> 0:15:44.040 Rush Week in l A. And Rush was doing his 0:15:44.080 --> 0:15:46.120 show from l A. So so listen, here's when he 0:15:46.120 --> 0:15:48.560 shows up. You know that you're gonna get dropped off 0:15:48.720 --> 0:15:51.240 by a car service, and so he's gonna walk in 0:15:51.280 --> 0:15:53.440 it this time, so we're gonna meet him. He's got 0:15:53.440 --> 0:15:57.280 a few minutes. But when he walks in, so I'm like, okay, 0:15:57.800 --> 0:15:59.240 so I happen to be there. I think this is 0:15:59.240 --> 0:16:01.640 when I was working with Chris Myers. I was doing 0:16:01.680 --> 0:16:03.680 like a midday show all right, first of all, so 0:16:03.720 --> 0:16:08.160 that I was doing that. So anyway, whatever, it was 0:16:08.200 --> 0:16:10.960 after our show, and Rush was gonna come in and 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:15.840 and do do some of his programming. And so I 0:16:15.880 --> 0:16:17.880 guess he was recording something or something. I don't know, 0:16:17.960 --> 0:16:22.360 but anyway, so we were we were waiting around and Andrew, 0:16:23.560 --> 0:16:24.920 you know, he's like, all right, I'm gonna be there 0:16:24.960 --> 0:16:28.000 or whatever, and he got caught up, as I remember it, 0:16:28.520 --> 0:16:31.000 he got caught up in a meeting and by the 0:16:31.040 --> 0:16:35.920 time he got down two usher us and shepherd us 0:16:35.960 --> 0:16:40.520 over to meet Rush. Uh the meeting went long, and 0:16:40.680 --> 0:16:43.160 Russhi had already arrived and he was prepping for whatever 0:16:43.200 --> 0:16:47.200 he was doing, whatever he was recording. And uh so 0:16:47.360 --> 0:16:51.600 I missed it by probably five to ten minutes from 0:16:51.920 --> 0:16:55.600 from meeting meeting Rush face to face. But yeah, that's 0:16:55.600 --> 0:16:58.240 the way life works, all right. Uh it is the 0:16:58.240 --> 0:17:00.000 fifth hour, as you know. And I wanted to get 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:04.640 through this. Fake Famous. Now this is a Mallard documentary review, 0:17:05.960 --> 0:17:12.000 that's right, a Mallard documentary review. Uh. Now, HBO has 0:17:12.080 --> 0:17:14.879 a new documentary I think came out a couple of 0:17:14.880 --> 0:17:19.840 weeks ago, called Fake Famous. It premiered, I watched it online. 0:17:19.840 --> 0:17:22.960 It was actually recommended by Coop de Loop. And I'm 0:17:23.000 --> 0:17:27.159 a big documentary junkie anyway, and this was right in 0:17:27.200 --> 0:17:31.960 my wheelhouse. And so the premise of the documentary, if 0:17:32.160 --> 0:17:33.760 you did not hear us talk about it on the 0:17:33.840 --> 0:17:39.840 radio show, the premise was to show how ridunculously easy 0:17:39.880 --> 0:17:44.440 it is to manipulate minds in the world of social media, 0:17:45.160 --> 0:17:50.040 in that ecosystem, and how you can take someone who's 0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:56.760 a nobody, has no tangible skill and with the proper 0:17:56.800 --> 0:18:02.120 investment and the proper you know presentation. If you will, 0:18:03.440 --> 0:18:08.600 you can make them an online influence. So that was 0:18:08.640 --> 0:18:12.760 the premise. And this this guy that the guy behind it, 0:18:12.800 --> 0:18:17.880 I guess his old newspaper guy, and he he walked 0:18:17.880 --> 0:18:21.680 you through in the documentary exactly what happened. The goal 0:18:21.760 --> 0:18:27.320 was to take some random schmo with no online footprint 0:18:28.400 --> 0:18:33.760 of any stature and turn them into someone who has influence. 0:18:34.520 --> 0:18:36.960 And the way they did this, I guess I'm gonna 0:18:37.040 --> 0:18:39.560 give the whole damn thing away, but you know it's 0:18:39.600 --> 0:18:41.879 still worth a watch, still worth a watch, and if 0:18:41.920 --> 0:18:43.520 you if you don't want to hear, then you can 0:18:43.640 --> 0:18:46.800 turn off the podcast right now. What happened? So what 0:18:46.920 --> 0:18:49.920 happened is they they they had an audition. They brought 0:18:49.960 --> 0:18:52.720 people in that you know, l A just before the 0:18:52.760 --> 0:18:55.520 pandemic and there's auditions all the time. So they had 0:18:55.600 --> 0:18:58.399 like a casting call and they brought people in and 0:18:58.440 --> 0:19:02.560 they picked three ran them people. And these are people 0:19:02.600 --> 0:19:05.040 that don't working behind the scenes in l A. A A 0:19:05.119 --> 0:19:07.919 lot of people working odd jobs trying to make it 0:19:07.960 --> 0:19:11.600 in the entertainment, in in show business. And so the 0:19:11.840 --> 0:19:14.800 guy picked three people, a woman and two dudes, and 0:19:16.080 --> 0:19:19.600 they then went out and went to different websites and 0:19:19.640 --> 0:19:25.560 purchased a bunch of bots as followers, fake social media followers. 0:19:26.640 --> 0:19:29.600 And the guy said he started out, he spent like 0:19:29.640 --> 0:19:33.920 a hundred and twenty bucks. He bought seven thousand, five 0:19:34.000 --> 0:19:38.800 hundred followers and a bunch of likes on Instagram. And 0:19:39.280 --> 0:19:42.879 they they use this and then trying to start with 0:19:42.960 --> 0:19:46.920 a base and it it really is the takeaway a 0:19:46.920 --> 0:19:48.399 couple of take aways. One of them that I have 0:19:48.600 --> 0:19:55.000 right now is the band wagon effect, because what happened 0:19:55.040 --> 0:20:00.000 was they would buy these fake followers, and at least 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:02.760 this is the way I interpret it. It's part of 0:20:02.760 --> 0:20:07.280 the bandwagon effect, which is a psychology psychological phenomenon. Right 0:20:07.359 --> 0:20:12.600 is the is the term, but it essentially is that 0:20:13.520 --> 0:20:18.760 people will do things when they they think it's cool. 0:20:18.880 --> 0:20:21.160 They'll they'll be more like if you start a restaurant, 0:20:21.240 --> 0:20:24.760 right if you start a new restaurant, um, the way 0:20:24.800 --> 0:20:27.199 to get people interested in one of the ways is 0:20:27.240 --> 0:20:30.159 to fill the restaurant with people who are your friends 0:20:30.160 --> 0:20:33.040 and family or have a line or you know. Same 0:20:33.040 --> 0:20:35.400 thing works when you're opening a store. The herd mentality 0:20:35.480 --> 0:20:38.680 group think, which is very big right now, politically group think, 0:20:39.119 --> 0:20:43.520 no individual opinions, and the bandwagon affect. Essentially, I can 0:20:43.560 --> 0:20:45.240 sum it up in one sentence is that most people 0:20:45.280 --> 0:20:49.520 are followers and they're not leaders, right, And you know, 0:20:50.320 --> 0:20:52.040 you see a group of people, you want to follow 0:20:52.080 --> 0:20:54.280 that group of people because you think there's something good there, 0:20:54.320 --> 0:20:57.080 there's something that's neat, and so you want to follow. 0:20:57.200 --> 0:20:59.440 And so the same thing applies in the social media world, 0:20:59.440 --> 0:21:03.600 where you know, you have a bunch of fake followers 0:21:03.600 --> 0:21:05.960 and then other people like, oh, this person must be important. 0:21:06.000 --> 0:21:08.120 There's a lot of people following this person. But there's 0:21:08.119 --> 0:21:11.120 a lot of comments on this particular post I stumbled upon. 0:21:11.359 --> 0:21:13.840 So I know what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna follow 0:21:15.080 --> 0:21:19.440 and uh, and there's hundreds of millions of these bots online. 0:21:19.480 --> 0:21:21.920 This is one of the things that and I had 0:21:21.960 --> 0:21:26.439 this epiphany a couple of years back that it is 0:21:27.359 --> 0:21:31.960 the matrix, right, that it is the matrix, this weird, 0:21:32.920 --> 0:21:38.920 weird world of social media and you know what Twitter 0:21:39.080 --> 0:21:42.880 is and all that, and uh, you know the algorithms, 0:21:42.920 --> 0:21:46.600 the Russian bots, the blue check marks, which I guess 0:21:46.600 --> 0:21:52.800 I'm part of, and the influences and all this and yeah, 0:21:52.840 --> 0:21:55.320 I mean and so so that's that's that's the world 0:21:55.320 --> 0:21:56.800 of social media. You don't know what's real or not. 0:21:57.000 --> 0:22:01.359 And so watching this and all the bots and and whatnot, 0:22:01.440 --> 0:22:05.080 now there were this documentary wasn't perfect. Some of the 0:22:05.119 --> 0:22:08.560 political stuff I could have done without, but you know, 0:22:08.600 --> 0:22:11.040 I knew who made it, and I knew that some 0:22:11.119 --> 0:22:13.639 of that stuff was gonna be in there. That's just 0:22:14.600 --> 0:22:17.840 part of it. I overlook that I tuned that out 0:22:17.960 --> 0:22:20.600 and I took away what I felt was the important 0:22:20.640 --> 0:22:26.000 part of this documentary fake famous and uh, you know, 0:22:26.040 --> 0:22:28.440 they did point out that, you know, these these bought 0:22:28.720 --> 0:22:33.040 a counts. The social media companies, even though occasionally they'll 0:22:33.040 --> 0:22:36.760 try to get rid of the fake accounts, they actually 0:22:37.000 --> 0:22:39.560 don't really mind them because it makes it seem like 0:22:39.640 --> 0:22:43.320 there's more people on their platforms. It gives the false 0:22:43.400 --> 0:22:48.520 illusion that these are these are very popular and more 0:22:48.560 --> 0:22:52.520 popular than they are, and it grows engagement, which helps 0:22:53.040 --> 0:22:56.359 the price of the stock and all that. Anyway, So 0:22:56.480 --> 0:22:58.480 just to get back to the to the documentary, here 0:22:58.520 --> 0:23:03.600 they this guy kept buying followers until now the two 0:23:03.640 --> 0:23:06.439 guys didn't really work out, but the woman did and 0:23:06.520 --> 0:23:10.640 she got the two hundred fifty thousand followers, you know, slowly, 0:23:10.680 --> 0:23:12.520 because you can't do it overnight. You got to do 0:23:12.560 --> 0:23:13.800 it a week at a time, you know, a couple 0:23:13.840 --> 0:23:16.399 of days a week, and you can add followers and 0:23:16.440 --> 0:23:18.640