Speaker 1: If you missed any episodes of Russia Limbaugh The Man
Speaker 1: behind the Golden E I B Microphone, you've missed more
Speaker 1: great stories from some of Russia's closest friends, family, and colleagues.
Speaker 1: All previous episodes are available now on I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your podcast. On this episode
Speaker 1: of Russia Limbaugh The Man behind the Golden E I
Speaker 1: B Microphone, we take you further behind the scenes of
Speaker 1: the radio program. So on today's show, you're gonna hear
Speaker 1: from two people that are connected with Rush almost for
Speaker 1: the entire length of the radio show, but they were
Speaker 1: also very involved in Russia Lamba the television show. Both
Speaker 1: are very dear friends, both a very dear co workers
Speaker 1: of mine. Today you're going to find out who Coco
Speaker 1: and Cookie really are. Whether you listened every day you
Speaker 1: are at the E I B Network and the Russia
Speaker 1: Bot program heard on over six hundred great radio stations
Speaker 1: where every now and then nation's leading radio talk show,
Speaker 1: the most eagerly anticipated program in Americans are the stories
Speaker 1: you've never heard from the people behind the scenes who
Speaker 1: knew him best and loved him most. Brushwood Ball having
Speaker 1: more fundily human being, it could be allowed to have
Speaker 1: Rush Limbaugh, the man behind the Golden E I D microphone,
Speaker 1: hosted by James Golden. Hey, James Golden here. You might
Speaker 1: remember I told you a few weeks ago that my
Speaker 1: Pillow had sent me their entire collection. Well, you know what,
Speaker 1: it's amazing. They are so luxurious, and it's time that
Speaker 1: you experienced some of that luxury too. My pillow makes
Speaker 1: more than pillows. I love the pillow. I sleep on
Speaker 1: it every night. But you know what else they have.
Speaker 1: They have sheets that are simply incredible. They're smooth, they're soft,
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Speaker 1: comfort guarantee. You get pillows, you get sheets. Oh did
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Speaker 1: have to experience. Loging to my pillow dot com, click
Speaker 1: on the new radio listener specials. Use the promo code
Speaker 1: icon that's I C O N. You'll find lots of
Speaker 1: incredible offers there right now. That's my pillow dot Com
Speaker 1: promo code icon. Well, here we are Rush Limbaugh, the
Speaker 1: man behind the Golden e. I B Mike, I'm James
Speaker 1: Golden and today it's the Cookie and Coco Show. So yes, Now,
Speaker 1: over the years, all of you who have listened to
Speaker 1: the Russia Lambus showed have heard him refer endlessly to
Speaker 1: both Cookie and Coco. And we have the and this
Speaker 1: isn't cocoa like hot Coco. This is cocoa like Ko
Speaker 1: Ko Coco. Yeah, GURUO Coco's right? Yeah, Okay, I can
Speaker 1: hear media matters right now trying to make something racist
Speaker 1: out of that. Oh well, let's explain to everybody Cookie,
Speaker 1: how you got the name Cookie? How did that happen? Okay, Well,
Speaker 1: when I was working on the Rush TV show, there
Speaker 1: was a story in the Washington Post about ABC News
Speaker 1: reporter COKEI Roberts that she had to go to a
Speaker 1: gala um immediately after her report that evening. So she
Speaker 1: put on she had her evening gown under her raincoat,
Speaker 1: and they put her in front of a green screen
Speaker 1: with the Capital behind her, and she pretended to do
Speaker 1: a stand up live from the Capital in front of
Speaker 1: you know, the green screen. Well, the story got out
Speaker 1: and So on the Rush TV show, we did a
Speaker 1: skit where I was the E I B reporter, Cookie Gleason. Uh,
Speaker 1: and I did a report for E I B News,
Speaker 1: and the green screen behind me kept changing locations. It
Speaker 1: went from the Capital to like the NBC News News
Speaker 1: car crash too. It just kept they kept changing it.
Speaker 1: So from that day on, I was always Cookie, and
Speaker 1: you know, Rush always called me Cookie. So that's how
Speaker 1: I got the name Cookie. All right, Now, what's your
Speaker 1: real name? No, my real name is Kathleen Gleason Priyas.
Speaker 1: And so there's gonna be a reveal here soon the second.
Speaker 1: So now let's turn to Coco and Coco. How did
Speaker 1: you come about the name Coco? And and and and
Speaker 1: again that is not cocoa, like hot cocoa. That's like
Speaker 1: gorilla cocoa. Okay, okay. Oh. I came to the Rush
Speaker 1: TV show in and I was a production assistant and
Speaker 1: I was the low man on the totem pole, as
Speaker 1: they say, and uh, they were going to do a
Speaker 1: skit about Coco the sign language speaking gorilla, and Rush
Speaker 1: thought this was hilarious that they people thought a guerrilla
Speaker 1: could speak sign language. So the bit was that Russia
Speaker 1: was going to do the story on the gorilla and
Speaker 1: I was gonna be in the little box in the corner,
Speaker 1: signing for other gorillas who were watching. And so they
Speaker 1: were looking for somebody to put on the gorilla suite.
Speaker 1: It turned out to be me. That'll be a chapter
Speaker 1: in my life story and never be afraid to put
Speaker 1: on the guerrilla suit. So I put it on, and
Speaker 1: I had no idea what was going to happen, And
Speaker 1: so we just started the skit and Rush got one
Speaker 1: look at me in that guerrilla suit in the corner
Speaker 1: of the screen and he just cracked up. He could
Speaker 1: not stop laughing. And we did the skit and people
Speaker 1: loved it, and he just kept laughing. It was like
Speaker 1: one of the few times that Rushed, you know, kind
Speaker 1: of lost it, you know, because he always was the
Speaker 1: king of cool, you know when he was performing, and
Speaker 1: and we just went did this skit and he was
Speaker 1: having the greatest time, and he laughed and laughed and laughed.
Speaker 1: And then from that point on, I was Coco. He
Speaker 1: would see me, and he didn't know my name before that,
Speaker 1: he didn't know who I was before that. I was
Speaker 1: just another guy on the TV show. But after that,
Speaker 1: every day I'd see him, Coco, how are you? And
Speaker 1: that was it. We were we were friends from that
Speaker 1: point on. He just we just clicked and we always
Speaker 1: had that memory and I was always Coco. And your
Speaker 1: real name is It's George Pryas and there's no Gleam
Speaker 1: but yeah, sorry, wait, wait a minute, and let me
Speaker 1: go backwards. And Kathleen, you said your real name is
Speaker 1: what Karl clean PRIs? I mean Glee in there? But
Speaker 1: you know, so there's a story here. So when did
Speaker 1: that happen? Well you know how these things happened, Jane, No,
Speaker 1: I don't. That's why I oh, my goodness is so personal. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, we met on the TV show and you know,
Speaker 1: became friends. In the beginning. She didn't like me, but
Speaker 1: you know, I guess, I you know, was it the
Speaker 1: gerrilla suit? It might have been. It might have been
Speaker 1: that might have been the turning point. I don't know,
Speaker 1: but we became friends and then at some point, you know,
Speaker 1: we started, uh you know dating at the very end
Speaker 1: when that TV show ended in ninety and then um,
Speaker 1: we were together everything one Yeah, it was only fifty
Speaker 1: six short months of dating. Yeah, yeah, we always we
Speaker 1: hear a lot about that fifty six months and so
Speaker 1: so you are you are the E. I B. S
Speaker 1: married couple right now? Okay, before TV so the TV show.
Speaker 1: Let me just go back Russia Num by the TV
Speaker 1: show which is where I met both of you. Was
Speaker 1: we were taping at Unitel Studios on Street and Russia's
Speaker 1: work day was really amazing during that time as and
Speaker 1: and correct me if I'm if I'm losing any of
Speaker 1: the details here, Rush would get a normal time. You
Speaker 1: you guys were already at the TV show location and
Speaker 1: we were at the radio shop, those of us who
Speaker 1: were working just on the radio. While working on the
Speaker 1: radio show and would later come over to TV with him,
Speaker 1: but he would do his show prep for the radio show,
Speaker 1: and then there would be a telephone meeting. Is that
Speaker 1: how it happened to figure out what was called meet up?
Speaker 1: And how long did that meeting run? Usually? Um, well,
Speaker 1: I would say about ten minutes because he knew wanted
Speaker 1: to do. Yeah, it was all him. He was the
Speaker 1: man with the ideas, he was the you know, it
Speaker 1: was all him. I mean James, you know, the greatest entertainer,
Speaker 1: the greatest performer, you know, the greatest radio showever, Rush
Speaker 1: did it all. Yeah, And he would tell us and
Speaker 1: which is not regular for producers were supposed to produce.
Speaker 1: But with Rush, he you know, he would say I
Speaker 1: want to do this this. Yeah, he really was. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, God bless Roger Als and Dick Menser. They
Speaker 1: were they were wonderful, and you know, they gave a
Speaker 1: lot of great ideas. And but Rush Brush was the man.
Speaker 1: It was him, And there were no writers. Rush was
Speaker 1: the writer. There were no writers. Rush did it all.
Speaker 1: Some of the things that Rush wanted and that you
Speaker 1: guys were able to implement and make happen have later
Speaker 1: showed up on other TV shows long after Rush decided
Speaker 1: he didn't want to do TV anymore. Some of the
Speaker 1: concepts that would develop doing Russland while the TV show
Speaker 1: went on, and you saw them in various places. I
Speaker 1: saw something one day on The Daily Show, which I
Speaker 1: rarely watched, and I'm like, wait a minute, first, did
Speaker 1: that all that stuff used to do? The thing with
Speaker 1: the picture with the changed the lips, remember that that changed?
Speaker 1: Then that became like a standard on late nights we
Speaker 1: take a picture of Bill Clinton and put somebody else's
Speaker 1: mouth there. But it still looked like Bill Clinton talking,
Speaker 1: but the mouth would move and say thanks, that wasn't open.
Speaker 1: And then we used to put Rush in a box
Speaker 1: to react to audio clips that we would play. He
Speaker 1: would he would be looking up at those, and then
Speaker 1: we would look up at the you know, Clinton or
Speaker 1: whoever was saying something stupid, and he'd been making faces
Speaker 1: and reacting. It was so funny and the studio audience
Speaker 1: loved it. And then remember Robert Reich, whenever we did
Speaker 1: a story about him, he had a box. We had
Speaker 1: a picture of him and he could barely see over
Speaker 1: the bottom of the pure and most of that stuff
Speaker 1: James that would come up in the production meeting at
Speaker 1: four fifteen. Roger would come into the production meeting and
Speaker 1: he could get Rush go on a little bit, you know,
Speaker 1: like Rush would say something to him about, you know,
Speaker 1: he wanted to do a story and Roger will, it'll
Speaker 1: be funny if we did this, you know, like Roger
Speaker 1: was outside of the box thinker. I mean, he brought
Speaker 1: the Fat Lady in to sing on the fifth day
Speaker 1: of the television show because everybody said Russia's show will
Speaker 1: never make it. So Roger had this grand scheme and
Speaker 1: on the fifth day, we would call our anniversary show.
Speaker 1: We made it five days, and we would have a tremendous,
Speaker 1: huge anniversary party. And we brought a fat lady in
Speaker 1: who was gonna sing or not saying if we made
Speaker 1: was Roger's idea. We have gotten our own gorilla, and
Speaker 1: we will have this gorilla sign language. There it is.
Speaker 1: Could you get a eight, jill all just a second?
Speaker 1: The gorillas signing and I'm not even saying anything. Okay, Now, this,
Speaker 1: Ladies and Gentleman, this is an actual newspaper story, Ladies
Speaker 1: and Gentleman, from the Northwest Herald in Crystal Lake, Illinois.
Speaker 1: It's a story about a third grade class and a
Speaker 1: third grade stop laughing over there, pleaser disjects the section
Speaker 1: that failed a drug test. Over there was that's why
Speaker 1: we haven't a little in the dark. Okay. Now, the
Speaker 1: teacher of this third grade classes a and named Mike Pincover,
Speaker 1: and it is we should take the picture out of
Speaker 1: the cameras and there thanks. You know. The sad thing
Speaker 1: is that the liberals are understanding this. You know that
Speaker 1: liberals are saying it's limball guy makes sense for the
Speaker 1: first time. And I've been watching okay on each episode
Speaker 1: of Russia Lumba the Man behind the Golden EI B Microphone,
Speaker 1: we follow Russia Lymball's biographical journey with the help of
Speaker 1: some of his friends, family co workers. Today is a
Speaker 1: real treat. We're gonna look at the very impactful, influential
Speaker 1: Clinton years. When you hear Russia Lamball in history, in
Speaker 1: history books, there's always going to be a link with
Speaker 1: President Bill Clinton. Who to walk us through those years
Speaker 1: than Mary Mattlin. The Life of Russia Limbaugh, Chapter eight,
Speaker 1: narrated by Mary Madaline. You wouldn't note at the time,
Speaker 1: but in the election, a battle for the ages is born,
Speaker 1: and not between incumbent President George H. W. Bush and
Speaker 1: its challenger, a young, smooth talking Democratic governor from Arkansas.
Speaker 1: That election was over. Now at this point a political
Speaker 1: chess match for the ages began between that very governor,
Speaker 1: now President elect Clinton and the hero of this story,
Speaker 1: talk radio icon Brush Limbaugh. It is it's fundamental to
Speaker 1: remember that here are the Clinton's admitting their paranoia because
Speaker 1: they didn't know how to deal with a non supportive media,
Speaker 1: and all it was was just me on the radio
Speaker 1: and some other local talk show guys in the wall
Speaker 1: spreet journal at a Trump age, and they're acting like
Speaker 1: it is the biggest threat to their existence ever. In
Speaker 1: the process, Rush became the number one voice of Conservativism,
Speaker 1: a mantle literally passed on by none other than President
Speaker 1: Ronald Reagan himself in a treasured written letter. Russia's political savvy,
Speaker 1: combined with an uncanny reality based ability to make the
Speaker 1: complex understandable, helped the Party of Reagan get back on track.
Speaker 1: In fact, with Russia at the helm, the GOP one
Speaker 1: long shot landslide victories across the fooded plane, up and
Speaker 1: down the ballot, plus the House majority for the first
Speaker 1: time in over a half a century, now known as
Speaker 1: a Republican revelutionation in it was the peak. It was huge.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what shocked me, and it really did.
Speaker 1: Clinton was flying into St. Louis in on the Air
Speaker 1: Force one. He's doing an interview before he arrives with
Speaker 1: the morning crew at camel X, our affiliate St. Louisi,
Speaker 1: starts complaining about me. You got Russia, Lindball coming up here.
Speaker 1: When you guys finished, you get come up at news.
Speaker 1: You a three hour three hours everyone and nobody's gonna
Speaker 1: say anything other way. No trick detective. Here's the President
Speaker 1: of the United States, for the biggest bully pulpit in
Speaker 1: the world, complaining about some guy in the radio for
Speaker 1: three hours. It's no coincidence that the Rush Limbough program,
Speaker 1: as you note, actually began during the Reagan administration, and
Speaker 1: though the Clinton years were filled to the brim with
Speaker 1: easy fodder for Rush to feast on, he spent the
Speaker 1: years after battling a misperception that the show's success was
Speaker 1: primarily built on the daily melodrama dished up by the Clintons.
Speaker 1: In reality, the show's popularity exploded long before the presidency
Speaker 1: was even a twinkle in Bill Clinton's eye. I can't
Speaker 1: tell the number of people who believe that this program
Speaker 1: arose to its current heights because Bill Clinton won the election.
Speaker 1: This program got off the ground and became the most
Speaker 1: listened to radio talk show in three years before Bill
Speaker 1: Clinton ever fought about running for rof. In the end,
Speaker 1: Rush reminded his listeners that his program never depended on
Speaker 1: the party that was in power. I've often had a phrase,
Speaker 1: my success doesn't depend on who wins elections. I can't
Speaker 1: control who's gonna win elections anyway, Regardless who's in the
Speaker 1: White House or not. By the way, just because your
Speaker 1: team wins doesn't mean they don't screw up the whole objective.
Speaker 1: Hears to have a good show, Rush Limbaugh hosted far
Speaker 1: more than a good show. In fact, for decades after
Speaker 1: the Clinton administration had come and gone, he probably carried
Speaker 1: the conservative tords forward, both on the air and off
Speaker 1: the air. Through the Stand Up for Betsy Ross campaign,
Speaker 1: you changed the lives of dozens of hero families in need.
Speaker 1: The campaign benefited the Tunnels Are Towers Foundation. Tunnel to
Speaker 1: Towers bills mortgage free smart homes for our nation's most
Speaker 1: catastrophically injured veterans and first responders to give them their independence.
Speaker 1: For gold Star families and fallen first respond to families
Speaker 1: with young children, Tunnel to Towers pays off mortgages in
Speaker 1: full for these families and provides them with the comfort
Speaker 1: of a home when their world has literally been turned
Speaker 1: upside down. And thanks to this campaign to Stand Up
Speaker 1: for Betsy Ross campaign, you have seemed to it that
Speaker 1: we have been able to send a charitable donation in
Speaker 1: total of five million dollars to Tunnel the Towers. Your kindness,
Speaker 1: generosity and patriotism brought hope when it was needed. Most
Speaker 1: but more of America's heroes in their families need your support.
Speaker 1: Donate eleven dollars a month to Tunnel to Towers at
Speaker 1: T two T dot org. That's the litter t the
Speaker 1: number two T dot org. Let's tell people what you
Speaker 1: were responsible for on the russlan Ball radio show and
Speaker 1: you came over after TV. That happen? Actually, um what?
Speaker 1: Towards the end of the television show, Rush asked me
Speaker 1: to bring in my resume and he said to me, listen,
Speaker 1: I am looking for an executive assistant like William F.
Speaker 1: Buckley has. Her name is Frances Bronson, and she's fabulous.
Speaker 1: She reads his mind, she you know, knows his every move.
Speaker 1: That's the kind of person I'm looking for. Would you
Speaker 1: be interested in work in doing that on the radio show?
Speaker 1: And I was like, okay, um, yeah, I would love
Speaker 1: to do that. You know, I was grateful to be
Speaker 1: able to continue to work with Rush. Uh and now
Speaker 1: on the radio show, I got to learn radio. It
Speaker 1: was great, you know, great opportunity for me. So I
Speaker 1: joined the radio show and I was in my little
Speaker 1: cubicle doing my Francis Bronson work, which was like making
Speaker 1: calendars and typing things up and getting coffee. And after
Speaker 1: about five days I made a list of some other
Speaker 1: things that I wanted in my cubicle. It was TV,
Speaker 1: cable boxes, VCRs. And I went into him and I said,
Speaker 1: do you is there any way you would consider getting
Speaker 1: me this list of items for my cubicle. And he
Speaker 1: looked at it and he said, well, my business partner,
Speaker 1: John Accident is coming over this afternoon. I'll discuss it
Speaker 1: with him, uh and and we'll get back to you.
Speaker 1: And I was so grateful. I was like, okay, great,
Speaker 1: thanks because James, as a as a person working in TV,
Speaker 1: I was not used to have a job without TV
Speaker 1: like I was always you know, listening watching hear in TV.
Speaker 1: So sure enough, after their meeting that day, Russian John
Speaker 1: came out of his office and Rush had my list
Speaker 1: in his hand and he said, cookie, good news. We've
Speaker 1: improved approved the entire list. And I was like yes.
Speaker 1: So I got my good friend Frank Jeliah to come down,
Speaker 1: use of course, the great engineer bath Hacker to come
Speaker 1: down and hook me up. And boy did he hook
Speaker 1: me up? Are you putting there as many VCRs as
Speaker 1: we could and as many cable boxes, and I got
Speaker 1: to record my heart out. So that's how I started
Speaker 1: pulling audio for the show. I would try to find
Speaker 1: things that were outrageous and that I knew would make
Speaker 1: Rush crazy, you know, and that meant recording them on
Speaker 1: a VCR tape giving the tape to either. At the time,
Speaker 1: it was Marie Wallisburg, who was just a wonderful person
Speaker 1: who's at CNN now that she would you know, edit
Speaker 1: the tape for me, and we would do a little
Speaker 1: cue sheet for Rush, telling him who what went him wear,
Speaker 1: and you know, transcribe the sound, and we'd give it
Speaker 1: to him. And it was like a little buffet, you know.
Speaker 1: It was like he would pick maybe cut one or
Speaker 1: cut five or nothing, or all of them, and he
Speaker 1: would bounce off of them, you know. And that's how
Speaker 1: it started. And then, uh, as as we got going,
Speaker 1: there was the famous Gravitas montage, and I'm sure you
Speaker 1: remember that. That's when Vice President Dick Cheney appointed himself
Speaker 1: to be the running mate for Bush, and the media
Speaker 1: all said he brings gravitas, right, George, he brings gravatas.
Speaker 1: And so I heard like a few of them, like
Speaker 1: four of them, so I strung them together, maybe Sam
Speaker 1: Donaldson and you know, Wolf Blitzer and four people saying it,
Speaker 1: and then I kept hearing it and hearing it so
Speaker 1: that I just continued to make this huge montage. Then
Speaker 1: they brought Joe in to do some of the you know,
Speaker 1: the editing for me, to do all the editing for
Speaker 1: me actually, So yeah, that's where the gravitas, the famous gravitas.
Speaker 1: I gotta brag about her a little bit. I mean, now,
Speaker 1: you know, when people do montages, there's all kinds of
Speaker 1: services out there that you can search keywords and stuff
Speaker 1: on the internet. There was no none of the She
Speaker 1: used to watch these shows and record them on a
Speaker 1: VCR tape and then right down the time, like we'd
Speaker 1: be you know, you know, at night at home or whatever,
Speaker 1: and and you know, we'd be watching you know, Larry
Speaker 1: King Live, and somebody would say something and she'd write
Speaker 1: it down and then she, you know, Joe would have
Speaker 1: to go rewind that tape eight hours and find that
Speaker 1: one word. There's no transcripts or anything. You know. That's
Speaker 1: how that all started. And this whole industry now does this,
Speaker 1: and there's whole businesses that are devoted to providing these things.
Speaker 1: You know, she started it at her desk there with
Speaker 1: the VCR. So that's right, Kathleen. I mean those momtages
Speaker 1: not only changed the trajectory of the show, they changed
Speaker 1: the trajectory of what people on radio started doing. You
Speaker 1: had another one. What my favorite? And I love the Gravitas,
Speaker 1: but my favorite is the Taurus sell Kathleen, and so
Speaker 1: loved it. He loved it. You can see it when
Speaker 1: he whenever he played it, it would just light him up.
Speaker 1: He'd smile. It was explained the Tauris Selly bit to people,
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, that is so funny. Well, John Booty
Speaker 1: helped me with that, I have to say, and we
Speaker 1: talked about what I wanted to do, and that was
Speaker 1: taking the prosecutor right, George listing the charges against Torres
Speaker 1: Sally Sally then Senator Torres Sally from New Jersey correct,
Speaker 1: and he had given a very passionate speech on the
Speaker 1: Senate floor denying it all. And you know when I
Speaker 1: was crying, Yeah, I go crying about his childhood. And
Speaker 1: we interspersed the prosecutor listening all the things that he did,
Speaker 1: you know, watch of cash gold watches. And then you
Speaker 1: have Touris Sally saying something like when I was a boy.
Speaker 1: This goes back a eighteen two thousand one. This is
Speaker 1: a This is a montage of Senator Toura Sally, the
Speaker 1: guy you had just heard a press conference where he
Speaker 1: denied corruption charges. What we did after every denial, we
Speaker 1: we inserted cut ins of a lawyer for the guy
Speaker 1: who had corrupted trus Eli brand Simon, who was listing
Speaker 1: this is not ts Eli's lawyer, it's the guy who
Speaker 1: tried to buy trs Eli. It's his lawyer documenting what
Speaker 1: trus Eli did while torris Elli is denying it, all
Speaker 1: to challenge my integrity is beneath contempt. I do not
Speaker 1: deserve this treatment. She watches a Rolex watch, diamond earrings
Speaker 1: for his girlfriend. I have never television set ever, Oriental rug,
Speaker 1: grandfather claw, other antique items, done anything suits at any time.
Speaker 1: Parks to me fourteen deliveries of the envelopes of cash
Speaker 1: to tors Eli's house to betray the trust of the
Speaker 1: people of the state of New Jersey. Now let's move
Speaker 1: over to the internet side. George, you were over at
Speaker 1: Fox and then you were with us. How did that happen.
Speaker 1: Kathleen had said to me that, you know, they're looking
Speaker 1: for somebody. You know, it was there was two thousand
Speaker 1: and they were looking for somebody to start a website
Speaker 1: for Rush because you know Rush, he wanted to be
Speaker 1: on the cutting edge of everything and websites were starting
Speaker 1: to get popular then, and so she said, you know,
Speaker 1: you should go for this job. And I thought about it,
Speaker 1: and I I said sure. So um, I had worked,
Speaker 1: as I said, with Matt Rudge, so I knew a
Speaker 1: little bit. He taught me a lot about what he
Speaker 1: did and and you know, the news business, and and
Speaker 1: so I went and I interviewed with John Axton and
Speaker 1: they decided to give me the job. So basically, at
Speaker 1: that time Rush's website there was a website. It was
Speaker 1: that picture of Rush where he's standing pointing to the
Speaker 1: golden EIB microphone, and that was it. It was just
Speaker 1: that picture. That was a still thing. I started in
Speaker 1: June of two thousand and I. Um, my first day,
Speaker 1: I sat with John Acton and Brian Click click and
Speaker 1: they had a you know, plans for how we're going
Speaker 1: to build a website. And I was gonna be in
Speaker 1: charge of the content, and so, you know, they really
Speaker 1: had no idea what I was gonna do. They said, well,
Speaker 1: why don't you go listen to the show. You know,
Speaker 1: they had a little room for me. Um. I didn't
Speaker 1: even have an office then, we barely had the internet
Speaker 1: in the office that we were in. UM. And I,
Speaker 1: you know, I sat and I listened to Rush for
Speaker 1: three hours with I made a word file and I
Speaker 1: still have it someplace, and I just kind of my
Speaker 1: concept was that, you know, we're gonna just cut up
Speaker 1: Rushes radio show in in like the form of a
Speaker 1: website with articles, and so I would just listen and
Speaker 1: to what he was doing, his topics, and I wrote
Speaker 1: the headlines down on this word file. And then my
Speaker 1: idea was, also you incorporate his nicknames and the things
Speaker 1: that he said. So I'd say the truth detector, Clinton
Speaker 1: says this, or or you know, uh, doctor of Democracy,
Speaker 1: you know, blah blah blah. And I made this little sheet,
Speaker 1: like a little you know, eight or nine story sheet.
Speaker 1: And after the show, I went back into John and
Speaker 1: Brian and I showed them what I did and they
Speaker 1: were like, wow, this this looks pretty good. Let's send
Speaker 1: it to Rush. And so we sent it to Rush
Speaker 1: and he says, I like it, go for it. And
Speaker 1: that's how it stard And so then we built a
Speaker 1: website from the bottom up, and um, you know, I
Speaker 1: started hiring some staff. I hired Dean and Mojoe, and
Speaker 1: that was at the beginning there. Um, and we just started,
Speaker 1: um translating Russia's UH radio show to the to the Internet.
Speaker 1: Every day. Yeah, we gotta transcribe, you gotta transcribe. Well,
Speaker 1: in the beginning, we didn't have a transcriber. We were
Speaker 1: we were recording the show on cassette tapes and like
Speaker 1: playing it back and trying to write down what Rush said,
Speaker 1: and then we would do like little intros into the
Speaker 1: into audio. And then one day Russia is like, let's
Speaker 1: just transcribe the show. I want full transcripts on the website.
Speaker 1: And the suits at Premier at that time they weren't,
Speaker 1: you know, too thrilled with that, because you know, they
Speaker 1: thought that that might add fodder to the people that
Speaker 1: were you know, media matters was just starting then, and
Speaker 1: you know, they were a little leary about translating everything
Speaker 1: Rush said for people to pick it over and find
Speaker 1: things to object to. But Rush had the opposite view,
Speaker 1: which was that if we printed transcripts of everything he said,
Speaker 1: he would be proven, you know, he'd be able to
Speaker 1: prove that he was taken out of context. And he
Speaker 1: was really visionary in that because, you know, we started
Speaker 1: printing transcripts of the show and we have a great
Speaker 1: transcriber who did it for us for twenty years, Mark
Speaker 1: kissling Berry. He's like the Babe Ruth of caption erst Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's the fastest. He's in the Guinness Book, were all
Speaker 1: the records. He's great um. And so we had the
Speaker 1: greatest radio show host of all time with the greatest
Speaker 1: caption er, and we would just translate it to the web.
Speaker 1: Every day we print those transcripts, we cut them up
Speaker 1: into different articles with headlines, and then we later we
Speaker 1: added the Ditto cam and we added the Rush twenty
Speaker 1: four seven subscriber service, and we had one of the
Speaker 1: first podcasts, and we just built that site into something
Speaker 1: that Rush was really really proud of and we were
Speaker 1: really proud of, and it was it was a very
Speaker 1: unique experience to be able to have one job was
Speaker 1: to listen to one man talk for three hours every
Speaker 1: day thing about Russia's you know, James and Kathleen knows
Speaker 1: is there. There were no meetings, there was no direction given.
Speaker 1: He just assumed that I was going to get it right.
Speaker 1: Maybe every once in a while he'd say, hey, uh,
Speaker 1: I like this headline better, or do this different way,
Speaker 1: but hardly ever, it was just, you know, he let
Speaker 1: us go, He let us add graphics to what he said,
Speaker 1: and he trusted us that we weren't going to do
Speaker 1: something that was out of step with what his he
Speaker 1: was doing, and it just really became like this kind
Speaker 1: of like symbiotic thing where we'd listened to him and
Speaker 1: we'd know what to do and and you know, we
Speaker 1: did it for for twenty years. The greatest just the
Speaker 1: greatest boss. The kind of job does your boss just
Speaker 1: let you just you know, let you do what you
Speaker 1: want to do and not you know, just you have
Speaker 1: an idea, you come up with an idea, you're able
Speaker 1: to illustrate it, and when he does it, he does
Speaker 1: your idea hundred fifty times better then you did it.
Speaker 1: And it's it's amazing. It's a great feeling. It's a
Speaker 1: great feeling. Yeah, it just he was the greatest that
Speaker 1: now this is where I want to, uh to ask
Speaker 1: you guys, we've talked about what you did. And by
Speaker 1: the way, with the website, George, you know, for years
Speaker 1: rush always told us he's not going to do a
Speaker 1: website until he can understand himself how to monetize it properly,
Speaker 1: because this is a business. And and that's what he did,
Speaker 1: and that's what you brought to the table, a way
Speaker 1: to do it in such a way that it became
Speaker 1: part of the enterprise and it wasn't a loss leader away.
Speaker 1: It was actually added to the bottom line. And that
Speaker 1: was one of the things everybody in the radio industry
Speaker 1: then the TV industry, websites were thought of to be
Speaker 1: loss leaders and Rushi did not want that. And that
Speaker 1: was one of the mandates when I when I came
Speaker 1: in there was that, you know, we were going to
Speaker 1: make this a business that worked. And the reason it
Speaker 1: did was because rush knew that the content was what
Speaker 1: was gonna make it, and he was gonna make it
Speaker 1: and that that's what you know. People thought that they
Speaker 1: wouldn't pay for the rest twenties four seven subscription service
Speaker 1: when you can listen to free on the radio, um,
Speaker 1: but rush knew that people would because we were providing
Speaker 1: them something that was unique. You could only get Rush
Speaker 1: in one place and uh, and it worked. And he
Speaker 1: was visionary as as he always was. He like you said,
Speaker 1: he didn't want to just do something that everybody else
Speaker 1: was doing. He wanted to try to blaze a new
Speaker 1: new path and we did. And then after that a
Speaker 1: lot of radio show hosts would try to do you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of people did what we did, but rushed
Speaker 1: it at first. I see, this is the thing that
Speaker 1: that that blows my mind. And and with you too.
Speaker 1: Everybody that works for Rush could have done something different
Speaker 1: and been highly successful at it because they have so
Speaker 1: much talent. But when they came on with Rush, this
Speaker 1: is where they called home and it became a family,
Speaker 1: and it became we want to all do the best
Speaker 1: for us. She's that you're feeling on it too. Oh yes,
Speaker 1: And I you know, I I sort of ran the
Speaker 1: I don't know why, but I just sort of tried
Speaker 1: to run the website the way Rush ran things, which
Speaker 1: was we were going to just improv it the way
Speaker 1: he did. And we weren't going to have tons of meetings.
Speaker 1: I mean we had some, but we didn't have many,
Speaker 1: and we just knew the mandate was that Rush comes
Speaker 1: first and that we're gonna follow Russia's lead because Rush
Speaker 1: was gonna know what was gonna work. And that's what
Speaker 1: we did. And so it was such a great atmosphere
Speaker 1: and it was such a great little team. Ali came on,
Speaker 1: you know, I think a year or two after the
Speaker 1: rest of us, and because we were doing we needed
Speaker 1: more people. It was it was too hard. Rush said
Speaker 1: too many things in three hours. We had this close
Speaker 1: knit team, and like everybody else in the organization, there
Speaker 1: was very little turnover. We were all there for twenty years.
Speaker 1: We were there because Rush kept us there. The Rush
Speaker 1: is so compelling. He was so and some of these
Speaker 1: people weren't even conservatives or or I don't even know.
Speaker 1: We never even talked about that. It was just he's
Speaker 1: just you know, once you start listening to him every day.
Speaker 1: For everyone, who would want to do anything else. I mean,
Speaker 1: it was a great job. I mean, what who would
Speaker 1: It's no, I don't I don't know if any other
Speaker 1: job like it, and you know, I don't think I'll
Speaker 1: ever see another job like it. It. It's just because
Speaker 1: nobody else is compelling enough to say so much in
Speaker 1: three hours that you know, really you could. You could
Speaker 1: write a whole newspaper based on what he he said.
Speaker 1: And that was sort of one of the things we
Speaker 1: we thought about the website. You know, we're not any
Speaker 1: different than the New York Times or the Wall Street
Speaker 1: Journal of the Washington Post were rush, you know, and
Speaker 1: we're doing it with four people and they're doing it
Speaker 1: with five thousand people. But you know, what he's saying is,
Speaker 1: you know, to us and to the audience, is is
Speaker 1: just as important, if not more important, because he's the
Speaker 1: only one saying it. You can go to it, like
Speaker 1: he used to say, you can go to the New
Speaker 1: York Times, Washington Post, ABCC. He has, but there was
Speaker 1: only one Rush slumba dot com and that's where you
Speaker 1: where you you got those his opinion on things, which
Speaker 1: was groundbreaking. Turns out I knew this was happy. You
Speaker 1: can just sensed these things. November was our biggest traffic
Speaker 1: month of the year at Russia Limbaugh dot com. We
Speaker 1: had a record number of millions and millions and millions
Speaker 1: of page views. So that is continuing to just go gangbusters.
Speaker 1: And I'm really proud of it because we're proud of
Speaker 1: the website. It is a plethora of data and information.
Speaker 1: It's a it's a it's its own encyclopedia set when
Speaker 1: you get down to it. Just the daily content of
Speaker 1: every brother, the transcript, the voluminous content in this program,
Speaker 1: documented and preserved each and every day, and researchable by
Speaker 1: everybody who goes to the website. If you heard me
Speaker 1: say something on a previous program, you can't quite remember
Speaker 1: what it is, you can keyword search it and find
Speaker 1: the exact thing that I said. The literal voluminous content
Speaker 1: at russi lumbaw dot com. I'll stack it up against
Speaker 1: any media website in terms of actual substantive content, not
Speaker 1: just what the news was, but what I thought of it,
Speaker 1: not a daily basis. Let me just ask you this
Speaker 1: and we'll we'll we'll end on this note. I want
Speaker 1: both of you to think about for the second some
Speaker 1: of your favorite memories of Russia. And if there's one
Speaker 1: thing in particular that you want the world to know
Speaker 1: about Russian law, what would it be. Let's start with you,
Speaker 1: Kathleen m h. I mean twenty nine years I have,
Speaker 1: that's it's hard. Um. I would say my favorite memory
Speaker 1: was after my daughter Grace was born in two thousand
Speaker 1: and seven after she was born. That Thanksgiving, Rush invited George,
Speaker 1: Grace and I to spend Thanksgiving with the Limbos in
Speaker 1: Palm Beach. And it was spectacular because we got to
Speaker 1: meet all of his wonderful family and spend time with them.
Speaker 1: And he used to invite seventy five or eighty family
Speaker 1: members and he put them up at the Breakers and
Speaker 1: he would entertain them for the entire weekend. And he
Speaker 1: invited us UH to attend, and he was so generous
Speaker 1: to us, right, George, it was unbelievable. Like we had
Speaker 1: had a dinner on the Friday after Thanksgiving at the
Speaker 1: golf club, the local golf club that he belonged to,
Speaker 1: and he before dinner, he invited George and I uh
Speaker 1: to to come up to the front of the room
Speaker 1: and he was crying and carrying on, and there were
Speaker 1: there were some other people. Matt Drudge was there, there
Speaker 1: was some other you know friends was there, and and
Speaker 1: Coulter and Rush stood up and he spoke about George
Speaker 1: and I and our contributions to the show and the
Speaker 1: people that we were, and it was unbelievable and unexpected
Speaker 1: and amazing. I mean, can you imagine games you know
Speaker 1: what that was like for us. And then the next
Speaker 1: day he invited us over to his home to watch
Speaker 1: a football game, a college football game, and George and
Speaker 1: I we were supposed to be there at one o'clock.
Speaker 1: We were scrambling around at the breakst time to get up.
Speaker 1: We were late as always, and we're on our way
Speaker 1: and I said, George, we're going to his house for
Speaker 1: the first time, and we don't have a gift. We
Speaker 1: got to bring a house warming gift or something to
Speaker 1: say thank you. So George said, we'll stop at Green's Pharmacy.
Speaker 1: So he ran into green Swarms. I said, by the
Speaker 1: best thing you could buy to bring, you know, because
Speaker 1: Rush like like the best. So George came out with
Speaker 1: a beautiful five pound box of Whitman chocolates. It was
Speaker 1: the sampler, you know, you get a little plate, and I,
Speaker 1: I know, I know, we're late, and I'm like, we
Speaker 1: really we're gonna so embarrassing. Yeah, and I'm looking out.
Speaker 1: You got when you go to somebody's house, you have
Speaker 1: to bring something, even if it's rush limball. So we
Speaker 1: pull up at the gate and we were let in,
Speaker 1: and we didn't realize that that at that time when
Speaker 1: we were let into the gate and we parked, we
Speaker 1: took a little longer in the car to get ourselves
Speaker 1: together and to get out of the car, and we
Speaker 1: rang the doorbell. The door opens and it's rushed and
Speaker 1: he's like, welcome. It sure took you a lot of
Speaker 1: time to get out of the car. And we were like, yeah, yes,
Speaker 1: we bought you this box of candy. And he's like, wow, well,
Speaker 1: thank you. And he proceeded to take George and I
Speaker 1: out to the terrors where all of his entire family
Speaker 1: and he said, everybody, everybody, can I have your attention?
Speaker 1: All of you people comment Thanksgiving and you never bring
Speaker 1: me anything, and came for the first time and they
Speaker 1: bought nice box and candy and that was just that
Speaker 1: was the great day. I think that was one of
Speaker 1: the greatest days in my life. That's just funny. He
Speaker 1: was so funny, and he was so funny, and he
Speaker 1: was so and he loved the tease. Oh he would
Speaker 1: tease me to I mean, and I loved it. I
Speaker 1: loved it. I mean, I'm just James unbroken that he's
Speaker 1: that he's gone, and he suffered so terribly because he
Speaker 1: was just the greatest man just that my life is.
Speaker 1: You know, I feel like such a big loss, you know,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure the listeners feel the same way, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean, he loved the audience. He would stand after
Speaker 1: the television show every single night and greet every audience member.
Speaker 1: What other you know, talk show host performer would greet
Speaker 1: every audience member, Rush Limbaugh did, That's right. He would
Speaker 1: sign autographs, he would Oh, James, I can't tell you.
Speaker 1: He was just the most professional, wonderful person. Just I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: and you and me and George, you talk about a guy,
Speaker 1: I just you know, there was just nothing like him.
Speaker 1: He was just, you know, so generous. Everybody that you've
Speaker 1: talked to us said that. But he can't say it enough,
Speaker 1: just how generous he was with his his time and
Speaker 1: his just the way he his nature with you and
Speaker 1: just I don't know, we we had such a unique
Speaker 1: relationship with him because we, you know, being married and
Speaker 1: having the same job, and Kathleen's job was to watch
Speaker 1: all of the know when Rush was used to say
Speaker 1: on the air, um, you know, I don't have to
Speaker 1: watch these cable shows. I pay people to do it. Well,
Speaker 1: we were those people, yeah, you know, but George I'm
Speaker 1: sorry to interrupt, but even the thing people don't realize
Speaker 1: about him was that Rush was a very shy person,
Speaker 1: and he was a very private person, but he was
Speaker 1: unbelievably generous, so much to the point where he would
Speaker 1: be in his office doing show prep. He would open
Speaker 1: the New York Post and he would see that maybe
Speaker 1: something happened to a firefighter or a policeman, and he
Speaker 1: would come out and he would say, Cookie, I want
Speaker 1: you to find this family. I want you to find
Speaker 1: the widow, and I want to know how much money
Speaker 1: I can give them to help. I want to write
Speaker 1: them a check so that every one of those children
Speaker 1: their home is paid off and they all go through college.
Speaker 1: So I want you to get that number and come
Speaker 1: back to me with it, and you must tell the family.
Speaker 1: They're never allowed to tell anybody that I did that
Speaker 1: for that And he did that numerous times. He did
Speaker 1: that so many times. You know, he just was amazing, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, we're just blessed. I mean we wouldn't be together,
Speaker 1: we wouldn't have our family if it wasn't for you know,
Speaker 1: if we didn't come together with him, and he gave
Speaker 1: us the opportunity to work together as we wouldn't know you.
Speaker 1: We love you an inspiration to us. I mean, you're amazing.
Speaker 1: You represent us. You know you fearlessly represented us on
Speaker 1: those dark days in February. You know you're amazing what
Speaker 1: you're just let me just say something. You know. Something
Speaker 1: else Rush did for me too, was allowing all of
Speaker 1: us to come together, and Kathleen let me um, let
Speaker 1: me just in in today with us with another story. Um.
Speaker 1: Through meeting you, Kathleen, and of course George, but through
Speaker 1: meeting you, Kathleen, I got a chance to meet your
Speaker 1: family too. You got a chance to meet your mom.
Speaker 1: And your mom was a saint and I'm not saying that,
Speaker 1: like what a beautiful, wonderful human being who was just
Speaker 1: so gentle. Her spirit was just so so warm and loving.
Speaker 1: And your mother gave me a hand painted I don't
Speaker 1: even know what you call, and it goes over your doors.
Speaker 1: It's flowers, It's right, It's a door, hand and hand
Speaker 1: painted it. And she gave me, she gave me one
Speaker 1: of her hand painted door. And every place that I
Speaker 1: have been since then, one of the first things I
Speaker 1: have ever done when I moved into a new place
Speaker 1: was put that above my front door. Mama Gleason is
Speaker 1: above my front door right now, because she and I
Speaker 1: will never ever ever forget your mother either, for just
Speaker 1: what is. And we can see where your love and
Speaker 1: where you come from, and where you're from, where your
Speaker 1: family comes from. And now you and George have this
Speaker 1: wonderful family and we know where that's going. So thank
Speaker 1: you so much. But you know, just so we I
Speaker 1: don't end crying. Can just tell you one short little thing, um,
Speaker 1: just one more thing. And I have to tell you
Speaker 1: Rush's family and James you and your family too. I mean, god,
Speaker 1: just beautiful people. But Russia's mother, Millie, Oh what a
Speaker 1: fabulous lady. She was right, and she of course I
Speaker 1: got to be friends with her right away on day
Speaker 1: five of the television show. So we were always keeping
Speaker 1: in touch as you did too. And one day she
Speaker 1: called the office to speak to Rusty, which wanted, you know, hi,
Speaker 1: this mill In Limbaugh. How are you, Kathleen. I want
Speaker 1: to speak to Rusty and uh, and you know, we
Speaker 1: got talking and talking and she said, how's your mother?
Speaker 1: And I said, oh, you know, Millie, she's great. She's
Speaker 1: about to go on a riverboat cruise on the Mississippi,
Speaker 1: and she she said, she is, well, I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: down and greet the boat. When is that? And I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'll call my mother, but you don't
Speaker 1: have to do that. You don't have to greet her boat.
Speaker 1: She's just gonna be on the boat going on. Well, no, oh,
Speaker 1: that's what we do. That's what we do. We go
Speaker 1: down and we waved to the people as they go
Speaker 1: along the Mississippi. We greet the boats. Well, sure enough, James,
Speaker 1: I told my mother, and my mother is like, Cathy,
Speaker 1: that is so nice. I can't believe it. And I
Speaker 1: told my mother to make sure when you get to
Speaker 1: Cape Gerardo, you go to decide the boat and you wave.
Speaker 1: And sure enough there was Milly. She was there with
Speaker 1: all her blue haired friends, a whole bunch of them waving.
Speaker 1: Joni waven and my mother's waving. And you know, James,
Speaker 1: that was that generation. They were. They were just the best,
Speaker 1: right they. I mean, if I said to George, George,
Speaker 1: We're gonna go down to the rat and River and
Speaker 1: go wave at a boat, Georgia said, okay, exactly so,
Speaker 1: but I think you know that was million. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: thank you James, thank you, thank you, thank you both
Speaker 1: for me dumb memory. It really has been and I'm
Speaker 1: sure I'm sure that the that our audience is going
Speaker 1: to absolutely love it. So thank you both of you.
Speaker 1: I love both of you so dearly. We love to change.
Speaker 1: You're a love. Thank you so much for joining us
Speaker 1: for this episode of Rush Limbaugh The Man Behind the
Speaker 1: Golden E I B Microphone and are very special thanks
Speaker 1: to my dear friends, my dear co workers Coco and Cookie,
Speaker 1: George and Kathleen. On our next episode, you're going to
Speaker 1: hear from the most famous political odd couple in American
Speaker 1: political history, James Carvel and his wife, the lovely Mary Madlin.
Speaker 1: That's coming up in our next episode, Old Russia. Limbaugh
Speaker 1: The Man Behind the Golden E I B Microphone is
Speaker 1: produced by Chris Kelly and Phil Toward the best producers
Speaker 1: in America. Production assistant Mike Mamone and the executive producers
Speaker 1: Craig Kitchen and Julie Talbot. Our program distributed worldwide by
Speaker 1: Premier Networks, found on the I Heart Radio app or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. This is James Golden,
Speaker 1: This is both Snrving. This is James Golden. I'm honored
Speaker 1: to be your host for this and every single episode
Speaker 1: of Russia. Limbaugh, the man behind the Golden E I
Speaker 1: B microphone, thank you for being with us.