Rush Limbaugh: 1951-2021

This is the Rush Limbaugh, in the photo off to the left, that I became familiar with as a teenager in the early 1990s. I was aware of who he happened to be when a local television station did a story on talk radio. The report stated that talk radio was something of a phenomenon on AM radio and it was pulling in millions of listeners, millions of callers, and millions of dollars. The concept of talk radio wasn't actually brand new but in the report it was said that Rush Limbaugh was the driving force behind it. Until this point in time I hadn't heard of Rush Limbaugh or talk-radio. Whenever I listened to the radio it was usually for music...sometimes I'd listen to a comedian on an AM radio station in Cincinnati, Gary Burbank, but that was about it. I became aware of Rush and discovered that a local radio station in the area carried his show. However, I could never listen to it because I was in school during the time of day it was on and this quite a few years before the internet came along and the advent of podcasts so you either had to live in a town where a radio station was broadcasting his nationally syndicated show live (12pm to 3pm, Eastern) or live in a town where his show was on tape delay and would air at some point in the late afternoon or early evening. The radio station where I found Rush aired the show from 3pm to 6pm, Eastern. I caught Rush in the months leading up to the 1992 Presidential election. He branched out into television in 1992 and the local television stations in my area programmed his show in the late-night hours. In one of his monologues and it became something of a running gag for awhile but whenever he said the name, Bill Clinton, the band would play "Hail to the Chief". 

I don't know how long the syndicated television show ran in my area...being a high school student I couldn't stay up late at night unless it was a Friday or Saturday. The official years of production are 1992-1996 but given it was a syndicated television show it didn't mean the local affiliates in my area aired it for it's entire run. I don't remember it airing for 4 years here...but I do remember watching it. He wrote several books...the one out at the time of his television show's debut was The Way Things Ought To Be. The popularity of his radio show and of conservative politics, in general, spawned a lot of other conservative radio talk shows and his presence on television inspired a sitcom that Henry Winkler starred, Monty. It was also during this time frame when there was an updated version of WKRP in Cincinnati. In one of the episodes they dealt with what the episode described as a 'shock jock' named Lash Rambo. It was an over-the-top spoof of Rush based on how he's perceived by his critics...and oh yes, Rush had his share of critics. 

Some of those critics are celebrating and applauding that Rush passed away. In their minds they've always seen Rush as a modern equivalent of Hitler or the personification of the Devil. The fact that he popularized conservative talk-radio and that he was described as being the leader of the conservative talk-radio industry, and, the fact that it was a multi-million dollar success meant that the critics were very loud, very vocal, and unapologetically harsh and heartless in their criticism of talk-radio, in general, but more specific: Rush's success. He became the target of the left's wrath simply because he was the most popular conservative on a national platform and never mind the fact that leftists and liberals controlled network television news and the newspaper industry, the fact that conservatives had firm control on talk-radio sent shock and alarm throughout the left-wing and liberal factions of the Democrat party. Ever since Rush's radio program and those that followed became incredibly popular and profitable on AM radio the Democrats have been on a crusade to crush all conservative opinion. For some reason the Democrats think the popularity of conservatism on talk-radio is harmful and dangerous...yet Democrats have controlled the flow of information on broadcast newscasts and in newspapers for decades...but nobody within the Republican party is launching boycotts or attack ads demanding that the Democrats loosen their grip on broadcast newscasts. It's never a two-way street with Democrats...they want to control everything and everyone. 

Rush popularized conservative talk-radio and he made it successful. He was the recipient of several Marconi Awards for Radio Personality of the Year. Anyone recall the commercial he did for Pizza Hut when the stuffed crust was brand new? His radio show remained the most listened to from the early '90s to the present day. 

There hasn't been any announcement as to who takes over that 12pm - 3pm time slot for those out there who may be wondering. Some suggest that the radio show Sean Hannity hosts nationally from 3pm - 6pm should be moved into the 12pm - 3pm slot and that Mark Levin's show, which airs nationally in most markets from 6pm to 9pm, should inherit the 3pm-6pm slot that Hannity currently occupies. I've loved the outpouring of sympathy and remembrances of Rush's life and career that have aired throughout the broadcast day on Fox News Channel. I was listening to Hannity's radio program earlier today and he played audio clips of Rush and the announcement made by Rush's wife, on radio, that Rush had passed away at age 70 of lung cancer. 

1951-2021

Hee Haw: Newly uploaded Interviews...

**Author's Note (July 17, 2021): This blog entry originally had two video uploads...one an interview with George Yanok and another with Lulu Roman. They've since been removed from YouTube. The uploader is still on YouTube and so I don't know if the uploader took those videos down or if YouTube removed them. I'm still keeping the blog entry up because it includes my reviews of each of the interviews.**

Hello all! I've written more than 20 blog entries focusing on the television series, Hee Haw, over the years. In a lot of those previous blog entries the video clips I embedded have since been removed from the internet. There were clips on-line featuring comic sketches from the obscure 1992 season. There were clips on-line from episodes that aired in 1990. Those video clips are no longer on-line and as a result some of my previous Hee Haw blog entries show blank video screens. The show, for those new to Hee Haw, aired in first-run production from 1969 until 1992. The show aired on CBS for it's first two seasons, 1969-1971, but beginning in the fall of 1971 it started airing in syndication on local television affiliates. A majority of the local affiliates were owned by CBS but it wasn't uncommon to see Hee Haw airing at 6pm Eastern on a local ABC station and then see it airing on a local CBS affiliate at 7pm Eastern. It's official time slot during it's decades in syndication was 6pm Central on Saturday evening. It's home base was in Nashville, Tennessee and during it's first 12 seasons it was taped at the Channel 5 television studios. The production moved to a studio in Opryland in 1980 and it remained there until it's final episode in 1992. 

A YouTube channel called Tee Vee Classics has uploaded a couple of interviews with those who worked on the Hee Haw show. One interview is with cast-member, Lulu Roman. The other interview is with one of the show's main writers for a number of years, George Yanok. The interview is engaging and informative. The writer talks about the complex production of the show and how editing was the driving force behind the series...mentioning that the show won an Emmy in the category of 'Best Electronic Editing of a Primetime Series'. He mentions the show's hosts, Roy Clark and Buck Owens, and makes mention of several other cast members and why it was important to tape the show in Nashville, Tennessee rather than have the cast fly out to Los Angeles. 

In the interview with Lulu Roman. She speaks about her upbringing and how so far removed she was from the country music scene and the country music world she had no idea, at first, that she was sharing the stage with legends of country music. She tells how it was Buck Owens who 'discovered' her several years before Hee Haw was even created. Buck had a hit television show that was locally syndicated and for the first several years while co-hosting Hee Haw he remained host of his own television show. He eventually had to give up his own show because, if I'm recalling correctly, it became competition as Hee Haw began showing up on local television affiliates that were carrying Buck's television series. 

(July 17, 2021): I know it's not the same as having the two video uploads...but this is the big reason why I usually don't want to include video uploads in most of my blog entries.   

Larry King: 1933-2021

As a night owl I'm typically beginning my day in the mid-morning or afternoon. I woke up today and after taking my morning medication I got onto the internet and found out Larry King passed away at age 87. My grandfather religiously watched Larry's show on CNN every night. I don't know if he watched it in it's earliest years but he definitely watched it throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s. Larry's CNN television show, Larry King Live, aired 25 years: 1985-2010. I would sometimes watch Larry's television show if he happened to have a guest I was interested in. Larry would sometimes have celebrities on that you wouldn't regularly see on any talk show on cable or network television...by that I mean he would have legendary actors/actresses on. Their appearance was almost always tied to a just released autobiography, some upcoming public event, or a milestone in their career. I'm writing this blog entry through my own point of view and my own interpretation of events. If you read something on here and think to yourself "hey, that doesn't sound right" or "that doesn't make sense" I encourage you to seek out information on Larry King for specifics. This is just my take on Larry King through my own research and through how I remember him.

Larry's career began in radio in Florida in the 1950s. He was interested in sports and political news and spent much of his career interviewing sports, political, and entertainment figures from all time periods and backgrounds. He also interviewed infamous personalities...giving airtime to people that a general audience may view with skepticism or mistrust (psychics, fortune tellers, mind readers) or he'd have exclusive interviews with some sort of public figure that had either just been released from prison or were heading for prison and it wouldn't be uncommon for tabloid-driven figures to show up on Larry's shows. However, for the most part, Larry's programs stayed within the realm of traditional guests (actors/actresses, politicians, authors). Larry's long running radio series, The Larry King Show, aired in syndication and for much of it's run it aired during an all-night time slot on the Mutual Broadcasting System. The show had started out locally on a Florida radio station and it went national. 

The concept of the show was for Larry to speak to the audience and relate his opinions regarding the news of the day; interview a guest; and then take calls from listeners who had questions for the guest and then, after the guest left, Larry would take calls from listeners who discussed any topic. This series ran almost 20 years (1978-1994) and aired Monday through Friday from 12am to 5:30am. In it's final year the show was no longer airing in an all-night slot and was placed in afternoon time slots which, by the early '90s, was becoming increasingly crowded as AM talk radio was expanding. Some local radio stations began to fill their mid-morning, afternoon, and early evening time slots with syndicated talk programs...call-in shows that originated from New York City, Chicago, Washington, D.C., or Los Angeles. Then there were radio stations that preferred to 'keep it local' and have call-in/talk radio shows hosted by local radio personalities and local callers. Larry's syndicated radio series came to an end in 1994...swallowed up by the competitive nature of talk radio and the lack of major market clearances. Larry continued on, of course, hosting the CNN television series Larry King Live. 

When he stepped away from the CNN show in 2010 it was played up in the media that he was forced off the network due to his folky, traditional, non-threatening demeanor being in sharp contrast to the bomb throwing, lightning rod personalities that were reshaping the execution of cable news...particularly from the hosts airing prior to and after Larry's 9pm show. Larry's show wasn't a gigantic ratings champion at 9pm anymore because rival network, Fox News Channel, had audience sizes almost doubled that of CNN and MSNBC. His departure from CNN in 2010 was a worldwide news event. He didn't entirely retire in 2010...he got involved with social media/digital media. He had talk shows that were hosted by Hulu, Ora TV, and RT America: Larry King Now (2012-2020) and Politicking with Larry King (2013-2021). Ora TV is a company Larry created with his wife, Shawn Southwick. There are 1,000 episodes of Larry King Now and there's 257 episodes of the weekly series, Politicking with Larry King. On internet/digital television they're called podcasts rather than broadcasts.

One of the interesting things that most don't know but I had actually seen on Game Show Network in the early 2000s is Larry appearing on an episode of To Tell the Truth in the early '80s before he became nationally recognizable. It was hugely funny, to me, to see two people walk out and say "I'm Larry King" and then see the actual Larry King walk out and say that they're Larry King. The announcer's line was: "Only one of these men is the real Larry King and is sworn To Tell the Truth; the other two are imposters.". Larry had been hospitalized since December 2020 with complications from COVID-19. The news of his hospitalization, though, wasn't released to the public until January 2nd. In the press release on January 2nd it was reported that Larry had been hospitalized for the last 10 days...which, as mentioned, would take one back to December 2020. 

He won a lot of industry awards in his career. He won two Peabody Awards for Excellence in Broadcasting (1982 for radio and 1992 for television). He won 10 Cable Ace Awards. That award was handed out between the years 1978 and 1997. He was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 1989 and received induction into the Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 1992.  

Larry King: 1933-2021