RUSH: Let me use me. 1988. We decided to do the EIB Network. We did not do a whole bunch of audience research. All we did was say, “You know what? We got a good show here. We’re gonna try to syndicate it in the daytime. It’s never worked before, on a mass scale. It’s never made any real money. Syndicated talk in the daytime has never made any money.” And the dirty little secret was it didn’t make any money at night, either. Particularly overnight.

It might have made some money at night, but overnight (midnight to six), that was loss-leader time. Nobody bought ads then. It’s how… Remember the old Mutual news network? Well, Mutual was the network that syndicated Larry King from midnight to six. Larry King’s real value to Mutual was that, if a station wanted Larry King’s show, they had to carry Mutual News in the daytime. They had to carry Mutual News, or they had to run Mutual News spots during the day.

Therefore Mutual, as a network, got their spots aired when there was an audience, not when King’s show was on. King’s value was not his show per se and the audience there, but the fact that his show was popular and people wanted it so they had to carry Mutual News during the daytime if they wanted Larry King. That’s the way the business worked. But, at no time did Mutual News say, “What we’re here to do is create jobs.”

So when we started the EIB Network, everybody in the world said, “You can’t do it, Rush. We wish you the best, but it’s never worked. Radio in the daytime’s gotta be local: Local phone numbers, local issues, local hosts. This has never worked.”

“Okay, well, then if it doesn’t work, we’ll just join the long list of failures and move on to something else. If it works, fine.”

But at no time when we started the EIB Network did anybody say that our purpose here is to create jobs in radio. We were trying to do a good show that attracted an audience so we could charge confiscatory advertising rates — and that’s where it stopped. Now, what’s happened? Since that success, since the EIB Network’s success, look at all the AM radio stations still on the air that probably wouldn’t be. Look at all the conservative talk shows. There has been massive job creation. There has been massive amounts of much new money brought into the business.

We expanded the pie. But not once did any of us say our purpose is to create jobs, but we did, with massive growth. (interruption) Why are you frowning, Snerdley? Is this hard to understand? (interruption) I have created more jobs than Obama and Romney put together — damn right! — and for a longer period, for 23 years. I have a greater record of job creation than Romney or Obama. And in the process of creating all those jobs, I still have mine. I did not cannibalize myself.

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RUSH: Rush Limbaugh — saving more industries and creating more jobs than Barack Obama and Mitt Romney combined. The Excellence in Broadcasting Network. Great to have you. Telephone number if you want to be on the program, 800-282-2882.

Look at how outrageous the theme of the day is. Obama is trying to convince the public that Romney’s a big job killer and that Obama is a big spending cutter. Really! That’s what the regime is attempting to pull off today. “Romney is a big job killer. Romney puts people out of work. Romney takes over companies and folds ’em and takes nothing but the money that’s left for himself. Romney’s a corporate rapist! That’s all Romney is. But Obama? Why, he’s the biggest spending cutter that we’ve ever seen!”

This is why living in Realville is such a challenge and why it can be so frustrating at times. Everything coming out of the Obama administration is a lie. Everything about their campaign is a lie. Everything about themselves and everything about Romney. Everything they’re saying is misdirection, purposeful lying. No question about it. To sit here and listen, and try to digest this stuff? Ah, it’s funny, yeah, but sometimes it gets frustrating. Look at the EIB Network. Go back to that for just a second.

The EIB Network was started with private equity. One man’s money started the EIB Network. A man by the name of Ed McLaughlin, who was the former president of the ABC Radio Networks, who retired when Capital Cities merged with (and essentially took over) ABC. Ed was one of the ABC execs that went off on his own and in his package when he left, they gave him two hours of satellite time from noon to two to fill as he chose. That’s one of the forms of compensation. And then, using his own money, he built this network. He was the founder.

And it was all private equity.

And at no point in any of this did any one of us ever talk about, “Yeah, what we really can’t wait to do here is create jobs.”

That was not the focus; it never is.

It’s just automatically assumed you’re going to need good people if the thing works, or to make it work.

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RUSH: Now, let me give you the numbers, folks. These are approximate numbers. In 1988, when this program started, I’ll set the stage for you again. In 1988, which to me seems just like yesterday. It’s a long time ago, almost 24 years ago now. August 1st, 1988. The only cable news network was CNN. That was it. You had CBS, NBC, and ABC. They still had their monopoly 24 years ago. They had a news monopoly. They had a monopoly over what was reported and what wasn’t reported, and they had a monopoly on commentary. You had the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times. USA Today was up and running. You had TIME and Newsweek, US News. That was the major media. Then you had all the local papers. That was it.

At the same time in 1988, there were 200 radio stations in America that were doing talk, and not very many of them were doing conservative talk. Ten years later, less than ten years later, there were 1,200 radio stations doing talk, and at that time the vast majority of them were AM, which everybody was saying was dead in 1988. So now look at it. Now you’ve got 1,200 stations doing talk, which means countless local talk show hosts and jobs. You had countless national talk shows. The vast majority are conservative, but the libs have tried, they have their little shows here and there and their networks here and there. Then you’ve got Fox News, which sprung from the concept of talk radio, particularly Fox primetime.

So there’s been an entire expansion of the media pie. We didn’t take anything from anybody else. We just expanded it. And during this whole time my audience, all these new talk shows and news stations have not taken any audience from me. The pie, the financial pie, the literal number of stations, has grown, countless thousands, hundreds of thousands of jobs, all these new revenue streams and so forth. All started, private equity, with one two-hour show from noon to two on a satellite on August 1st, 1988. This is Realville. And at no point, folks, did anybody sit around and say our objective here was to create jobs. But look at what happened with the growth of the business.

Now, by the same token, nobody sat around and said we’re gonna save AM radio and nobody sat around and said we’re gonna have 600 stations. That just happened as a result of the growth and the business being very copycat. Success has many fathers. Failure is an orphan. Even now I am still reviled and despised in much of radio, throughout my own industry. I’m reviled and despised, and it’s all ’cause of politics. Snerdley’s in there laughing, but it’s true. You know it’s true. (interruption) Oh, there might be some of that, but there’s a genuine revulsion, and it’s all about politics. There’s some people that just don’t like the level of success. But the point is, folks, that even in the best of times, there’s never unity, there’s never harmony. There are more people in radio hoping I bomb out every day than otherwise. It’s just the nature of the beast. It’s human nature. It’s the way it is.

Here you’ve got Obama now trying to make everybody believe that he is the number one spending cutter and that Romney is the biggest job killer in the campaign. It’s just absurd. (interruption) What do you mean, I have to take credit for some job loss? Well, yes, Governor Cuomo’s talk show didn’t work, and Gary Hart’s talk show didn’t work, and Jim Hightower’s talk show didn’t work. I did kill some jobs, that’s true. I am a job killer. I did kill some jobs, Air America. That’s true. I have to take credit on both sides. I did kill some jobs. I did run some people out of the business. That’s just the nature of the beast. That’s the way it happens.

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RUSH: I should tell you something else about the EIB Network — and anybody in radio who’s honest with you will confirm this. The noon-to-three time slot was among the least important at any radio station. Throwaway. Morning drive was number one, afternoon drive number two, nighttime third. Noon to three, ten AM to three, that was throwaway. It was not important whatsoever. So look what’s happened.