RUSH: We are going to start Ocean City, New Jersey. Tom, I’m glad you called. Welcome to the program, sir.

CALLER: Yeah, hey, Rush how you doing? Congratulations on your 24 years. I was painting my dining room back in 1988, and I was up on the ladder when I heard what you had to say coming out of the radio. I almost fell off the ladder. I couldn’t believe for the first time that I was actually hearing something that I believed in — the good, honest reporting and analysis of what was going on in the world. I’m a retired New York City police officer, and we knew in the police department all those many years that the Cronkites and Gabe Pressman and Jennings and Harry Reasoner and all these guys, they were giving us bogus news and bogus information.

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: And to hear somebody with a good, honest American idea for the first time, it just blew me away.

RUSH: Listen to that.

CALLER: I looked at the radio and said to myself, “Where’s this coming from?”

RUSH: It still amazes me to this day. In 1988, this is what was happening all over the country. Shocked, couldn’t believe that it was allowed. There was a woman, Tom, who called early on in the program who told me that she feared I was gonna be arrested after she heard me criticize Ted Kennedy.

CALLER: Well, I’ll tell you, I kind of agree with her. I thought you somehow or another got into the studio by accident. I figured, well, wait ’til they hear this, this guy won’t last. But the other thing I wanted to tell you, Rush, is this. To ask your audience to please pray this guy out of office. Because he’s really ruined the country. But at the same time, he’s awakened the sleeping majority. The sleeping giant.

RUSH: Well, I’ll tell you what, we hope so. In 1988 people remember where they were and could not believe, that’s how biased things were. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing, and then didn’t think it would last. That somebody was gonna come shut up me up. That it had to be a mistake. Tom, thank you very much.

Here is Pamela in Houston. Pamela, great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER: Well, thank you. This is truly my lucky day. The reason I’m calling is I want to give you an example of how things have changed drastically, because back in the late eighties when I first started to listen to you and local talk radio, every time the shows would end they would put a disclaimer on it saying: “The views of this show don’t necessarily reflect the opinions of this station.”

RUSH: Yeah. Yeah, right.

CALLER: That’s no longer the case. Now the stations are completely conservative, and they use it as a draw. That’s how they get you to listen to them. It’s conservative radio.

RUSH: Exactly right. Even the early affiliates were scared to death that they’re gonna get bombed. They were scared to death that something was gonna happen, so they put these disclaimers on at the beginning of the program, even during the program at commercial breaks, “The views expressed by the host on this show are not the views necessarily of the staff or management of the station.” I started doing the disclaimer myself, just to show ’em I was on their side. We would open the program, “The views expressed by the host on this show are not necessarily the views of the staff, management, sponsors of this station, but they should be.” (laughing) It made some of them mad. They asked me to stop that. But she’s right. It wasn’t long before they started advertising the fact that the station was a location for conservative talk radio. Pamela, thank you. I appreciate that.