RUSH: Now, yesterday afternoon I told you I had a super-secret meeting. It wasn’t really all that secret. It’s just, you know, I can’t tell people in advance where I’m gonna go, otherwise there are mobs and all kinds of things. I have to only tell you that I’ve been someplace afterwards. I flew over to Orlando after the program yesterday.
This is the week for the National Association of Broadcasters convention, and this is the 25th anniversary year of this program. So we threw, the EIB Network threw, a cocktail party and reception for all of our affiliate radio stations, stations that carry the program, and it was really nice. It was from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., and I just want to share with you what I told them. These are the people that own and operate, or manage and/or run, the radio station. Some of them had family with them, and some of them had friends.
But I stood up — I didn’t speak to them long, five or seven minutes — and I recounted some of the early days, what I call the “rat radio days” where you couldn’t keep me out of the radio station. It was all-consuming and, you know, how things change. But I said, “The one thing that hasn’t changed is my devotion to you and my appreciation for all of you.” I said, “I’ve been blessed. My life has been truly blessed, but none of what I’ve been able to experience would have happened had it not been for the people on these radio stations that carry the program.”
They’re the ones that make it all possible for everything else to happen. Boy… As I acknowledged, and they laughed affectionately when I said I’ve put them through some really stressful times with a couple or three little events over the course of 25 years, and they’ve hung in there. They have never wavered. They’ve hung in, and I’ve always known they would, and that gives me confidence. I can’t tell you the kind of confidence that that gives to me or inspires in me, and it also guarantees stability.
You all know where this radio show’s gonna be each and every day. A number of you have, over the course of the many years here, asked me why the program’s not on satellite especially when Sirius and XM were starting up. Many of you wanted to know why, and it’s because of the affiliates. I promised them early on, in the early onset days of satellite, that I would not cannibalize them and make the program available on satellite. People thought that was silly.
Of course, the smart business decision would be to put the radio show where the vast majority of people can hear it — and I’ve always believed that if the content is there, people will go wherever they have to to get it. Even if it’s two tin cans and a string, it doesn’t matter: AM, FM, satellite, wherever it is, if people like it, they’ll go there. My job has always been to keep this content, at least at your level-of-expectation or greater. These people took this show 25 years ago.
Yeah, a lot of ground’s been covered, but they took a real risk when this program started, and they’ve hung in through all these times. So I just reminded them of that, and I wanted to pass this on and tell you because I have the — the same degree of appreciation for all of you that I do for our local affiliates. It was a great little time. Two hours. It wasn’t much. But they’re there for their convention, and I had an opportunity to once again express my gratitude to them. (interruption)
Oh, pictures? Yeah, there are pictures.
There are pictures everywhere. I mean, I don’t have any, but we had an official photographer. He’s taking two pictures of every pose, so I’m sure they’ll be on the website or wherever. (interruption) It doesn’t matter how I got there. I got there in the most efficient way possible, and it was great. I was home by 8:30. Cocktail party was 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.; I got home by 8:30. I literally walked in the front door (well, the gate) at about 8:30 and finally made it to the front door about a quarter of nine. It’s a long driveway. It’s amazing to me the things that people are interested in.
How did I get there?
I got there the most efficient way that I know how.