My Brief Encounter With Rush Limbaugh

I had the great privilege of supervising the elections to both the National Radio Hall of Fame and for the Chicago TV Academy's Emmy Awards for more than fourteen years, when I was with an accounting firm in Chicago. The photo above is me reciting the “Rules and Regulations” for induction into the Radio Hall of Fame at one of the induction galas.

I vividly recall the night that Rush Limbaugh was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1993. He traveled with a full-fledged entourage at that time, and had a separate reception for his friends before the gala dinner and induction ceremony, which was held in a room adjacent to the ballroom where the dinner and induction ceremony was going to occur. He did not mingle at all with the other guests and inductees that evening.

I wanted to meet him—so, I barged my way into his reception and introduced myself. Much to my surprise, he was very cordial to me—and, we had a lovely and engaging, albeit short, conversation about politics in general…he was…um…not exactly a fan of Chicago’s political scene at that time…and about what he thought was the future of “talk radio”—and, I suppose…by extension, “talk television”. 

It was a fascinating conversation.

We were all on the edge of our seats during the induction ceremony, since the person selected to introduce him that evening was none other than the former talk show celebrity, Sally Jesse Raphael. You can see her introduction of Rush, and his response, at the following link, courtesy of the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago. It’s worth viewing, and made “Entertainment Tonight”. Larry King was the MC. Here’s the link:

And, if you’re interested, here’s Limbaugh’s discussion of that evening on one of his television programs:

I remember him leaving immediately after the dinner and induction ceremony. 

I never heard from, or encountered him, again.