My sincere apologies for the late column.
The last time one of my writing assignments was pushed to the absolute last minute, not because of late-breaking information or an unexpected political twist, but because of my own sheer reluctance to get the thing written, it was my Mom’s eulogy.
Just as then, I find myself in the unfamiliar position of having so many thoughts and sentiments to share, but not a clue in the world where I should start, or where in the world I could ever end.
Rush Limbaugh died Ash Wednesday, and while it was certainly not a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention, for his avid listeners the impact of the actual passage was painful and profound.
Literally thousands of obituaries, news stories, editorial columns, blog entries and letters to the editor have since been devoted to Limbaugh’s legacy, and depending on which theory you want to believe there are cases being made that he was either the Devil incarnate, or the Second Coming of the Messiah.
Very few of the hundreds I have perused straddle the fence on that.
Makes sense.
There is no reason our collective reaction to the man’s passing should be expressed any differently than the reaction to the full-throated philosophy he preached for the last 32 years. He lived for “taking sides,” and I guarantee he knew/knows that his eventual death would be marked by distinctively different epitaphs, almost universally falling along partisan political lines.
Rather than hash (or rehash) through yet another personal opinion/appraisal of Rush’s impact on American politics, or the media machine that covers the political scene daily, allow me to point out what his three-decade career meant to this community, and a few specific human beings that you (hopefully) know and love.
Well, at least you know us.
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First of all, and I can say this definitively because I have lived with the fact daily for the last 28 years: If it were not for Rush Limbaugh, today’s WGAC AM/FM would not exist.
I can’t tell you specifically when the station would have died, but it would have likely been sometime adjacent to the 1995 passing of the late George Fisher.
AM radio was well on its way out the door when WGAC’s late, great morning man was coming to the end of his life and career in the mid-90s. George spent 40 years on Augusta’s airways, and while names like Buddy Carr, Mark Summers and Harley Drew evoke great memories of broadcast entertainment and success, none of them succeeded in drive time longer or more consistently here than he did.
George’s success was one of the few things “keeping the lights on” for the station in those years. Local businessman Bob Beckham purchased the AM station in early 1988 and had hoped to bring new attention and enthusiasm to the hometown airways by surrounding George with a great supporting cast featuring veteran Augusta talents like Matt Stovall, Neil Linton and Pat Mulherin. He also was betting on the allure of an aggressive radio news department, headed by award winning broadcast journalists Greg Patin, Andrea Guy and a new 23-year-old reporter they were bringing along named Austin Rhodes.
Unfortunately, Beckham’s bankroll ran out before the station was able to find its audience. Truth be known, Fisher had the only profitable shift on the air, and less than three years after Beckham took the station over, he and Matt Stovall were the only two major players left in the building.
Limbaugh was just beginning to get an enthusiastic national notice when WGAC was able to sign on as an EIB (Excellence In Broadcasting) affiliate in late 1990. His popularity was growing exponentially, and while it did take a year or so for Augustans to “find him,” once they did, both commercial and popular support for the program here never waned.
But it was too little too late for Beckham, and in 1992 he handed the keys to the station back over to Beasley Broadcasting in what basically amounted to a repossession.
At that point Beasley’s founder and CEO, George Beasley, decided to hold on to WGAC and see if the enthusiasm for Rush Limbaugh could be parlayed into creating new profit centers for the failing station. George Fisher still had a few more years on his morning show, and Limbaugh’s success was starting to bleed over into increased revenues in his day-part.
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Successful syndicated radio shows, just like their TV counterparts, can do wonders for a station’s ratings, but usually not a whole lot indirect revenue. The commercial inventory just isn’t there to sell, not in quantity anyway. But what Limbaugh did do was bring an audience to his stations in the middle of the day, that naturally begged for local content in the all-important afternoon drive shifts that followed him. WGAC was certainly a great example of such a station in need of a local follow up.
And that was when they brought me back in.
The “youngster” who left the station in 1989 to work as an assignment editor, reporter, and morning and weekend anchor for WRDW TV’s 12 Eyewitness News team, was invited back to follow Rush Limbaugh, and hopefully to provide another revenue source for the station’s struggling but improving bottom line.
It was a homecoming for me in so many ways.
My life-long love of broadcasting began with WGAC long before anyone had ever heard of Rush Limbaugh. Back in the mid-1970s, I was introduced to local talk radio by the man I still believe was the best talent ever on the air in Augusta. He was born Barry Youn, but we all knew him as “Bob Young” (not to be confused with the other radio and TV newsman who later went on to become Mayor of Augusta), and he hosted “Voice of the People.” It was a daily afternoon show that featured local political talk and callers, and it informed and intrigued me no end. For several years, Barry ruled the airways (at least in my parent’s and grandparent’s houses and cars), and he was even kind enough to tolerate occasional on air calls from a precocious 11 year old he nicknamed “The WGAC Whiz Kid.”
Yep, that was me.
Ed Dunbar, the brilliant general manager of WBBQ back in those days, recognized the potential threat Barry posed to his station’s iron grip on the market, and he used his great industry contacts to get Youn hired out of the market…and on his way to a legendary talk radio career that continues to this day. While Barry’s last regular on-air duties came at the top news talker in Phoenix, Ariz., he is best known today as the executive producer and “broadcasting brains” behind the number one syndicated weekend radio show in America, hosted by his own wife, no less, Kim Komando.
Barry’s relatively brief run at WGAC is important to note because it was the one and only time before Rush’s debut that a locally produced radio talkshow succeeded here both financially and critically. Markets our size just did not support the format. At least not until the Limbaugh Revolution.
The energy and popular success of Rush’s daily show was the proverbial “rising tide that lifted all boats,” and while the phenomenon was evident in literally every medium and major city in America, no where has the effect been more profound or impactful that right here in Augusta. His format and style forced us all to “ramp up” our content and presentation, and what evolved here has been nothing short of a broadcasting triumph. The station that in 1992 was teetering on extinction has become the most prolific source of local content and conversation on the radio in the region.
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The “homespun” music-based program and style of George Fisher gave way to a news- and information-based morning show on WGAC that has never been more popular or profitable than it is right now. John Patrick, Steve Smith, and Mary Liz Nolan are individually storied broadcast veterans on their own, and represent “together” the most local experience gathered in one daily drive time shift, in the history of the market. (If you are not listening in the mornings…shame on you. It is informative, entertaining, and as local as you can get!)
Then, of course, we have the “clean-up” program in afternoon drive, which is soon to be entering our 29th year on the air, the award-winning “Austin Rhodes Show.”
I will leave the subjective reviews of the content and the host to others, but here are a few undisputed achievements that are unaffected by either the hatred or the adulation of the guy driving the boat:
Four-time winner of the Georgia Association of Broadcasters Radio Personality of the Year.Numerous local awards and accolades from various political, professional, and arts organizations. Visited by presidents, vice-presidents, governors, senators, congressmen and countless local politicians and VIPs. Consistently top rated in our target demographics for the last 25 years, three hours a day, five days a week, 52 weeks a year.
And finally…(and most importantly) one of the most profitable radio shows in Augusta broadcast history, just recently posting several of our biggest single months in WGAC’s 81-year existence.
TO BRING IT ALL HOME: None of what WGAC, or any of our people, has accomplished on the air in the last 30 years would have been possible without the success and talent of Rush Limbaugh FIRST. The popularity of his show provided a positive synergy to the entire operation that remains to this day. And ours is just one of many such stories.
While some major market “legacy signals” had been able to make the “news/talk/information” format work, Limbaugh’s meteoric popularity opened the door for literally hundreds of stations in medium and small cities throughout America to expand and create their own programming, serving untold millions in the process. Many also credit the very existence of Fox News, MSNBC, and virtually every other “political opinion-based” broadcast/network to the initial success of The Rush Limbaugh Show.
He was a pioneer and an innovator, all being exactly what he wanted to be since he was a little boy…America’s most successful radio personality. His legacy will live on through the continued work and commitment of all those whose careers he helped create.
Like me.
Austin Rhodes is a Columnist for The Augusta Press. Reach him at Austin.rhodes@theaugustapress.com
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