RUSH: Here’s Terry in Indiana, Pennsylvania. Nice to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hey, Rush. How are you doing?
RUSH: Excellent, sir. Thanks.
CALLER: I’m really happy to talk to you.
RUSH: Well! Same here.
CALLER: By the way, I just wanted to mention, Snerdley sounds a lot younger than a person by the name of ‘Snerdley’ should sound like.
RUSH: Don’t be fooled by the sound of voices. We in radio learned that long ago. You know, when I was a deejay, a Top 40 deejay, the groupies would call you and make requests, and I tell you I got fooled I can’t tell you how many times. Voices don’t match faces. Just trust me.
CALLER: He actually looks like he’s 82? That’s what Snerdley sounds like?
RUSH: No. Snerdley sounds 82 to you?
CALLER: Yeah! ‘Snerdley’ sounds like a guy who’s like all decrepit.
RUSH: No, he’s nowhere near 82. Not even half that.
CALLER: That’s what I’m saying. He just sounds younger than his name ‘Snerdley.’
RUSH: I just think (depressed voice), ‘Hello, Limbaugh Show?’ You gotta do this 15 hours a week. I try to tell him to stay enthusiastic and to treat every call like he’s never answered the phone before.
CALLER: He doesn’t quite do that, but he does pretty good. But I’m calling about your Top 40 thing. You and I have something in common. We’re both KQV Radio alumni.
RUSH: KQV Pittsburgh?
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: 1410?
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: You worked at KQV?
CALLER: Yes, I did. You were with them when they were Top 40, right?
RUSH: Yes.
CALLER: Okay. And then they went news-and-talk, and you left.
RUSH: Well, they want Chinese opera first. That’s when I got blown out.
CALLER: They did what?
RUSH: They went Chinese opera. Then they went news-talk.
CALLER: Oh. I don’t even know what Chinese opera is.
RUSH: Well, some wacko format. I don’t know what it was.
CALLER: Oh.
RUSH: But they were losing to 13Q.
CALLER: 13Q? I don’t even remember them.
RUSH: WJAS, 1320 AM.
CALLER: Oh, yeah, they’re a (garbled) thing!
RUSH: They were doing all kinds of crazy things with the transmitter, making it… It just had a better signal at night than KQV did.
CALLER: I always wondered why. I figured the news-and-talk was coming up and you’re Top 40, so you had to leave. I figured if that’s the case that would be the greatest irony in radio history.
RUSH: Yeah. (laughing)
CALLER: If you’d have just stuck around a little bit, you’d have been a talk-show guy earlier.
RUSH: (laughing) That’s actually an excellent point. They did go news-talk. That’s actually an excellent point that you’re making.
CALLER: That’s great. You should have stuck around.
RUSH: You know, I worked with Jim Quinn. Jim Quinn — who’s on our FM blowtorch WPGB in Pittsburgh, who does the morning show — did nights at KQV before I did. But yeah… I’m trying to think. I’ve really… (sigh) I got blown out at KQV not because they went Chinese opera, but they did. They were changing formats or some such thing. Your desire for irony is closer than you think, but everything worked out as it should have, and I love Pittsburgh. I loved living there and I loved working there.