RUSH: Now, I gotta take a brief moment here, folks, and share some… Oh, I guess I’d call it personal information. I have not talked about this publicly, a new feature that we’ve added to the website, RushLimbaugh.com. It’s called Meet Rush, and it’s for members only, but this is not a sales pitch. This is essentially a heartfelt thank-you. What we are doing with Meet Rush — and the way you find it if you are a member, is if you go to the home page at RushLimbaugh.com you’ll see our iPhone icon.

And on the iPhone on the home page there are various options that you can click on, various areas of our website. In the lower-left hand corner, you will see Meet Rush. Now, the reason for Meet Rush is that over the years I’ve gotten emails from people who’ve said they’ve tried and tried and tried to call in but never get through, or they waited on hold for two hours and then the program ended. So what we instituted…

We did this very quietly, and we left it up to website users to find this feature. We gave ’em a couple of hints on the website but I’ve never talked about this on the radio until today. You click on Meet Rush and you are taken to a page where you can, in 200 words or less, write whatever you want to ask me. In 200 words or less, tell us a little bit about you, a little bit about your life, and why you should be the pick of the week.

What we do is we pick the best ones, people who have intriguing questions for me or who have interesting stories about themselves and their relationship to the show, and then we establish a video conference connection with you if you are chosen. In a room right down the hall here in our Rush Revere headquarters’ conference room, we establish a video connection with all those of you who have applied and have written 200 words or less.

We pick some and we get hold of you. We establish a video connection with you, and we interview you, and we learn from you what it is you like about the program, what the program has meant to you and so forth. And if you have any questions for me, I then answer. And the reason that I wanted to mention this… I mean, it’s going great guns, and I haven’t even talked about it on the radio.

Members are finding it. But we went through some of the questions last night that people are asking. And I was blown away. You people that are participating in this are asking me better questions than any journalist I have ever sat with for an interview. You are asking questions that indicate you are totally invested in this program.

I mean, the detail in the questions and your comments about the program, but the specifically the questions that you are asking me illustrate just how long you’ve listened and how closely you’ve listened and how aware you are. It blew me away last night, as we’re reviewing some of these questions. And many of them are personal, but not prying personal. They were personal in the sense that you’re concerned about me and my well-being and how I bear up under hostile attack and so forth.

And I loved answering every question. There wasn’t a single series of questions that I said, “Skip it, don’t want to go there.” If those of you that we are contacting and establishing these video conferences, if you got through on Open Line Friday, it would be one of the best Open Line Fridays we’ve ever had. The questions were that good. The questions enable me to explain or answer things about myself that I would never volunteer out of the blue simply because it would not seem appropriate. But when answering these specific questions it’s easy as pie and makes total sense.

So I just wanted to take a moment here to thank all of you who are participating in this. Again, here’s how it works. You go to the home page. It’s for members only, and I want to stress, this isn’t a sales pitch, this is a thank-you. Because I was touched. And I’m stunned by who you are, the people who listen to this program. And I know you’re there; don’t misunderstand. But to see you, to learn how long you’ve been listening, what you do for a living, listening to what the program has meant to you over all these years. The things that you remember that happened 20 years ago that I may have forgotten, that I just love answering.

So you go to the RushLimbaugh.com, and on the homepage you’ll see the iPhone graphic and then in the lower-left hand corner of the iPhone graphic, there is what looks like an app on the iPhone graphic. It says Meet Rush, and you tap on that, and that’s where everything starts. You’ll have 200 words or less to tell us a little bit about you and your life and why we should pick you as the person with the opportunity to have a video conference with us.

It’s not with me. We have the Rush Revere staff and some of the others are conducting the interviews with the winners here. We’re collecting the video. And there’s disclosure agreements and all that. But this stuff is so amazing. We’re actually conjuring up ideas for using this. Without getting specific, I can’t impress upon you how dazzling this is.

I’ll tell you what. It is mind-boggling to me to find out and learn just how closely and frequently and often you listen to this program and how much of it you remember. It’s one of the most validating things that we’ve ever done and it was all started simply to establish an even further connection between me and you in the audience.

I now realize we’re gonna be inundated. This is the first time I’ve talked about it, other than on the website itself. But have at it, if you’re interested in participating. There’s no cost, there’s no specific prize or any of that, although there might be down the road. But there’s just a heartfelt thank-you for participating. It’s a quasi-market research survey for us, but more than anything it is a way to further tap into the bond, the direct connection that I and this program have with those of you who listen to it.

And the videos that we are collecting, the people who are winning, being chosen every week to have a video conference with, I’m telling you people are blowing my mind in the most upbeat and positive way, with what you do for a living and how you incorporate listening to the radio show in your workday, in your leisure time. It’s invaluable to know and learn, and it is just heartwarming and touching to hear it at the same time.

So one more time, RushLimbaugh.com. And I’m doing this just so you know what I’m talking about. Again, this is not a pitch to sell memberships to the website. It’s a member-only service. iPhone icon on the homepage, look for the Meet Rush app, lower right-hand corner, and just click on it, and everything starts from that point.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: It’s incredibly hard. Every week we get — and now we’re gonna get even more — we get volumes and volumes of people who click on the Meet Rush icon on the phone icon there at RushLimbaugh.com, and we pick our favorites. Folks, and it is impossibly hard. They are all so good. Two hundred words or less about who you are and where you live and what you do for a living and what the program means to you and any question that you have, any comment, whatever you want to say that you can fit in 200 words or less. And then we pick the ones to actually contact and have video conferences with. And it is next to impossible.

There are sessions going on right now down the hall here, highly overpaid, overworked staffers, overrated staffers are conducting these interviews even as we speak, going through the whole process. And I see them each and every afternoon or night I get a review of some of the questions or comments. It’s just — as I say, better questions than any journalist has ever asked me about anything, including issues. And it’s not even close.