This is an I-Heart podcast.

Welcome to today's edition of the Rush Limbaugh Show podcast.

Thank you so much for joining us today.

It is great to be here with you.

You know, every Open Line Friday is special, and that's been the way it has been for 30-plus years.

Your chance once a week, an opportunity to determine what we talk about.

That's how Rush defined it.

Today's Open Line Friday is an extension of that, but it's even extra special.

As you just heard, our announcer, we not only will hear from many of you today,

we have part of the inspiration of the Great American Business Award,

Catherine Limbaugh. It's my pleasure to welcome you to the show. I feel blessed to be here with

you, Catherine. Thank you, Ken. It's great to be back. I'm thrilled to be here. Well, I know this is

an exciting moment because this is the kickoffoff and I know these are the first round of

nominees and we're actually going to be hearing from them and how did you how did all this start

I mean I know you'd mentioned it in passing I hear it on the show but how did it all start with

you and rush sure I'm happy to give you a little background on how all of this came to be. So many of you know that Rush started shining shoes in a barbershop in his home state of Missouri when he was very young. And then he went on to the radio station at 15. Ironically, at 15, I started teaching English in West Africa, where our family lived

at the time.

So both Rush and I understood from a very young age, the value of a dollar and the importance

of hard work, as well as how fortunate we are to be Americans.

So not too long ago, Rush and I were talking about work ethic in general,

which led to a discussion about small businesses here in the United States

and how great it was to see President Trump at the time fighting for small business owners

...