Before making it big, Rush Limbaugh got his start in Pittsburgh as 'Jeff Christie'

Many people know that Rush Limbaugh made a name for himself with a show that went on to reach more than 600 stations nationwide.

What remains more obscure is how he got his start in major-market radio broadcasting. It happened in Pittsburgh in the early 1970s and it ended up being a rather inauspicious beginning to his illustrious career.

After dropping out of Southeast Missouri State University to work as a disc jockey in his hometown of Cape Girardeau, Mo., Limbaugh landed at WIXZ, a small Top 40 station in McKeesport where he used the stage name “Bachelor Jeff Christie.” He worked afternoons before moving to the higher profile morning drive slot.

After 18 months at WIXZ, Limbaugh was fired for reportedly having a disagreement with the station’s program director. By this time, however, Limbaugh had made a fan of Bob Harper, program director at KQV, which was the second-highest ranked station in Pittsburgh at the time.

“I would listen to him in my car and he would crack me up,” Harper was quoted as saying in “The Rush Limbaugh Story,” a biography by Paul D. Colford. Harper ended up hiring Limbaugh in 1973. Limbaugh even continued to use “Jeff Christie” as his on-air name.

By 1974, a new Top 40 player in Pittsburgh, WKTQ, better known as 13Q, was beating KQV in the demographics it had once dominated. ABC was preparing to sell the station to Taft Broadcasting, which was about to convert it to an all-news format.

Limbaugh was fired. To make matters worse, general manager John Gibbs was reported to have said, according to “The Rush Limbaugh Story,” that Limbaugh would never make it as an on-air talent and that he should think about going into sales.

Limbaugh ended up moving back in with his parents in Cape Girardeau. “I spent seven months doing nothing,” Limbaugh said. “I was bummed out. I loved the city of Pittsburgh.”

But it wouldn’t be too many more years before Limbaugh would have the last laugh and make John Gibbs eat his words.