It’s hard to believe that it’s been one whole year since we lost our beloved Rush Limbaugh on February 17, 2021. So much has happened since then. So many things have been left unsaid and un-ranted about by our great Rush, Maha Rushie, El Rushbo, The Mayor of Realville…America’s Anchorman.

It’s been 365 days since Rush’s wife, Kathryn Limbaugh, came on his show to let us know that Rush had passed away at the age of 70 because of complications of lung cancer.

Since then, a plethora of conservative talk show hosts, writers and other patriotic Americans have picked up the torch of freedom that Rush passed along to all of us and James Golden (AKA Bo Snerdley), as expected, is running with that torch, full steam ahead.

Snerdley, Rush’s close friend and call screener on the Rush Limbaugh Show, the man behind the man behind the golden microphone, has certainly not been letting any moss grow on him in the past year. 

I can still remember the first time I heard the voice of Bo Snerdley on the Rush Limbaugh Show. It was as the Official Obama Criticizer (he was also the official show observer). He called himself an “African-American-in-good-standing-and-certified-black-enough-to-criticize-Obama-guy.”

Back in those days of fervent Obama worship, if you said anything against the great Obama, you were called a racist. The Official Obama Criticizer was Limbaugh’s answer to that, in the usual comedic way that he liked to do. 

Comedy was definitely one of his greatest gifts, something many people missed out on when they scoffed at him for saying he had talent “on loan from God” or when he said that he had “half my brain tied behind my back just to make it fair.”

When Snerdley said that he was speaking “on behalf of our E.I.B. brothers and sisters in the hood” I just about fell off my chair laughing. 

Snerdley’s voice is a deep and booming one, a voice that I consider to be a cross between James Earl Jones and the Arby’s commercial announcer, Ving Rhames, the guy who says, “We Have the Meats!” 

Snerdley worked in the control booth on Rush’s show for 30 years as the call screener and has often been described as having his own show within the show, bantering (and arguing) with callers while he defended conservatism and his boss, letting a few lucky people through to actually talk to Rush if they were deemed worthy.

He came into Rush’s orbit when he moved on from other jobs to be on the production team with Rush’s television program and then on to Rush Limbaugh radio show. 

In James Goldens’ Linked-in profile, it shows him to be a jack of all trades: music and talk radio programming, producing, radio host, TV host, broadcast executive, sales, writer, commentator and manager.

It is all of that experience that led him to be such a great contributor to the Rush Limbaugh show and it’s why he’s so busy today.

After the death of Rush Limbaugh, we were all left adrift and in our own grief, especially those who were close to Rush like Snerdley.

One of Snerdley’s first tasks was to cement the true legacy of Rush by creating a podcast about him and it debuted in May of 2021. He had guests who talked about the personal and professional side of Rush – using interviews of family, friends, staff and industry people. It’s called “Rush Limbaugh: The Man Behind the Golden EIB Microphone.”

On one of Snerdley’s podcasts about Rush, he talked about the day that Rush announced his cancer diagnosis to his “highly overrated staff.” 

Snerdley knew that Rush was tough and he believed that he was going to fight it with all that he had. He said, “I walked down that hall after him. I gave him a hug and told him that I loved him and that everything was going to be okay and that I felt confident in it.”

We all did. Rush seemed invincible. A giant among men.

Amid the tears and the reality check of a cancer diagnosis, none of us could really imagine a world without Rush. 

He had already gotten through so much in his life including addiction and deafness. 

How in the world do you even continue to be a radio host when you’re deaf? Only Rush could pull that one off. And somehow, we thought he’d beat cancer too.

And little did we know, that a little while before Rush’s cancer diagnosis, Snerdley had his own scare with prostate cancer. He lived in Maryland (with Rush’s blessing and support) for about a half a a year to get treatment. 

Snerdley also lost his beloved bird Stumpy (yes, Snerdley is a bird guy) two days before Rush died – and he lost his mom the same week that Rush passed away.

Lesser men would have curled up in a ball and just sat out of the game for a while. Maybe hung up the microphone and the pen and retired, thinking they had contributed as much as they could. 

But Snerdley had work to do.

He was able to harness his strength and the power of his voice and his love for Rush into that podcast about his friend and boss. For me and many others, the podcast was a can’t-miss weekly show – a connection to Rush that was needed after his passing.

The episodes feature stories and memories about Rush that will make you laugh and cry, with many surprises along the way.

It was labor of love for Snerdley and it told the story of who Rush really was. Those of us who listened to him knew what kind of person he was. We knew his heart. But his heart was even bigger than we imagined.

Now that the podcast episodes are completed, what is Snerdley up to now? 

Well, besides being a Senior Partner of Golden Creative Communications, LLC, a management firm representing international known recording artists, he has many irons in the fire…

Most importantly, you’ll be happy to know that he is broadcasting on the radio. On August 23rd of 2021, he returned to WABC and sister station WLIR-FM to host a one-hour afternoon show. So you can tune in and listen to him every day now.

It was also announced that 77-WABC/New York and Snerdley recently formed the “Golden-TIPP Poll” which will focus on issue-specific surveys of public opinion involving emerging political policies.

In addition to that, Snerdley appears on Fox News as a commentator once in a while in his fresh threads and cool hats. 

He’s also involved in publishing Limbaugh’s ongoing newsletter and did book tours for his new book called “Rush on the Radio – A Tribute from his Sidekick for 30 Years.”

He also has a political action committee called “New Journey” which he founded. Their website describes the PAC as a “nationwide action organization which operates both in and outside of election cycles. Our purpose is the realignment of the black American vote with candidates and issues that support conservative values, and by consequence, help the black community.”

And if you go to the James Golden website, you will see that you can book Snerdley for events and that he also has a blog.

Wow. There’s no rest for this guy. Like Rush and Trump, he’s the Energizer Bunny. 

And I’m not even done yet…

I admit that I was really hoping that he would take over the golden E.I.B. microphone but now I can see he’s too busy for that. 

The latest things I have found out about him doing are a music podcast called “A Golden Valentine” which he worked on with his niece, Tasheyla McLean, where they play some smooth Valentine’s Day music. 

There’s also a podcast called “Science is Golden” where James travels through the cosmos, bringing us science knowledge.

Quite frankly, it’s hard to keep up with this guy and all of the things he has going on and I’m more than a decade younger than him!

What isn’t well known about Snerdley is very much about his personal life. I was lucky to get the chance to talk with him briefly and ask some personal questions…

What’s his favorite music? Well, that one was hard to narrow down. He said he has a vast music library that contains Top 40, Jazz, Indian, Opera, Classical and more. 

What about favorite foods? Snerdley is a vegetarian and says that his favorite things to eat are international cuisine like Indian and Mexican.

I also asked an important question concerning Rush. I was curious what Snerdley thought Rush would be most concerned with if he had still been around the past year. Free speech? Censorship? 

Snerdley said it was not a question he was comfortable answering because Rush was an “unconventional thinker.” He’d come up with a different angle or idea and what’s why Snerdley said he was so compelling to listen to. His thinking was unique.

And so is Snerdley. Unique and busy. Very busy.

There is a saying that I have in my home office that I look at every day for motivation.

It’s by H. Jackson Brown Jr. who is an author of inspirational books including “Life’s Little Instruction Book” which was a NYT bestseller.

The quote is, “Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein.”

And apparently, James Golden AKA Bo Snerdley needs to be added to that list as well.