How Your Host Hears Music with a Cochlear Implant

RUSH: Here is Vaughan in Columbiana, Ohio. Great to have you on Open Line Friday. Hi.

CALLER: Good afternoon, Rush! How are you, sir?

RUSH: I’m doing well. Thank you much.

CALLER: Well, good. Mega dittos from a longtime listener since the early nineties. Hey, as I’m standing here lookin’ at the snow and contemplating the season, a question comes up that I could only ask you probably on Open Line Friday. So here goes. Back in the early or mid-nineties, you introduced your audience to Mannheim Steamroller, and I’ve amassed a collection of their Christmas music and just absolutely loved it. I’m about it year older than you, Rush, and, like you, I have come to acquire a fair amount of hearing loss.

https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2018/12/07/how-your-host-hears-music-with-a-cochlear-implant/

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Here is Von in Columbiana, Ohio. Great to have you
on open Line Friday. Hi, good afternoon, Rush. How are you, sir?
I'm doing well. Thank you much well. Good mega diddles
from a long time listener since the early nineties. Hey yeah.
Because I'm standing here looking at the snow and contemplating
the season, a question comes up that I could only

(00:20):
ask you, probably on open Line Friday. So here it
goes back in the earlier mid nineties. You introduce your
audience to Mannheim steam Roller, and i've've masked a collection
of their Christmas music and just absolutely loved it. And
I'm about a year older than you, Russian, and I
like you. I've I have come to acquire a fair

(00:42):
amount of hearing loss, certainly nothing like you have, um,
but I was able to mitigate it somewhat with with
conventional hearing aids, and I'm able to that I'm able
to control with a Bluetooth connection and that sort of thing.
But it's been evident over the years listening to your
bumper music and what you what you brought us Mannheim
steam Roller and all that, that you're a fan of

(01:04):
good music. And I'm wondering, what's your cochlear implants. Are
you able to enjoy music at all like you used
to be able to? Well, I can if it's music
that I knew before I lost my hearing, so in
the case of in the case of Mannheim steam Roller, Yeah,
But the way it works is I'm actually not hearing it.

(01:27):
My memory is supplying memories based on the audio stimulation
that I am getting, and so that that's why I
can only listen to music and recognize music that I
knew before I lost my hearing. Music that I've never
heard before. All sounds the same note. I cannot distinguish

(01:49):
a low piano note from a high piano note. For example,
violins strings sound like fingernails of a chalkboard. To me,
I need close capturing even to follow audio in a
movie or TV show, because the music and the soundtrack
will be so loud and distracting that without without close catching,
I'll never even hear uh of what's being said on

(02:11):
any TV show. But as to music, as long as
you have your natural hearing, and as long as it's
being amplified with hearing age, you're not You're You're not
going to suffer anywhere near the type of loss of
ability to enjoy music that somebody who has totally lost
their hearing will. You'll still be able to hear it

(02:32):
exactly as it was. You just may need to turn
it up. Uh. And depending on the nature you're hearing loss,
you might lose the ability to hear certain frequencies high
or low. But but again, your memory will take over
if it's If it's music you're familiar with, like Manheim
steam Roller, I predict that you'll be able to get
enough of it to thoroughly enjoy it like you always have. Hey,

(02:56):
after hearing describing the amount of hearing the Q lost,
I'll you won't hear me complain about mine. That's a.
That's a that's a profound amount of hearing loss. I
just have to tell you one quick instance and I'll
let you go. I vividly remember the first time you
signed off I think it was either Christmas Eve or
the day or some fourth when you signed off your

(03:17):
third hour and played Silent Night. That moved me to
the point I had to pull off the road. And
I want to thank you for that. So Merry Christmas Rush,
thanks for taking my call. Well, your bet, thank you.
Thanks von Mannheim, the steam Roller version of Silent Nights instrumental, uh,
which is what makes it all the more powerful is

(03:41):
the way Chip Davis and his gang have been able
to take an instrumental piece of music and as it plays,
increase the power in the perception of the listener. And
the crescendo of that too, UH is what is what

(04:02):
jerks the tears. So we always try to backtime. So
that ended specifically and precisely right at the end of
a break. Um it was, it was, it still is.
It is h a piece of music that has a
profound impact on the people who have heard it, or
even if you're hearing it from the first Silent nine

(04:23):
Manheim Steam Rober It's one of the first or second
Christmas album CDs. But again Von thank you much appreciate it.