rick and bubba show Archives

Talk show legend Bill ‘Bubba’ Bussey of the “Rick and Bubba Show” is returning to a place of personal significance when the program comes to an end later this year.

Bussey revealed on the show Thursday that he has now taken a job with his alma mater, Jacksonville State University, as an assistant athletic director for broadcasting.

“We are excited to add someone with the experience and expertise that Bill has to lead our athletic broadcasting team,” said Jacksonville State Director of Athletics Greg Seitz. “He will be a true asset to Jax State when you look at his experience as an engineer, his on-air experience, and his experience in building, daily operation and expanding a network will only help us improve and enhance our athletic broadcasting division.”

The Montgomery native is looking forward to helping expand the university’s athletic brand.

“I’m thrilled to return to Jacksonville State University as the Assistant Athletic Director overseeing the Athletic Broadcasting,” Bussey said on social media. “It’s fantastic to be given the opportunity to serve my hometown and my alma mater, where I have so many fond memories.”

“We are eager to advance Jacksonville State University’s mission and increase awareness of our exceptional institution by expanding the reach of our ever-growing athletic program.”

In his new role, the talk show host will be in charge of all broadcast operations for in-house productions.

Bussey will have the opportunity to work with another radio legend at JSU. Former University of Alabama commentator and now voice of JSU baseball, Eli Gold, has also been brought on to boost the school’s athletic image.

“The Rick and Bubba Show” has 3.5 million listeners across the country every day. The show is broadcast on over 70 radio and TV stations.

Austen Shipley is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @ShipleyAusten

It was announced this week that the Alabama-based ‘Rick and Bubba Show’ would be ending after 30 years on the air.

Rick Burgess and Bill “Bubba” Bussey have been bringing listeners laughter, tears, faith, sports commentary, and everything in between since 1994.

But how did the two get their start before bringing a show seen and heard by millions weekly?

They actually went to rival high schools before eventually becoming friends when they attended Jacksonville State University together.

According to 104.7 WZZK, the two men went their separate ways after school, with Bill becoming a chief engineer in Gadsden. When his station was looking for a new morning man, Bill recommended Rick for the job, which is when they began eating lunch together and creating ideas for what was at the time, Rick’s show.

Eventually, Bill started joining the show regularly and earned the nickname ‘Bubba’, and before long ‘Bubba’ became a regular co-host due to his chemistry with Rick. Thus, the ‘Rick and Bubba Show’ was born.

In due time, the show became so popular that it was expanded and syndicated across the Southeast. Now, the show is syndicated across 18 states and is one of the most well known morning radio shows in the entire country.

A daily five-hour broadcast has allowed listeners to connect with the commentary of both men on a wide-range of topics, and that variety is among the reasons why the show became so popular.

The two men both share a strong faith in God, something that has been prevalent on the show from its inception.

As the show reaches 30 years, it’s seen and heard by millions through its YouTube platform as well as the Rick and Bubba podcast, allowing listeners to hear the show on-demand after the fact if they could not get it live.

To give you a true idea of the show’s mega popularity, when an Alabama news outler asked its readers in 2015 who should be on the Mount Rushmore of the state, Rick and Bubba received more votes than any other candidate, even three times more votes than Nick Saban. In 2017, Yellowhammer News even named Rick and Bubba to its annual Power & Influence List.

The show will be tremendously missed by listeners from across the country when the iconic duo actually goes off the air — but both Rick and Bubba say they’ll finish out 2024 strong before then.

Michael Brauner is a Senior Sports Analyst and Contributing Writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @MBraunerWNSP

Monday afternoon, radio host Rick Burgess of the Birmingham-based and nationally syndicated Rick & Bubba Show announced he suffered a gallbladder attack during his morning show.

Burgess added that he will be undergoing surgery to remove his gallbladder Tuesday morning. He hopes to return to work Thursday following the procedure.

Sadly another gallbladder attack during the show today will lead to surgery to remove it tomorrow morning. I will likely be out the next two shows and hopefully back Thursday. Also there will be no Bible Study Wed. Will resume next week. Rest of the guys will be there both days

— rick burgess (@bigvox) August 6, 2018

Sean Ross is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn

(Video above: Rick Burgess explains his opposition to Alabama lottery proposals)

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — On the same day the Alabama House and Senate are both holding public hearings on lottery proposals, one of the state’s most influential conservatives made the case against expanding gaming in the state.

Rick Burgess, co-host of the Alabama-based, nationally syndicated “Rick & Bubba Show” slammed lottery proposals by Sen. Jim McClendon (R-Springville) and Rep. Alan Harper (R-Northport) for being “lazy plans” put together by politicians who refuse to make the tough decisions needed to balance the state’s budget.

“Any politician that is telling you or me, ‘Look, if we want to solve our budget problems, we’ve got to have more revenue; the answer is gambling’ — that’s lazy,” Burgess said in a video produced by the Alabama Policy Institute (API). “You know what they’re telling me? ‘I won’t take the time, nor do I have the expertise to buckle down, look at the tax revenues that are coming in and balance a budget.’ It’s a lazy plan.”

The video above is the first in a six-part series produced by API, which has been one of the state’s most ardent gambling opponents for decades.

In 1999, Alabamians voted down Gov. Don Siegelman’s proposed “education lottery” 54% to 46%. Since then, numerous statewide candidates — most of them Democrats — have run on a platform of letting the people vote again. In 2016, with Alabama’s budgeting woes continuing and a $1.5 billion Powerball jackpot sending lottery advocates into a craze, another push is beginning to emerge.

“I am sponsoring this because of constituent requests,” Senator McClendon told ABC 33/40’s Lauren Walsh. “Throughout my district, people have said why don’t we have a lottery in Alabama? We’re driving to Georgia and Tennessee. We’re driving out of state and spending our money and we’d like to spend our money right here at home.”

McClendon says he believes the lottery would raise $300 million in additional revenue for the state on an annual basis, but his bill does not stipulate what the funds would be used for.

Gambling advocates in recent years have pushed an “education lottery,” which would earmark the revenue to go toward the state’s education budget. But Alabama’s systemic budgeting issues are mostly centered in the General Fund, where the largest line items are Medicaid and prisons.

Polling indicates a sharp decline in support for a lottery that is not earmarked for education, but a Washington Post report published in 2012 called into question whether so called education lotteries actually benefit public schools anyway. According to the report, legislators in many states have concocted ways to keep the additional funds from ever making it into classrooms. In Texas, for instance, lottery funds paid for about two weeks of schooling for public school students in 1996. By 2010 it was down to three days.

“The states that do a lottery, you would think their streets would be paved with gold,” said Burgess. “You would think the teachers make all the money they’d ever want to make. You would think the children have the latest technology. You would think the children want for nothing. That’s not reality. Look at Mississippi. They were last in education… After they brought the casinos into the Gulf, they’re still last.”

A gambling expansion of any kind will face fierce opposition from Alabama’s large swath of evangelical voters.

Dr. Joe Godfrey, executive director of the Alabama Citizens Action Program (ALCAP), an almost 80-year-old organization that describes itself as “Alabama’s moral compass,” last month expressed concerns that “illegal gambling is taking over this state” and reiterated his group’s opposition to an expansion of any kind.

But there are signs that some longtime gambling opponents are considering softening their stance.

“Historically, I’ve opposed them,” powerful state senator Jabo Waggoner (R- Vestavia Hills) told ABC 33/40. But he says he is now considering throwing his support behind a bill that would bring the issue up for a vote again.

With little appetite among Republican lawmakers for additional tax increases, particularly after last year’s tense budget battles, gambling could continue to gain momentum as an alternative revenue stream that would prevent legislators from having to make additional cuts and reforms to state government.

A full transcript of Rick Burgess’s lottery remarks can be found below.

The lottery — here we go again.

This topic comes up on the show all the time. And even though the show is national, people call in and say, ‘Why doesn’t Alabama get on board with the rest of the states?” There’s a reason for that, and it is that Alabamians have been asked about this topic over and over and over, and every time the majority of people say “We don’t want gambling to come into our state in any way, shape or form.”

But let’s have the real conversation. This garbage about, “It’s going to help schools and it’s going to build roads and it’s going to do this and do that,” where is the example where the state lottery solved all the problems?

Let’s say you take the moral part out of it — that’s not something you’re concerned with. Let’s just look at the effectiveness of it. The states that do a lottery, you would think their streets would be paved with gold. You would think the teachers make all the money they’d ever want to make. You would think the children have the latest technology. You would think the children want for nothing. That’s not reality. Look at Mississippi. They were last in education the last time we did a survey. After they brought the casinos into the Gulf, they’re still last.

So what happens?

Well, the lottery starts making money — and it will. And then the money is available to the same people who corrupted the other tax revenue they had coming in. So magically, because it’s lottery money, they now have become great with money and they manage it well and they do a great job. You know what? It doesn’t matter if the money comes from tax revenue or if the money comes from a lottery, if they mismanage the money they’ve got now, they’re just going to mismanage that as well.

And any politician that is telling you or me, “Look, if we want to solve our budget problems, we’ve got to have more revenue; the answer is gambling” — that’s lazy. You know what they’re telling me? “I won’t take the time, nor do I have the expertise to buckle down, look at the tax revenues that are coming in and balance a budget.”

It’s a lazy plan.

(Above: Rick & Bubba talk politics)

When Yellowhammer News CEO Cliff Sims sat down with Alabama-based, nationally syndicated talk radio giants Rick Burgess and Bill “Bubba” Bussey earlier this week, the guys had a lot on their minds. From laughing about the early years of their wildly successful radio show, to remembering the tragic death of Rick’s 2-year-old son, the wide-ranging discussion touched on just about every topic imaginable, including politics.

Bussey recalled late-night talk show hosts latching on to a comment he made on the Sean Hannity show in 2009 during a Tea Party rally.

“We actually hosted one of the first tea parties ever done,” he explained. “I’d made a comment that it was time for a change, it was time for a revolution. The late-night talk shows picked all that up and they loved it that we were calling for an armed overthrow of the government. And I said, ‘not yet!'”

Bussey said he’s looking for “leaders, Godly men, business people — some of the people who might could actually solve some of our problems” to step up and run for office and “be part of the solution.”

“That’s the type of revolution we were talking about,” he said.

Burgess has gotten much more politically engaged this election cycle by endorsing several candidates. But he said candidates who seek their endorsement should know going in that they’re going to hold their feet to the fire.

“If you bring us into it — either one of us — I’m going to hold you accountable,” said Burgess. “If you don’t do what you said you were going to do, it won’t embarrass me because I’m going to get on the air and say ‘that’s not what he said he was going to do and I totally disagree with it.’

He also had some advice for the Republican Party — get better candidates.

“I know they want the evangelical right to just be quiet and go vote and don’t have anything to say in [selecting] the candidate… There just seems to be a lack of wisdom from the Republican Party,” Burgess said. “So the conservatives in the Republican Party are… going to have to start demanding better candidates. Until we do, it’s going to be the same deal. I mean, when you can’t beat Barack Obama in his second term, you’re putting up weak candidates.”

The Rick & Bubba interview is part of Yellowhammer’s weekly series, The Exchange. To see past episodes of The Exchange, check out the brand new Yellowhammer TV page. The full Rick & Bubba interview will be posted on Sunday.

Do you agree that conservatives have to start demanding better Republican candidates? Let us know in the comment section below or by tweeting @YHPolitics.