Russell J. "Russ" Cowans. Halper has been seen on C-SPAN, where she gave a talk in 2020 about women in early broadcasting. She is also a guest speaker specializing in the history of radio and television, often bringing with her a collection of rare memorabilia. She has been a guest expert on NPR, PBS, the History Channel, and on local television stations WCVB-TV and NECN, commenting on media history. Her work has focused on women and minorities in media history, talk radio, and people whose contributions to broadcasting have been overlooked or forgotten, such as broadcast pioneers like John Shepard III, Eunice Randall, and Big Brother Bob Emery. Rush Halper is credited with discovering the rock band Rush while working as the Music Director at radio station WMMS in Cleveland in 1974. After a Canadian record producer gave her the then-unknown band's album, she played a track called “Working Man” on the air. Listeners started requesting more Rush tracks. Soon, other radio stations began including Rush songs in their playlists, and by late summer of 1974, the band got a U.S. recording contract. As an acknowledgement of her role in their success, the band dedicated their first two albums to Halper. Halper appeared in the 2010 documentary about Rush, Beyond the Lighted Stage. On June 25, 2010, she was a speaker when Rush received a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame. A depiction of Halper, along with depictions other DJs who were instrumental in Rush's success, is included in the animated video of "The Spirit of Radio", released for the fortieth anniversary of Permanent Waves, the album "The Spirit of Radio" originally appeared on. Published works Full-service radio: programming for the community. Focal Press, 1991. Radio Music Directing. Focal Press, 1991. Invisible Stars: A Social History of Women in American Broadcasting. Routledge, 2015. Icons of Talk: The Media Mouths that Changed America. Greenwood Press, 2009. Boston Radio: 1920-2010. Arcadia Publishing, 2010. A Lady Sporting Editor: How Ina Eloise Young Covered Baseball and Made History. Trinidad Chronicle-News, May 2015. References External links Halper's business website 1947 births American radio DJs 21st-century American historians Living people University of Massachusetts Amherst faculty Jewish American academics American women historians 21st-century American women writers American women radio presenters People from Dorchester, Massachusetts 21st-century American Jews Northeastern University alumni