Rush Hudson Limbaugh III: January 12, 1951–February 17, 2021

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✪ Rush Hudson Limbaugh III was an American conservative political commentator and host of The Rush Limbaugh Show, which first aired in 1984 and was nationally syndicated on both AM and FM radio stations from 1988 until his death in 2021.

Limbaugh became one of the most prominent conservative voices in the United States during the 1990s and hosted a national television show from 1992 to 1996. He was among the most highly paid figures in American radio history; in 2018 Forbes listed his earnings at $84.5 million. In December 2019, Talkers Magazine estimated that Limbaugh’s show attracted a cumulative weekly audience of 15.5 million listeners to become the most-listened-to radio show in the United States.

Limbaugh also wrote seven books; his first two, The Way Things Ought to Be (1992) and See, I Told You So (1993), made The New York Times Best Seller list.

Limbaugh was born on January 12, 1951, in Cape Girardeau, Missouri to parents Rush Hudson Limbaugh II and Mildred Carolyn (née Armstrong) Limbaugh. He and his younger brother David were born into the prominent political Limbaugh family; his father was a lawyer and a United States fighter pilot who served in the China Burma India Theater of World War II. His mother was from Searcy, Arkansas. His nickname “Rush” was originally chosen for his grandfather to honor the maiden name of a family member, Edna Rush. Limbaugh and his family were mostly of German ancestry.

In 1969, Limbaugh graduated from Cape Girardeau Central High School, where he played football and was a Boys State delegate. At the age of 16, he worked at his first radio job at KGMO, a local radio station. He used the airname Rusty Sharpe having found “Sharpe” in a telephone book. Limbaugh later cited Chicago DJ Larry Lujack as a major influence on him, saying Lujack was “the only person I ever copied.”

In deference to his parents’ desire that he attend college, he enrolled at Southeast Missouri State University but dropped out after only two semesters. According to his mother, “he flunked everything […] he just didn’t seem interested in anything except radio.“

In February 1971, after dropping out of college, the 20-year-old Limbaugh accepted an offer to DJ at WIXZ, a Top 40 station in McKeesport, Pennsylvania. He adopted the airname “Bachelor Jeff” Christie and worked afternoons before moving to the morning drive. The station’s general manager compared Limbaugh’s style at this time to “early Imus.” In 1973, after eighteen months at WIXZ, Limbaugh was fired from the station due to a “personality conflict” with the program director. He then started a nighttime position at KQV in Pittsburgh.

In late 1974, Limbaugh was dismissed from KQV after new management put pressure on the program director to fire him. Limbaugh recalled the general manager telling him that he would never land success as an air personality and suggested a career in radio sales instead. After rejecting his only offer at the time, a position in Neenah, Wisconsin, Limbaugh returned home to Cape Girardeau to live in his parent’s house.

In 1975, Limbaugh began an afternoon show at the Top 40 station KUDL in Kansas City, Missouri. He soon became the host of a public affairs talk program that aired on weekend mornings which allowed him to develop his style and present more controversial ideas. In 1977, he was let go from the station but remained in Kansas City to start an evening show at KFIX. However, that stint was short-lived and disagreements with management there led to his dismissal weeks later. By this time, Limbaugh had become disillusioned with radio and felt pressure to pursue a different career. He looked back on himself as “a moderate failure […] as a deejay”

In November 1983, Limbaugh returned to radio at KMBZ (AM) in Kansas City for a year. This time, he decided to drop his on-air moniker and broadcast under his real name. He was eventually fired from the station, but weeks later landed a spot at KFBK in Sacramento, California, replacing Morton Downey Jr. His new show officially launched on October 14, 1984. Limbaugh first began to express his political opinions in 1985 when he mocked the Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament, which he considered along with the general anti-war movement to be “inherently anti-US, yet was reported as substantive and morally correct by a willing and sympathetic media”.

The FCC’s repeal of the fairness doctrine on August 5th, 1987; which had required stations provide free air time for responses to any controversial opinions that were broadcast, meant stations could broadcast editorial commentary without having to present the opposing views. A Wall Street Journal editorial wrote, “Ronald Reagan tore down this wall [the fairness doctrine] in 1987 … and Rush Limbaugh was the first man to proclaim himself liberated from the East Germany of liberal media domination.”

In 1988, former ABC Radio Network executive Ed McLaughlin offered Limbaugh the nationally syndicated 12pm–2pm slot at ABC Radio Network. Limbaugh began his new show at WABC-AM on July 4, 1988, with the first episode focusing on the Iran Air Flight 655 shootdown from the previous day. His national program debuted on 50 stations the next month on August 1, and by three months later. it had expanded to 100 stations.

Limbaugh’s radio home in New York City was the talk-formatted WABC (AM), and would remain his flagship station for many years, even after Limbaugh moved to West Palm Beach, Florida, from where he broadcast his show.

By 1990, Limbaugh had been on his Rush to Excellence Tour, a series of personal appearances in cities nationwide, for two years. For the 45 shows he completed that year alone, he was estimated to make around $360,000.

In December 1990, journalist Lewis Grossberger wrote in The New York Times Magazine that Limbaugh had “more listeners than any other talk show host” and described Limbaugh’s style as “bouncing between earnest lecturer and political vaudevillian.” Limbaugh’s rising profile coincided with the Gulf War, coupled with a stalwart support for the war effort and relentless ridicule of peace activists. The program was moved to stations with larger audiences, eventually being broadcast on over 650 radio stations nationwide.

Limbaugh’s radio show aired for three hours each weekday beginning at noon Eastern Time on both AM and FM radio. The program was also broadcast worldwide on the Armed Forces Radio Network.

Limbaugh’s popularity paved the way for other conservative talk radio programming to become commonplace on AM radio. The show continued increasing its audience in the 1990s to the extent that even some FM stations began to pick it up. As of January 2019 about half of Limbaugh’s affiliate stations were on the FM dial.

Limbaugh often used props, songs, and photos to introduce his monologues on various topics. He called for the adoption of core conservative philosophies in order to ensure the survival of the Republican Party. Limbaugh criticized the media and political activist movements such as feminism, environmentalism and animal rights for allegedly serving as vehicles and outlets of “anticapitalism, secular humanism and socialism.” Limbaugh was an avid a proponent of American exceptionalism and often criticized politicians he believed rejected this notion seeing them as unpatriotic or anti-American.

Limbaugh also expressed anti-LGBT views and viewed homosexual sexual practices as unhygienic. He made  controversial statements about HIV/AIDS victims in the 1980s and 1990s, calling the HIV virus “Rock Hudson’s disease” and “the only federally-protected virus.”

In 1992, Limbaugh published his first book, The Way Things Ought to Be, followed by See, I Told You So, the following year. Both titles were number one on The New York Times Best Seller list for 24 weeks.

In November 1992, when Democrat Bill Clinton was elected President of the United States, Limbaugh satirized the policies of Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton, as well as those of the Democrat Party in general.

Limbaugh also had a syndicated half-hour television show from 1992 through 1996, produced by Roger Ailes. The show discussed many of the topics on his radio show, and was taped in front of an audience. In the months after its debut on September 12, 1992, it was the third highest rated late-night television show after Nightline and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Limbaugh said he loved doing his radio show, but never really felt completely at home in television.

In 1995, Limbaugh began selling a line of neckties under the brand No Boundaries Collection, designed by his then-wife Marta without themes, ties to politics, or ties to issues. By 1996 his line of ties were selling in nearly 1,500 retail outlets. The brand sold more than $5,000,000 worth in the first year alone. The New York Times described the tie designs: “Much like their promulgator, Mr. Limbaugh’s four dozen or so styles seem designed specifically to evoke maximum sensory outrage.”

Limbaugh had publicized personal difficulties in the early 2000s. In late 2001, he acknowledged that he had become almost completely deaf, although he continued his radio show. However, he was able to regain much of his hearing with the help of a cochlear implant in 2001.

In 2003, Limbaugh stated that he was addicted to pain medication, and sought treatment. In April 2006, Limbaugh turned himself in to authorities, on a warrant issued by the Palm Beach County state attorney’s office, and was arrested “on a single charge of prescription fraud.” His police arrest record was later expunged.

In 2013, Limbaugh commented on same-sex marriage by saying, “This issue is lost. I don’t care what the Supreme Court does. This is inevitable. And it’s inevitable because we lost the language on this. As far as I’m concerned, once we started talking about gay marriage, traditional marriage, opposite-sex marriage, same-sex marriage, hetero marriage, we lost. It was over.” In February 2020, Limbaugh predicted that Pete Buttigieg would not be able to win the 2020 presidential election because of his homosexuality.

Limbaugh was opposed to environmentalism and climate science. Limbaugh used the term “environmentalist wacko” when referring to left-leaning environmental advocates. Limbaugh strongly opposed the proposed Green New Deal and its sponsor Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

For two weeks in 1989, on his Sacramento radio show, Limbaugh performed “caller abortions” where he would end a call suddenly to the sounds of a vacuum cleaner and a scream. He would then deny that he had “hung up” on the caller, which he had promised not to do. Limbaugh claims that he used this gag to illustrate “the tragedy of abortion” as well as to highlight the question of whether abortion constitutes murder.

In 2013, news reports indicated that Cumulus Media, some of whose stations carried Limbaugh’s program in certain major markets, including New York, Chicago, Dallas, Washington D.C. and Detroit, considered dropping his show when their contract with Limbaugh expired at the end of that year; reportedly because the company believed that its advertising revenues had been negatively impacted by listener reaction to controversial Limbaugh comments.

Limbaugh signed a $400-million, eight-year contract in 2008 with what was then Clear Channel Communications, making him the highest-paid broadcaster on terrestrial radio. On August 2, 2016, Limbaugh signed a four-year extension of that 2008 contract. At the announcement of the extension, Premiere Radio Networks and iHeartMedia announced that his show experienced audience growth rates with 18% increase in adult listeners ages 25–54, 27% growth with age 25–54 women, and ad revenue growth of 20% year over year.

Limbaugh was consistently supportive of the candidacy and first presidency of Donald Trump, although he endorsed Ted Cruz during the 2016 Republican Party presidential primaries and took issue with Trump’s treatment of Cruz.

During the Clinton Administration, while taping his television program, Limbaugh referred to media coverage of Socks, the Clintons’ cat. He then stated, “But did you know there is also a White House dog?” and presented a picture of Chelsea Clinton who was 13 years old at the time.

Limbaugh conducted an annual drive to help the Marine Corps–Law Enforcement Foundation collect contributions to provide scholarships for children of Marines and law enforcement officers and agents who died in the line of duty.

Limbaugh was raised and considered himself a Methodist. Rush was married four times and divorced three times. He did not have any children.

Limbaugh lived in Palm Beach from 1996 until his death in 2021. A friend recalls that Limbaugh “fell in love with Palm Beach … after visiting over Memorial Day weekend in 1995.”

In June 2006, Limbaugh was detained by drug enforcement agents at Palm Beach International Airport. Customs officials had confiscated Viagra from Limbaugh’s luggage as he was returning from the Dominican Republic. The prescription was not in Limbaugh’s name. After he was released with no charges filed, Limbaugh joked about the incident on his radio show, claiming that he got the Viagra at the Clinton Library and was told they were blue M&M’s. He also stated that “I had a great time in the Dominican Republic. Wish I could tell you about it.”

On December 30, 2009, while vacationing in Honolulu, Hawaii, Limbaugh was admitted to the Queen’s Medical Center with intense chest pains. His doctors attributed the pain to angina pectoris.

Limbaugh, a lifelong cigar and former cigarette smoker, was diagnosed with advanced stage lung cancer on January 20, 2020, after first experiencing shortness of breath on January 12. He had previously downplayed the link between smoking and cancer deaths, arguing that it “takes 50 years to kill people, if it ever does.“

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He announced his cancer diagnosis during his radio show on February 3. He advised he would miss airtime to undergo treatment, and that he would try to continue the program “as normally and competently” as he could. On October 20, 2020, Limbaugh announced that treatment had been ineffectual at containing the cancer; and his diagnosis was terminal. He had been given a time frame on when he should expect to die. In his final broadcast of 2020, he said “I wasn’t expected to make it to October, and then to November, and then to December. And yet, here I am, and today, got some problems, but I’m feeling pretty good today.”

Limbaugh made his last radio broadcast on February 2, 2021. He died on February 17, at the age of 70. According to his wife, Kathryn Rogers Limbaugh, his death was attributed to complications of his lung cancer. Governor Ron DeSantis ordered flags throughout the state of Florida be lowered to half-staff on the date of his funeral. Limbaugh is interred at the Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri.✪