Rush Limbaugh: 1951-2021

This is the Rush Limbaugh, in the photo off to the left, that I became familiar with as a teenager in the early 1990s. I was aware of who he happened to be when a local television station did a story on talk radio. The report stated that talk radio was something of a phenomenon on AM radio and it was pulling in millions of listeners, millions of callers, and millions of dollars. The concept of talk radio wasn't actually brand new but in the report it was said that Rush Limbaugh was the driving force behind it. Until this point in time I hadn't heard of Rush Limbaugh or talk-radio. Whenever I listened to the radio it was usually for music...sometimes I'd listen to a comedian on an AM radio station in Cincinnati, Gary Burbank, but that was about it. I became aware of Rush and discovered that a local radio station in the area carried his show. However, I could never listen to it because I was in school during the time of day it was on and this quite a few years before the internet came along and the advent of podcasts so you either had to live in a town where a radio station was broadcasting his nationally syndicated show live (12pm to 3pm, Eastern) or live in a town where his show was on tape delay and would air at some point in the late afternoon or early evening. The radio station where I found Rush aired the show from 3pm to 6pm, Eastern. I caught Rush in the months leading up to the 1992 Presidential election. He branched out into television in 1992 and the local television stations in my area programmed his show in the late-night hours. In one of his monologues and it became something of a running gag for awhile but whenever he said the name, Bill Clinton, the band would play "Hail to the Chief". 

I don't know how long the syndicated television show ran in my area...being a high school student I couldn't stay up late at night unless it was a Friday or Saturday. The official years of production are 1992-1996 but given it was a syndicated television show it didn't mean the local affiliates in my area aired it for it's entire run. I don't remember it airing for 4 years here...but I do remember watching it. He wrote several books...the one out at the time of his television show's debut was The Way Things Ought To Be. The popularity of his radio show and of conservative politics, in general, spawned a lot of other conservative radio talk shows and his presence on television inspired a sitcom that Henry Winkler starred, Monty. It was also during this time frame when there was an updated version of WKRP in Cincinnati. In one of the episodes they dealt with what the episode described as a 'shock jock' named Lash Rambo. It was an over-the-top spoof of Rush based on how he's perceived by his critics...and oh yes, Rush had his share of critics. 

Some of those critics are celebrating and applauding that Rush passed away. In their minds they've always seen Rush as a modern equivalent of Hitler or the personification of the Devil. The fact that he popularized conservative talk-radio and that he was described as being the leader of the conservative talk-radio industry, and, the fact that it was a multi-million dollar success meant that the critics were very loud, very vocal, and unapologetically harsh and heartless in their criticism of talk-radio, in general, but more specific: Rush's success. He became the target of the left's wrath simply because he was the most popular conservative on a national platform and never mind the fact that leftists and liberals controlled network television news and the newspaper industry, the fact that conservatives had firm control on talk-radio sent shock and alarm throughout the left-wing and liberal factions of the Democrat party. Ever since Rush's radio program and those that followed became incredibly popular and profitable on AM radio the Democrats have been on a crusade to crush all conservative opinion. For some reason the Democrats think the popularity of conservatism on talk-radio is harmful and dangerous...yet Democrats have controlled the flow of information on broadcast newscasts and in newspapers for decades...but nobody within the Republican party is launching boycotts or attack ads demanding that the Democrats loosen their grip on broadcast newscasts. It's never a two-way street with Democrats...they want to control everything and everyone. 

Rush popularized conservative talk-radio and he made it successful. He was the recipient of several Marconi Awards for Radio Personality of the Year. Anyone recall the commercial he did for Pizza Hut when the stuffed crust was brand new? His radio show remained the most listened to from the early '90s to the present day. 

There hasn't been any announcement as to who takes over that 12pm - 3pm time slot for those out there who may be wondering. Some suggest that the radio show Sean Hannity hosts nationally from 3pm - 6pm should be moved into the 12pm - 3pm slot and that Mark Levin's show, which airs nationally in most markets from 6pm to 9pm, should inherit the 3pm-6pm slot that Hannity currently occupies. I've loved the outpouring of sympathy and remembrances of Rush's life and career that have aired throughout the broadcast day on Fox News Channel. I was listening to Hannity's radio program earlier today and he played audio clips of Rush and the announcement made by Rush's wife, on radio, that Rush had passed away at age 70 of lung cancer. 

1951-2021