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Rush Limbaugh
1951–2021 · 70 years Tier II
Fired from five stations before the fairness doctrine fell
The Limbaughs of Cape Girardeau were lawyers. His grandfather was a prosecutor, judge and state legislator, his father a lawyer who had flown fighters in the China-Burma-India theater, his uncle a federal judge. Rush took his first radio job at 16 at the local station under the name Rusty Sharpe, found in a phone book. He enrolled at Southeast Missouri State to please his parents and left after two semesters. His mother said he flunked everything and cared about nothing but radio. In 1971 he went to McKeesport, Pennsylvania, as Bachelor Jeff Christie. He was fired there in 1973, in Pittsburgh in 1974, where the manager suggested he try selling advertising instead, and twice more in Kansas City. Then he sold group tickets for the Royals for five years.
He went back on the air in 1983 under his own name, was fired again inside a year, and landed at KFBK in Sacramento in October 1984, taking over Morton Downey Jr.'s slot. The FCC repealed the fairness doctrine on August 5, 1987, and stations no longer owed airtime to the other side. Ed McLaughlin syndicated him the following year: a New York show on WABC beginning July 4, 1988, a national program on 50 stations from August 1, 100 stations by November, eventually more than 650. Two of his books topped the bestseller list for 24 weeks. A television show ran from 1992 to 1996. He signed for 285 million dollars in 2001 and 400 million in 2008, and by 2017 he had 14 million listeners a week, more than anyone else in America.
On television he had said that people using drugs ought to be accused, convicted and sent up. On October 10, 2003, he told his listeners he was addicted to prescription painkillers and checked into a 30-day program that afternoon, tracing it to a botched back operation. Palm Beach prosecutors charged him with doctor shopping in 2006 — roughly 2,000 pills from four doctors in six months at a pharmacy near his house — and he surrendered, was fingerprinted and posted 3,000 dollars. In 2009 they dropped it for 30,000 dollars, 18 months of treatment, random drug tests and a firearms ban. He never conceded the charge. He had gone almost completely deaf in three months in 2001, and the surgeon who fitted his cochlear implant would not rule out the opioids as a cause.
Lung cancer was diagnosed on January 20, 2020. He announced it on air on February 3, and the next night Melania Trump pinned the Presidential Medal of Freedom on him at the State of the Union. He said in October that it was terminal, broadcast for the last time on February 2, 2021, and died on February 17 at 70. His standing is not settled. Reagan wrote to him in 1992 as conservatism's number one voice, and the same record holds the song called Barack the Magic Negro, the AIDS Update segment that read out the names of dead gay men, the claim that Obama was foreign-born, and the Sandra Fluke broadcasts that cost him dozens of sponsors.
Lifespan
Rush Limbaugh's life against the full span of the corpus.
Notable works
-
The Rush Limbaugh Show
other
Syndicated from August 1, 1988, and credited with reviving AM radio 1988 -
The Way Things Ought to Be
book
Dictated by him, transcribed and edited by John Fund 1992 -
See, I Told You So
book
With the first book, 24 weeks at the top of the bestseller list 1993 -
Rush Limbaugh: The Television Show
television
Ran to 1996, and made his neckties famous enough to sell 1992 -
Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims
book
The first of five children's books, and an award from the Children's Book Council 2013 -
The EIB Cure-a-Thon
other
His annual telethon for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, past 15 million dollars by 2006 1990
Life in brief
with age at each point- 1967 aged ~16 Takes his first radio job at 16 as Rusty Sharpe He found the surname in a telephone book.
- 1974 aged ~23 Fired in Pittsburgh and told to go into radio sales He moved back in with his parents in Cape Girardeau.
- 1979 aged ~28 Leaves radio to sell group tickets for the Kansas City Royals He stayed almost five years and became director of group sales.
- October 14, 1984 aged 33 Starts at KFBK in Sacramento, replacing Morton Downey Jr.
- August 5, 1987 aged 36 The FCC repeals the fairness doctrine Stations could now run one-sided commentary without offering reply time.
- August 1, 1988 aged 37 The national program debuts on 50 stations It was on 100 within three months and eventually more than 650.
- 2001 aged ~50 Loses most of his hearing in three months A cochlear implant in December restored part of it.
- October 10, 2003 aged 52 Tells listeners he is addicted to painkillers and enters treatment that afternoon
- February 4, 2020 aged 69 Receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the State of the Union He had announced his lung cancer on the air the night before.
Related
Contemporaries
Ideas & Media, born within 25 years
Linda Darling-Hammond b. 1951Ideas & MediaEducation researcher and Stanford professor who shaped teacher preparation and assessment policy.
bell hooks 1952–2021Ideas & MediaFeminist scholar and cultural critic whose writings on race, gender, and class transformed critical theory.
Francis Fukuyama b. 1952Ideas & MediaPolitical scientist whose The End of History and the Last Man sparked global debate on liberal democracy.
Geoffrey Canada b. 1952Ideas & MediaSocial activist who founded the Harlem Children's Zone, a model for comprehensive community-based education.
Henry Louis Gates Jr. b. 1950Ideas & MediaLiterary critic and Harvard professor who has shaped African American studies and popularized genealogy.
Amy Wax b. 1953Ideas & MediaUniversity of Pennsylvania law professor whose controversial writings on culture and immigration sparked national debate.