Conservative talk radio icon Rush Limbaugh, who alone created the era of U.S. political talk radio show and had the most listened to radio program in the country’s history, died on Wednesday because of lung cancer one year after announcing his diagnosis with the disease. Talk Radio Legend lost his life in the morning at the age of seventy, his family announced.
Kathryn Adams Limbaugh, the wife of Limbaugh, made the grief announcement on his husband’s radio show. Losing a loved person is horribly difficult and significantly more when that person is bigger than life, she said. He will forever be the greatest man of all time. In January 2020, Limbaugh came to know that he had Stage four lung cancer.
Then-president Donald Trump awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the State of the Union address. President Trump praised him during the address and said thank you for your decades of diligent devotion to the country. Melania Trump, the then-first lady, then presented the highest civilian honor of America to the radio icon in an emotional moment on the heels of his shocking cancer diagnosis.
A light on the achievements of Rush Limbaugh
Rush has a social force with a growing weekly radio audience of over twenty million at his peak. He was an author of seven books – two of them were New York Times bestsellers. Talk Radio Legend also hosted a nationally syndicated television show. Republicans and conservatives hailed him, while Democrats and liberals derided him.
In 1994, his daily broadcasts at the radio announcing conservative politics and policies credited with helping the Republican party gain control of both houses of Congress for the first time in forty years as part of the Republican Revolution of Newt Gingrich. Republicans gained fifty-four seats in the House – the biggest change in almost fifty years. So, the incoming freshman congressional GOP group bestowed Limbaugh with an honorary membership.
Ups and downs in Rush’s Life
the dropout from Cape Girardeau college, Limbaugh started his career as a disc jockey (DJ) on a local Pittsburgh radio station in 1971. Later he moved to KQV in the city. The administration of both stations fired him after his comments considered controversial. Moreover, the general manager of KQV told him that he would never make it an on-air personality.
Afterward, in 1975, he returned to Missouri, his home state, for other on-air radio jobs. He got a job in group sales with the Kansas City Royals baseball team before getting fire from both above jobs. Later in 1983, he returned to radio for a short job in Kansas City. In addition, he took another on-air designation at KFBK in Sacramento, California, replacing trash-talk Television pioneer Morton Downey Jr.
There Limbaugh developed more of the style and format that would catch the attention of former President of ABC Radio, Edward McLaughlin, and then transfer to his countrywide syndicated eponymic The Rush Limbaugh Show. He debuted the show in 1988 with three hours weekdays from 12:00 to 03:00 pm ET on WABC in New York with fifty affiliated stations in the Excellence in Broadcasting.
Limbaugh’s popularity rapidly grew, and he gained millions of fans, in other words, dittoheads. Following the 1992 general election (Bill Clinton won as president), the radio icon appeared on the “The Phil Donahue Show.” Donahue rebuke Limbaugh that with Bill Clinton’s election, the party was over. Rush replied that the party for him was beginning.
Barack the Magic Negro
Limbaugh would refer to extreme feminists and mockingly use theme songs to announce his topics to discuss in the show. Just like Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire for a speech on anthropogenic global warming. One segment that infuriated liberals in 2007 when he played a parody song Barack the Magic Negro by satirist Paul Shanklin, set to the tune of Puff the Magic Dragon.
According to Talkers Magazine, Limbaugh would accumulate the largest audience in American radio history, syndicated to six hundred and fifty stations across the country. While intentionally avoiding interviews of guests, Limbaugh spoke on air to former U.S. President George H.W. Bush, former President George W. Bush and former President Donald Trump, former Vice Presidents Dan Quayle, Dick Cheney, and Mike Pence, then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, among others.
Read Also: Congressman and civil rights movement vanguard John Lewis Dies aged 80
Forbes magazine reported him as the second-highest-paid radio show host in 2018, making $84.5 million behind satellite radio shock-jock Howard Stern’s $90 million. Another extensively broadcasted episode was when Limbaugh (a heartfelt Pittsburgh Steelers fan from his time on the radio in Western Pennsylvania) appeared on ESPN’s “the National Football League Countdown” pregame show in 2003.
Limbaugh also credited with giving rise to a short-lived liberal effort at counter-programming, the Air America radio network, which continued less than six years before closing in 2010. During his more than thirty-two years on air, he usually referred to his formerly nicotine-stained fingers while rustling papers, a reference to quitting smoking cigarettes earlier in his professional career. However, he usually would smoke cigars during his program.
Cancer Diagnosis and Death
Radio icon’s death comes after one year when he announced on his show that he diagnosed with advanced lung cancer and would miss time away from his program for treatment. Several guest hosts filled in Limbaugh’s space during treatment periods, including Ken Matthews, Mark Steyn, and Todd Herman.
Source: Web
It was not the first health-related issue Rush faced during the time of his show. Limbaugh announced during his show in 2001 that he had become almost completely deaf. However, he continued to do his show after surgery and implanted with a cochlear. Talk Radio Legend announced in 2003 that his body addicted to prescription medication related to back pain and surgery.
Condolences and Praises from celebrities
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, tweeted a grief message on the death news of Rush Limbaugh. He sends his heartful condolences to Rush Limbaugh’s family. In addition, he adds that he was a great friend of Israel. Rush stood by them through thick and thin, always firm, never wavering. Steve Scalise, the House Republican, tweeted that Rush was an American radio icon who took conservation into the mainstream – and United States is a better place of his deep voice. Limbaugh leaves behind an incredible legacy.
I send my heartfelt condolences to the family of Rush Limbaugh. He was a great friend of Israel and he stood by us through thick and thin, always firm, never wavering. We shall miss him dearly.
— Benjamin Netanyahu (@netanyahu) February 18, 2021
Richard Marx, the songwriter, and producer, tweets that Limbaugh was a dogmatic and misogynistic prick who demonstrated the opposite of all of Christ’s teachings. The author of WORTH IT, Dan Price, shared a series of tweets to show his sorrow for legendary Limbaugh’s death, but he criticized his misinformation on minimum wage. He wrote that he grew up listening to Rush’s voice three hours daily as a home-schooled kid. His parents also idolized him. Five years ago, his parents called him: “Limbaugh is about to talk about you!” Furthermore, he adds that he was in the news for slashing his CEO pay to raise min wage to $70k. So, he excitedly turned-on Rush’s show.
I grew up listening to Rush Limbaugh 3 hours a day as a home-schooled kid. My parents idolized him.
5 years ago my parents called me: “Rush is about to talk about you!”
I was in the news for slashing my CEO pay to raise our min wage to $70k. I excitedly turned on his show (1/6)
— Dan Price (@DanPriceSeattle) February 18, 2021
