The Rush Limbaugh Show
The Rush Limbaugh Show was an American conservative talk radio show hosted by Rush Limbaugh. Since its nationally syndicated premiere in 1988, The Rush Limbaugh Show became the highest-rated talk radio show in the United States.[1] At its peak, the show aired on over 650 radio stations nationwide.
"Dittohead" redirects here. For the Slayer song, see Divine Intervention (Slayer album).Other names
The Rush Limbaugh Program
Rush Limbaugh on the EIB Network
3 hours (noon – 3 p.m. ET)
United States
English
KFBK, Sacramento (1984–1988)
WABC, New York City (1988–2013)
WJNO, West Palm Beach (2000–2021)
WOR, New York City (2014–2021)
Excellence In Broadcasting Radio Network (thru Premiere Networks)
Rush Limbaugh (1992–1996)
Rush Limbaugh
Rush Limbaugh
Cookie Gleason
Palm Beach County, Florida (1996–2021)
1984 (Sacramento)
August 1, 1988 (national) –
February 2, 2021 (with Limbaugh)
June 18, 2021 (in guest host/clip show format)
Unbeknownst at the time, Limbaugh hosted the show for the last time on February 2, 2021. On February 17, 2021, Limbaugh's widow Kathryn announced on that day's broadcast that he had died at the age of 70, one year after being diagnosed with lung cancer.
After Limbaugh's death, clip shows with guest hosts (referred to as "guide hosts") were heard in the Limbaugh time slot for four months, until June 18. The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show premiered on Premiere Networks on June 21, 2021, from 12 to 3 p.m. ET.[2]
Show history[edit]
Radio syndication[edit]
After several years of employment with the Kansas City Royals and in the music radio business, which included hosting a program at KMBZ in Kansas City, in 1984, Limbaugh started as a regular talk show host on AM radio station KFBK in Sacramento, California. He succeeded Morton Downey Jr. in the time slot.[37]
Based on his work in Sacramento, Limbaugh was signed to a contract by EFM Media Management, headed by former ABC Radio executive Edward McLaughlin. Limbaugh became syndicated on August 1, 1988, through EFM and his show was drawing five million listeners after two years of syndication.[38] Lacking a name for the network during the early years, he coined the name "EIB (Excellence In Broadcasting) Network," which has remained associated with the show even after joining an actual radio network (Premiere), and the trademark is currently owned by iHeart Media, which continues to use the name for Clay Travis and Buck Sexton.
In 1997, Jacor Communications, a publicly traded company, acquired EFM.[39]
Later that year, Jacor merged with Premiere Radio Networks.[40]
In 1999, Jacor merged with Clear Channel Communications,[41] which rebranded as iHeartMedia in 2014; Clear Channel/iHeart have maintained what is now branded as Premiere Networks as their syndication wing since acquiring it.
In 2006, WBAL (1090 AM) in Baltimore, Maryland was the first station to drop Limbaugh's program and replace it with local programming; the current Baltimore affiliate is crosstown rival WCBM (680 AM).
Limbaugh and Clear Channel signed an eight-year, $400 million contract extension on July 2, 2008.[42] He signed a new contract for four additional years in a deal announced August 2, 2016, after Limbaugh publicly contemplated retirement. Limbaugh is believed to have taken a pay cut to remain on the air after advertisers pulled funding in response to boycotts around his criticism of Sandra Fluke and industry-wide advertising declines.[43] Limbaugh renewed his agreement with Premiere through 2024 in a deal announced January 5, 2020.[44]
Final year[edit]
On February 3, 2020, Limbaugh announced on his show that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer, but would continue hosting the show (though with absences to undergo treatment). In anticipation of his death, he used his December 23, 2020, episode to express his thanks and say farewell to his audience;[45] Limbaugh occasionally hosted shows through January and would host his last new episode on February 2, 2021. His death was announced by his widow Kathryn during the February 17 broadcast. Upon the announcement of his death, Premiere Networks released a statement that during Limbaugh's terminal illness, it had organized the archive of Limbaugh's shows by date and topic to allow for at least 90 days of clip shows, selected to correspond to the current news cycle as much as possible, presented by a guest host (referred to on air as a "guide host"). The long-term plan would be to eventually cancel the program once Premiere determined that the audience was ready to move on.[46] Stations owned by Cox Media Group[47] and Saga Communications, along with Pittsburgh affiliate WJAS, began dropping the program in mid-March.[48] Further defections from Audacy,[49] Midwest Communications,[50] and Alpha Media[51] continued in April, with Audacy replacing Limbaugh with Dana Loesch and local programs.[52] Cumulus Media continued to carry Limbaugh's show through the first three months in the "guide host" format, then introduced its own show hosted by Dan Bongino on May 24.[53]
On May 27, 2021, Premiere Radio Networks announced that, as part of a programming shuffle, it would be moving its evening host Buck Sexton into Limbaugh's time slot, with Fox Sports Radio personality Clay Travis joining him as co-host, beginning June 21, 2021, as The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show,[54] subsequently announcing that Houston-based host Jesse Kelly would join its lineup to take over for Sexton in the evening slot.[55]
The final episode of the "guide host" format (and the show entirely) aired on Friday, June 18, 2021. Of the show's remaining affiliates — estimated by Premiere to be about 400 — most of the carryovers to Sexton and Travis consist of stations owned by Premiere parent company iHeartMedia. Other station ownership groups chose options such as Bongino, Loesch, Salem Radio Network hosts Dennis Prager or Charlie Kirk, Compass Media Networks' Markley, Van Camp and Robbins or Fox News Talk's Fox Across America. Townsquare Media, in particular, declined to make a universal decision on its stations' replacement for Limbaugh, allowing local program directors to decide for their own stations.[56]
Sexton and Travis also inherited the EIB brand and Limbaugh's "Rush 24/7" subscriber base - since rebranded as "EIB 24/7" and later "C&B 24/7" - and includes the archives to both shows. Travis and Sexton also promote their show as being "Inspired by Rush", and continue to use clips from Limbaugh (in segments billed as "Rush's Timeless Wisdom") to reinforce points made on the new show.[57][58]
Controversial incidents[edit]
Armed Forces Radio controversy[edit]
On May 26, 2004, the article "Rush's Forced Conscripts" appeared on the online news and opinion magazine Salon.com.[59] The article discussed the controversy surrounding the fact that American Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS) (which describes itself as "[providing] stateside radio and television programming, 'a touch of home', to U.S. service men and women, DoD civilians, and their families serving outside the continental United States") carries the first hour of Limbaugh's show. Melvin Russell, director of AFRTS, defended Limbaugh's presence, by pointing to Limbaugh's high ratings in the US: "We look at the most popular shows broadcast here in the United States and try to mirror that. [Limbaugh] is the No. 1 talk show host in the States; there's no question about that. Because of that we provide him on our service." In addition, AFRTS produced a ballot of radio and television shows asking troops worldwide, "Who do you want that we don't at present carry?" The Rush Limbaugh Show was not listed on the ballot, but won the vote as a write-in by the troops. A later poll by Lund Media Research found that a majority of soldiers preferred that talk show programs be replaced by hip hop and rap stations, bringing into question the future of content such as the Rush Limbaugh Show on AFRTS.[60]
Critics have pointed out that other programs, such as the eight-million listener per week Howard Stern Show, are absent from AFRTS. (This statement was made before Stern left for satellite radio in 2006.) Other claims—for example, that there is no political counterbalance to Limbaugh on AFRTS—have been rebutted by Byron York, a columnist for the predominantly conservative National Review: "American military men and women abroad have access, for example, to the talk show of liberal host Diane Rehm ... Jim Hightower and CBS News anchorman Dan Rather." Another possible political counterbalance to Limbaugh is Harry Shearer, who emphasizes his presence on AFRTS at the end of every episode of his satirical Le Show.
On June 14, 2004, U.S. Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) introduced an amendment to the 2004 Defense Authorization bill that called for AFRTS to fulfill its stated goal of providing political balance in its news and public affairs programming.[61] The amendment passed unanimously in the Senate. Limbaugh responded by calling the move "censorship". On his June 17 radio show, he commented that: "This is a United States senator [Tom Harkin] amending the Defense appropriations bill with the intent being to get this program—only one hour of which is carried on Armed Forces Radio—stripped from that network." The amendment never became law. As of 2005, the first hour of Limbaugh's show was still on AFRTS. Limbaugh visited US forces in Afghanistan in 2005.
This treatment of The Rush Limbaugh Show proved to set a precedent for Congressional debate on AFRTS content. The Ed Schultz Show, a liberal talk radio show with over one million listeners a week, was originally scheduled to be broadcast on AFRTS on October 17, 2005. It was subsequently pulled, with some alleging political motivation, which was later debated in Congress. A few weeks after this debate, AFRTS added Schultz to the line-up along with other talk show hosts: Al Franken and Sean Hannity.
Michael J. Fox controversy[edit]
On the October 23, 2006, broadcast of his radio show, Limbaugh imitated on the "DittoCam" (the webcam for website subscribers to see him on the air) the physical symptoms actor Michael J. Fox showed in a television commercial raising awareness of Parkinson's disease.[62][63] He said "[Fox] is exaggerating the effects of the disease. He's moving all around and shaking and it's purely an act ... This is really shameless of Michael J. Fox. Either he didn't take his medication or he's acting."[64] Three days later, on October 26, Limbaugh denied that he was ridiculing Fox, stating that, after seeing Fox without his medication, "I [was] stunned because I [had] never seen Michael J. Fox that way." Limbaugh said that he was "mov[ing] around like [Fox] does, but never once was I making fun of him. I was trying to illustrate for my audience watching on the Dittocam what I had seen."[65]
Fox later appeared on CBS with Katie Couric and said he was actually dyskinesic at the time, a condition that results from overmedication.[66]
However, Fox has admitted that he has, at times, deliberately not taken his medication[67]—such as in an appearance the U.S. Senate—in order, he claimed, to demonstrate the effects of Parkinson's disease. During Limbaugh's October 26, 2006, show he said, in a discussion with a caller, "[I]n his own book [Lucky Man: A Memoir],[67] he has written in chapter eight that before Senate committees he goes off the medication so that people can see the ravages of the disease."[65]
Operation Chaos[edit]
In late February 2008, Limbaugh announced "Operation Chaos," a political call to action with the initial plan to have voters of the Republican Party temporarily cross over to vote in the Democratic primary and vote for Hillary Clinton, who at the time was in the midst of losing eleven straight primary contests to Barack Obama.[107]
At the point in which Limbaugh announced his gambit, Obama had seemed on the verge of clinching the Democratic nomination.[108] However, Clinton subsequently won the Ohio primary and the Texas primary (while losing the Texas caucus and the overall delegate split) with large pluralities from rural counties; thus reemerging as a competitive opponent in the race.[109]
On April 29, 2008, Limbaugh declared an "operational pause" in Operation Chaos, saying that Obama's defeat in the 2008 Pennsylvania primary and fallout from statements from Obama ally Reverend Jeremiah Wright could have damaged his campaign to the extent superdelegates would shift to Clinton's side.[110] Determining Obama had weathered that storm, Limbaugh lifted the pause the next day and renewed his call for his listeners to vote for Clinton in the upcoming Indiana and North Carolina primaries.[111] Obama won the North Carolina primary[112] but was narrowly defeated in Indiana, where Clinton won decisively in rural counties that normally vote Republican in presidential elections.[113]
The overall legality of Operation Chaos in several states, including Ohio and Indiana, is disputed. In Ohio, new party members are required to sign a pledge of loyalty to the party they join for a minimum of one year, making participation in "Operation Chaos" a possible felony (election falsification) in that state. However, Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann refused to press charges on anyone, saying that it would be nearly impossible to enforce because of difficulties proving voter intent and concerns that a loyalty oath would violate freedom of association.[114]
By 2020, the name "Operation Chaos" had become associated enough with presidential party raiding that South Carolina Republicans seeking to disrupt that state's Democratic presidential primary recycled the name for their own efforts. Limbaugh did not endorse or address the South Carolina efforts.[115]