photo #1560398

"With Talent On Loan.. From God". Conservative talk show host and the Godfather of Talk Radio, Rush Limbaugh, has died. The polarizing figure, had passed away this morning, Wednesday February 17, 2020 from advanced stage 4 lung cancer.Rush Hudson Limbaugh III, "the Doctor of Democracy" was born January 12, 1951 in Cape Girardeau, Missouri to Rush Hudson Limbaugh II and Mildred Carolyn Armstrong Limbaugh.His father was a lawyer and a United States fighter pilot who had served in the China Burma India Theater of World War II. His mother was from Searcy, Arkansas. The name "Rush" was originally chosen for his grandfather to honor the maiden name of a family member, Edna Rush.Rush had graduated Cape Girardeau Central High School in 1969, where he had played football. It was during this time at age sixteen, he had started his radio career, working at KGMO radio in town under the name Rusty Sharpe. He had found the name in the telephone book.Later, Rush had cited Larry Lujack, a Chicago area Dee Jay, as a major influence and said he was "the only person I ever copied". His parents had desired Rush to attend college, so he had enrolled into Southeast Missouri State University. However, after the second semester, he had dropped out.According to his mother, "he flunked everything... He just didn't seem interested in anything except radio." And you know, that sounds a lot like me. All I've ever wanted to do since I was five years old.. was radio.After dropping out of college, he had accepted a position at WIXZ, a top 40 station in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, using the name, Jeff Christie, DJing afternoons, then moving to morning drive time. The General Manager had compared him to Don Imus. After about eighteen months, Limbaugh was fired because of a personality conflict with the Program Director. Of course, that happens in radio.He had then began a night time position at KQV in Pittsburgh. He was eventually dismissed in late 1974 after new management had taken over the station had pressured the Program Director to fire him, siting that he would never make it as a radio personality. Well we know what became of that, don't we?Having then returning to Cape Girardeau to briefly live with his parents, he had become a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Then in 1975, he had landed an afternoon Top 40 show at KUDL in Kansas City, MO., soon becoming host of a public affair program.Here, he was able to present controversial ideas, and this, I guess, was the beginning of his later style. Disagreements with management, however, had lead to his dismissal from the station in 1977. Rush had eventually felt disillusioned with the radio industry.. and I personally can relate to that. Quite easily in fact. I had actually left radio for a while.. and gotten into sales.He had felt the need to pursue a different career. He looked back on himself as "a moderate failure as a deejay". Now, I'm somewhat of a perfectionist on the air, and one day I had recorded my entire show (using a timer and an open reel deck). I'd made sure to make this show the best ever. Got home, wound the tape back.. played the first fifteen minutes.. I said, "I'll never get back on the air again". Well, I did...Left that station and hooked up with another. This one, the station owner is a retired Army Colonel. We DID NOT work well together. I'd go in to do my air shift with a knot in my stomach. And being a perfectionist on the air, that just didn't work.. and I left. Besides, your audience can tell if something isn't right... Plus, with a knot in my stomach from having to endure the constant barking from the owner during my show.. it just wasn't worth it. I deserved better, and my listening audience deserved better. I left that station in the dust.Anyway, back to Rush. He had accepted a part-time position in 1979 with the Kansas City Royals, and this, had developed further. He had the opportunity to travel to Europe and Asia on business, and this helped influence his conservative views, seeing a lower living standard than the United States.I'm going to have to skip over quite a bit here, and get on to the development of The Rush Limbaugh Show. 1988 found Rush in Sacramento California, where he had come to the attention of ABC radio president, Edward McLaughlin. Then at WABC in New York, Rush began The Rush Limbaugh Show. This was his flagship station for many years.You may or may not agree with his politics, and that is really NOT the focus of this article anyway, but he was a radio man I had, and still do, admire, simply because I can relate to him in so many ways. I've "been there, done that".The Rush Limbaugh Show aired for three hours each weekday on both AM and FM radio, and broadcast worldwide on the Armed Forces Radio Network. It had gone into national syndicated in August of 1988. Limbaugh's popularity had paved the way for other conservative talk show programming, which has become commonplace on both AM and FM radio.Limbaugh had a syndicated half hour TV show from 1992-1996. The show would discuss many of the topics on his radio show, and was taped in front of an audience. Rush had said that he loved doing his radio show, but not a TV show.A November 2008 poll by Zogby International, had found that Rush Limbaugh was THE most trusted news personality in the entire nation, garnering 12.5 percent of poll responses.Many far-left "news" agencies have reported many of Limbaugh's controversial facts and comments as "Mostly False" to "Pants-On-Fire". However, we know this to be the narrative of left-wing organizations.I remember an incident in Fayetteville, Arkansas, which was just down the road from me.. with Hillary Clinton when she was practicing law. Some years later, I had checked the story on Snopes. Snopes said it had never happened. REALLY..? IT WAS TWENTY MINUTES DOWN THE ROAD FROM ME!Well, I'll leave off here, and wish Rush Limbaugh a Rest In Peace.