Rush Limbaugh, whose national radio career launched at Sacramento station, dies at 70
Conservative talk radio giant Rush Limbaugh died Wednesday after a battle with lung cancer. He was 70.
Sacramento became the launch pad for the Cape Girardeau, Missouri native’s highly polarizing but influential broadcast career. He hosted a daytime talk show on KFBK from 1984 until 1988, forming the basis for the nationally syndicated “The Rush Limbaugh Show” which launched later that year.
He kept his local ties on the airwaves for years via running jokes about Rio Linda, which he explained to a listener in 2007 was his “pet little favorite community to pick on,” according to transcripts on Limbaugh’s website.
Limbaugh’s program over the following decades became the most listened-to radio show in the United States and landed him in the Radio Hall of Fame and National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame.
Limbaugh leaves a legacy within the radio industry and politics. His show was the most listened to talk radio broadcast in the country, according to USA Today.
But his controversial views were often polarizing, racist and misogynistic. One of his frequent targets was former President Barack Obama. In 2008, he chuckled on air after a caller compared the president to cartoon monkey Curious George. He often referred to feminists as “feminazis” and called AIDS “the Rock Hudson disease.”
His influence was critical in helping Republicans take over Congress in 1994, ultimately resulting in the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton.
Limbaugh briefly left radio in 1979 to work for the Kansas City Royals as director of promotions before returning to radio in the ‘80s as an on-air host at KFBK in Sacramento.
When Limbaugh received the Medal of Freedom last year, one day after he first publicly disclosed his lung cancer diagnosis, then-President Donald Trump said Limbaugh was “beloved by millions of Americans.”
“He was a fantastic man. He was a fantastic talent,” Trump said during a Fox News interview Wednesday. “People, whether they loved him or not, they respected him.”
Trump said he met Limbaugh after he began his 2016 presidential campaign. “He was with me right from the beginning,” Trump said.
“Rush was so gracious and so great. Then, over a period of time, I got to know him and he loved this country. He loved the country, he loved his wife and his family. And he loved his fans,” Trump added.
Limbaugh was a staunch Trump supporter and made claims President Joe Biden did not win the 2020 presidential election “fair and square,” CNBC reported.
In 2006, Limbaugh was arrested following a three-year investigation in a prescription fraud case. A plea deal was later reached, as Limbaugh sought treatment for drug addiction, according to ABC News.
After the insurrection on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, Limbaugh dismissed the notion that the rioters should be condemned and compared them to the colonists that sparked the American Revolution, The Hill reported.
Limbaugh’s wife, Kathryn, announced her husband’s death Wednesday on his show.
This story was originally published February 17, 2021 at 2:22 PM.
