LIMBAUGH IS DEAD

Rush Limbaugh, the right-wing AM radio host whose divisive style made him popular with conservatives for more than three decades, died Wednesday after a long battle with lung cancer. He was 70.

One of the best-paid personalities on radio—Limbaugh's eight-year 2008 deal with Premiere Networks snagged him about $38m a year—he was heard on about 650 stations at his peak, pulling in an audience of 15m. Premiere announced it had signed a new deal with Limbaugh, reportedly for four years, earlier in 2021.

He got his start in Kansas City at KMBZ in 1983, moving in 1984 to Sacramento, where he had a daytime talk show on KFBK. After a move to New York, he started his syndicated deal with ABC Radio Networks in 1988, beginning a 32-year run for The Rush Limbaugh Show.

A champion of presidents Reagan and Trump, he reviled anyone not toeing the conservative line, verbally assaulting and insulting liberals, Democrats, feminists, Michael J. Fox, Special Counsel Robert Mueller and environmentalists, among many others. During Trump’s reign, he spread lies about Barack Obama and his administration's leadership of the “deep state,” spreading conspiracy theories and misinformation to keep the Trump base sated.

Indeed, opinion was more important than facts in the Limbaugh world, and detractors saw him as the most dangerous man in America, considering his reach and the fealty of his fans, who echoed his commentary as gospel. He rather liked the moniker “most dangerous man in America,” embracing it for most of his tenure on radio.

The announcement of Limbaugh’s death coincided with the demolition of Trump Plaza, the final remnant of the former president's bankrupt run through Atlantic City.