Rush Limbaugh

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Rush Limbaugh

Rush Limbaugh has done much more than just change the style of talk radio, he has become somewhat of a political leader for many Americans. He has been the type of spokesman many people have been looking for. “Why am I being called the most dangerous man in America?” Limbaugh asks his listeners. “
Because I am right, and I enjoy being right.” (June 3, 1995, The Philadelphia
Inquirer) Rush has caused people to change their views of the country and it's political leaders. He's had many things that have built him up to the “ political preacher” you see today. Rush's early life, his major accomplishments, and his personal life are just a few of the characteristics that make Rush the leader he is today.
Rush's early life affected who he is today in many ways. Limbaugh comes from Cape Girardeau, Missouri, were he was born on Jan. 12, 1951. Rush, or
Rusty as he was called as a kid, was a chubby, insecure youth who craved but rarely received the approval of his father, writes Paul Colford, author of “ The
Rush Limbaugh Story”. “Rush got his first job as a shoeshine boy at the age of
13.” (People 7-24-95 pgs. 166-168) At the age of 16, serving as a disc jockey,
Rush got his first taste of radio. From there, Rusty began to work at several different stations, none of which were getting him anywhere. During one of his first radio jobs Rush went by the name Jeff Christie while working for KQV in
Pittsburgh. He was fired by a man named Jim Carnegie, who now says that he was instructed to fire him, but as soon as Jim got his next job, he hired Rush again.
At the age of 28 Rush took a job organizing community events for the Kansas
City Royals. This paid him $18,000 a year. Rush spent five unfulfilling years with the Royals. “No fault of people at the Royals,” Limbaugh told Talkers, a radio-industry magazine several years ago. “I was just doing the wrong thing.”
(June 3, 1995, The Philadelphia Inquirer) In 1983 Limbaugh decided to try radio again. By 1984 he was working as a talk-show host for a station in Sacramento
California. This is were he was encouraged to speak his mind, and form the style he has today.
Rush Limbaugh has had many great accomplishments through his life as well. “Rush is viewed as having single-handedly saved AM radio, and I don't think that is an unfair characterization,” says Dave Rimmer, former WWDB-FM program director, who added Limbaugh to the station's lineup three years ago.

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