Rush created a market for his product. He offered his show for free to AM stations in exchange for leaving open breaks for commercials aired by the program. This at a time when AM radio was dying due to it being supplanted by the superior fidelity of FM stations. The station owners were happy to fill up the time slot of 12-3PM EST when no one was listening. He was able to open a market and create opportunity where no one else saw it.
Jumping back into abandoned media/technology can work out well because you have no competition - for our IT company we get a lot of value from our USPS letter advertising.
I grew up listening to Rush Limbaugh in the 90s as my dad had it on. My dad traveled 100% of the time and it was awesome as a kid to go with him, even though I had to listen to boring talk radio for 3 hours ;-)
I have quite a few political differences with Rush (especially on social issues), but although I disagree with him on a lot and haven't listened to his show in probably 25 years (other than a few radio surfing moments during the day here and there), the man made a huge impact on history and the culture.
From a hacker perspective he's fascinating because he was a captivating radio presence. Even when I found myself disagreeing with him, there's something about his voice and projection that makes you want to listen, and makes you feel like if you change the channel you'll be missing out. It would be fascinating to study how he was able to do that, to the extent that "art" can be studied of course.
I flagged it because honestly I think it's off-topic for the site. I realize that HN isn't great about that in general but I really struggle to think of anything less geared towards intellectual curiosity (what this site is hypothetically about) than "Polarizing figure dies expectedly".
“In this commercial, he is exaggerating the effects of the disease,” Rush said in the 2006 broadcast, while mocking Michael’s tremors. “He is moving all around and shaking and this is purely an act. I have never seen Michael J. Fox display any of these symptoms of the disease. He can control himself enough to stay in the frame of the picture and he can control himself enough to keep his eyes on the lens, the teleprompter. But his head and shoulders are moving all over the place. This is really shameless, folks. Either he didn’t take his medication or he’s acting.”
I remember I was maybe 13 or 14. I had my first bass guitar, and I was a huge Rush (the band) fan. I somehow came across these "Rush Is Right" bumper stickers and put it on the instrument case. I was too young to know about the man.
While I have no respect for his words, or his work, I respect him as a human. RIP
While he had some controversial views and opinions, that's quite a blanketed statement. Painting everyone you don't like with arbitrary claims is not how you deal with polarizing individuals. I did not agree with him on ~70% of what he had to say but will defend the fact that a lot of things he said were taken out of context.
"I've never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure."
I've heard plenty of him due to close relatives refusing to turn him off in my presence. They called it "education".
The most specific thing I remember was somewhat subtle, and incredibly insidious: Almost always, he would refer to Barack Obama using first and last name. However during one show where Muslims were in context (probably terrorism, but I don't remember specifically), he consistently used "Barack Hussein Obama". I don't remember him actually calling Obama Muslim directly in that episode, but he clearly wanted to both paint being Muslim in general as evil, and associate the (then current) president with Muslims.
This is a man who not only spread hate, but did so intentionally and effectively.
I think the only thing interesting about this is to reflect on the culture of the late 80s and early 90s. It seems to me that there was a transition from the litigious nature of the US to "political correctness" to the culture we have today that can be viewed as accountability or "cancel culture" depending on your point of view.
Limbaugh played a big role in politicizing that process. He was probably also one of the main drivers of the populist right movement that ultimately turned into Trump.
Disclosure: my politics don't match the mainstream and I'm not a liberal/democrat/republican/far-right, this is just my observation from someone who grew up in the 90s.
EDIT: if you're down voting this I would love to know why. I'm not even sure if it's pro-Rush or anti-Rush people doing it as I thought my statement was pretty neutral.
I don't understand what you mean by transition from the litigious nature of US to "political correctness". I think the convention definition of litigious nature is to be "quick to litigate/sue people in court".
I don't see what that has to do with political correctness. Political correctness was a term invented in the late 80s early 90s, but I think America was litigious before that and continues to be litigious today.
And if you disagree with that, I'll see you in court.
[+] [-] j_m_b|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] yawnxyz|5 years ago|reply
/semi-serious sarcasm... his product was essentially populism as a service
[+] [-] analog31|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] benjohnson|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 1996|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] freedomben|5 years ago|reply
I have quite a few political differences with Rush (especially on social issues), but although I disagree with him on a lot and haven't listened to his show in probably 25 years (other than a few radio surfing moments during the day here and there), the man made a huge impact on history and the culture.
From a hacker perspective he's fascinating because he was a captivating radio presence. Even when I found myself disagreeing with him, there's something about his voice and projection that makes you want to listen, and makes you feel like if you change the channel you'll be missing out. It would be fascinating to study how he was able to do that, to the extent that "art" can be studied of course.
[+] [-] freedomben|5 years ago|reply
Then I read many of the comments and realized I was wrong. We can do so much better than this.
[+] [-] polka_haunts_us|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gremlinsinc|5 years ago|reply
"This is really shameless folks"... the perfect phrase to sum up his life. "Shameless."
https://twitter.com/SageRosenfels18/status/12249020924579430...
“In this commercial, he is exaggerating the effects of the disease,” Rush said in the 2006 broadcast, while mocking Michael’s tremors. “He is moving all around and shaking and this is purely an act. I have never seen Michael J. Fox display any of these symptoms of the disease. He can control himself enough to stay in the frame of the picture and he can control himself enough to keep his eyes on the lens, the teleprompter. But his head and shoulders are moving all over the place. This is really shameless, folks. Either he didn’t take his medication or he’s acting.”
[+] [-] whitehouse3|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] SN76477|5 years ago|reply
While I have no respect for his words, or his work, I respect him as a human. RIP
[+] [-] joshz404|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bobcallme|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Laremere|5 years ago|reply
I've heard plenty of him due to close relatives refusing to turn him off in my presence. They called it "education".
The most specific thing I remember was somewhat subtle, and incredibly insidious: Almost always, he would refer to Barack Obama using first and last name. However during one show where Muslims were in context (probably terrorism, but I don't remember specifically), he consistently used "Barack Hussein Obama". I don't remember him actually calling Obama Muslim directly in that episode, but he clearly wanted to both paint being Muslim in general as evil, and associate the (then current) president with Muslims.
This is a man who not only spread hate, but did so intentionally and effectively.
[+] [-] tuckerpo|5 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] solosoyokaze|5 years ago|reply
Limbaugh played a big role in politicizing that process. He was probably also one of the main drivers of the populist right movement that ultimately turned into Trump.
Disclosure: my politics don't match the mainstream and I'm not a liberal/democrat/republican/far-right, this is just my observation from someone who grew up in the 90s.
EDIT: if you're down voting this I would love to know why. I'm not even sure if it's pro-Rush or anti-Rush people doing it as I thought my statement was pretty neutral.
[+] [-] mateo411|5 years ago|reply
I don't see what that has to do with political correctness. Political correctness was a term invented in the late 80s early 90s, but I think America was litigious before that and continues to be litigious today.
And if you disagree with that, I'll see you in court.
[+] [-] ykevinator|5 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] Joeboy|5 years ago|reply
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