30 Things Every Fan Should Know About Rush Limbaugh

Rush Hudson Limbaugh III, the famous radio talk show host, was born on January 12, 1951 to Rush Hudson Limbaugh, Jr., and Mildred Carolyn "Millie" in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Here are 30 interesting facts about him:

1. His show “The Rush Limbaugh Show,” is the most listened-to talk-radio program in the United States, with a cume (cumulative weekly audience) of more than 13.25 million unique listeners, as per the December 2015 estimates.
2. Limbaugh is the #1 nationally syndicated radio talk show host in the US.
3. His name “Rush,” was originally chosen for his grandfather Rush Hudson Limbaugh, Sr., in honor of the family member Edna Rush.
4. The anti-union “Rush Act,” in the episode “Babylon 5: By Any Means Necessary,” in the 1994 TV Series, “Babylon 5,” was named after him.
5. He started his radio career as a teenager by the name Rusty Sharpe in the year 1967. He has also worked a series of disc jockey jobs and even went by the name Jeff Christy in his early days.
6. He was the subject of Golf Channel’s “The Haney Project’s” third season, in which he had Hank Haney, an American professional golf instructor famous for coaching Tiger Woods, coached him in eight episodes.
7. In the year 2014, he was honored with the Marconi Radio Award for Syndicated Radio Personality of the Year award, by the National Association of Broadcasters, for the fifth time, following 1992, 1995, 2000, and 2005.
8. He holds "EIB Cure-a-Thon" fundraising every year for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
9. He has many lawyers in his family, including his grandfather, father, brother, uncle and cousin. His grandfather was the longtime president of the Missouri Historical Society, and the Federal Courthouse in Limbaugh’s native Cape Girardeau, is named after him.
10. In the year 2003, he admitted to have been addicted to pain medications and sought inpatient treatment for 30 days. Three years later, he turned himself into authorizes as he was arrested "on a single charge of prescription fraud."
    
11. He was inducted into the Hall of Famous Missourians, with a bronze bust of Limbaugh in display in the Missouri State Capitol building in Jefferson City on May 14, 2012.
12. Talkers Magazine named as the greatest radio talk show host of all time in the year 2002. The same year, he was the highest-paid syndicated radio host.
13. He dropped out of Southeast Missouri State University, after just two semesters and one summer and moved to McKeesport, Pennsylvania and started working as a disc jockey. According to him, he enrolled with the University, just to fulfill his parents desire to see him attend college. His mother once claimed that Rush never seemed interested in anything except radio.
14. His first TV hosting experience was as a guest host on “The Pat Sajak Show,” a late night talk show aired in CBS, on March 30, 1990. It was reported that the ACT UP activists in the show’s audience heckled him repeatedly, eventually leading to the entire studio audience being cleared. Later in 2001, Sajak remembered the said incident to be "legendary around CBS."
15. In the year 1993, Limbaugh was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame. Around 5 years later in 1998, he was inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame.
16. He has been married four times and was divorced three times, with no children. His first wife was Roxy Maxine McNeely, a sales secretary at WHB radio station in Kansas City. His second wife was Michelle Sixta, a college student, while his third wife was Marta Fitzgerald, an aerobics instructor.
17. Before his mother Millie (Armstrong) Limbaugh, who is often considered as the First Lady of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, passed away on March 3, 2000, she was ill. In order to take care of her, Limbaugh temporarily moved to his hometown and broadcasted his radio show from her kitchen.
18. His books “The Way Things Ought to Be,” and “See, I Told You So,” in the year 1992 and 1993 respectively have made it to The New York Times Best Seller list, just as released.
19. In 2003, he joined as a pro football commentator with ESPN, only to resign after a few weeks into the NFL season after a controversy related to accusations of racism on his part, for his comments related to the press coverage for quarterback Donovan McNabb.
20. Talkers magazine named Limbaugh as the No. 1, in the "Heavy Hundred" most important talk show hosts, in the year 2007.
    
21. He was one of the judges for the 2010 Miss America pageant held in Las Vegas on January 30, 2010.
22. His children’s book “Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims: Time-Travel Adventures with Exceptional Americans,” received much popularity, leading to him being named the Author of the Year in 2014, by the Children’s Book Council.
23. During the decade of 1970, he took up jobs at several radio stations, before leaving radio in the year 1979. He went to take up the position of director of promotions with the Kansas City Royals baseball team, where he met his to-date close friend – George Brett, the then-Royals star third baseman and the future Hall of Famer.
24. He is famous for his distinctive neckties among his television program viewers. He even launched a series of ties designed by his third wife Marta Fitzgerald.
25. In late 2001, he acknowledged in one of his shows that for some mysterious reason he has gone almost completely deaf, but still continued his show. He regained much of his hearing with the help of cochlear implant the same year.
26. He was named as the Man of the Year by Human Events, a conservative magazine on January 5, 2008.
27. He was romantically involved with Daryn Kagan, then-CNN news anchor, but broke up within 2 years. Later he dated Kathryn Rogers, a party planner with whom he had a relationship for three years, before marrying her on June 5, 2010.
28. After the 1992 Presidential elections, he publicly lampooned the policies of the elected President Bill Clinton and the First Lady Hillary Clinton. Later, just as the Republican Party won control in the 1994 midterm elections, he was awarded an honorary membership in their caucus, confirming him as a highly influential figure on the national political scene.
29. Limbaugh was voted as the most trusted news personality in the nation, in a November 2008 poll conducted by Zogby International, with 12.5 percent of poll responses.
30. A conservative media analysis organization named Media Research Center honored him with the inaugural William F. Buckley, Jr. Award for Media Excellence, on March 29, 2007.