The Rush Limbaugh Show

In 1984 Rush Limbaugh started as a regular Talk Show Host on AM radio station KFBK in Sacramento, California, after several years in the music radio business. His success at KFBK led him to WABC in New York City during the late 1980s. Limbaugh became syndicated on August 1, 1988 through the company Premiere Broadcasting, and his success in the radio talk show industry has grown ever since. As the largest Conservative radio talk show in the United States, the Rush Limbaugh Show currently has an estimated twenty million listeners daily. The show has been known to garner calls from such influential, Conservative Politicians as Vice President Dick Cheney. The political views espoused on the show have been known to help boost voter turnouts for candidates affiliated with the Republican Party, and Limbaugh's influence has been the subject of much political controversy as a result. Ranking Democrat leaders in Congress, such as former Senator Tom Daschle from South Dakota, have on occasion blamed the Rush Limbaugh show for the political climate in the United States, and some have called for a Left-Wing/Progressive talk show on AM radio to counter Limbaugh's influence.

Show Airtime

The Rush Limbaugh show airs on over 500 AM radio affiliate stations nationwide, including 12 radio stations that simultaneously broadcast audio streams on the Internet. The show airs live from West Palm Beach, Florida on weekdays from 12PM to 3PM ET.

Program Staff

Bo Snerdly

The program observer, also known as James Golden

Co Co

The Rush 24/7 internet site webmaster

Brian

The EIB network broadcast engineer

Dawn

Rush's source of feminine perspective

H.R.

Stand-ins For Rush

On occasions that Limbaugh is absent from his show, for various personal reasons or due to extended trips (such as a week-long trip to Afghanistan in early 2005 that was taken to report on postwar conditions), he allows "EIB certified talkshow hosts" to fill in for him. Some of the hosts that have been used in the past are as follows:

Roger Hedgecock

(currently the oft used stand-in, and possibly the most popular)

Tom Sullivan

Walter Williams

Parodies

Sometimes the Rush Limbaugh Show will air political parodies from talented voice humorist Paul Shanklin, in conjunction with a variety of political news examined on the show. These satires range from parodies of well known songs to audio skits in which the voices of politicians are imitated by Shanklin. Such contributions from Paul Shanklin have been aired on the show since 1993, before which the parody contributions were largely from Paul Silhan.

Jargon

Rush Limbaugh uses his own on-air jargon some of which is explained here:

Dingy Harry

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid.

Dittoheads

EIB

Excellence in Broadcasting Network

Emotional punditry

Describes advocating/arguing for a particular objective using purely emotional pleas with little regard for logical arguments for/against the objective.

Environmentalist Wacko

A militant enviromental activist, usually a Democrat, but sometimes a Green Party member, who is usually a member of PETA and/or other enviromentally sensitive organizations.

Feminazi

For those of you in Rio Linda …

This phrase is often used by Limbaugh as an introduction to an explanation of somewhat complicated subjects (and sometimes even simple subjects), insinuating that the listenership in Rio Linda, California is not very bright. This practice began after a station in Rio Linda cancelled Limbaugh's show because it did not match "the intellectual standards of the community". Since the Florida butterfly ballot controversy during the 2000 Presidential Election, Limbaugh has also used "West Palm Beach" instead of or in addition to "Rio Linda".

Gorbasm

A now dated reference to the mainstream media's perceived fawning obsession with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.

Hardboiled

A term for the show Hardball with Chris Matthews.

Hillary Rodham Rodham

Reference to former US First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, a name coined when Clinton demanded that the press use her maiden name in all references to her after her husband Bill Clinton was elected to the US Presidency in 1992. Limbaugh has since used this to imply that Clinton has been politically campaigning for US Presidency ever since 1992, at the expense of nominally estranging her from her husband.

Jean Francois

Reference to 2004 democrat US presidential candidate John Kerry, using the French analog of his first and middle name to mock Kerry's alleged elitist views.

Larry King Alive

A term for the show Larry King Live.

Meet the Depressed

A term for the show Meet the Press.

NAALCP (National Association for the Advancement of Liberal Colored People)

A term for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Limbaugh says that "liberal" refers to the NAACP's support for left-wing African Americans, while denigrating African Americans on the right side of the political spectrum, such as Condoleezza Rice and Clarence Thomas.

NAG (National Association of Gals)

A term for the National Organization for Women (NOW).

Scruel

Limbaugh's term for "school". This is a portmanteau of "screw" and "school", reflecting Limbaugh's belief that many schools often fail to do their job and end up screwing students out of a meaningful education.

Seminar caller

Someone who telephones his show for the purpose of astroturfing. Limbaugh is often immediately suspicious of those callers who introduce themselves with the equivalent of "I love your show, I always agree with you, and I voted for Bush, but..."

Senator Sheets

Reference to Senator Robert Byrd, known to be a former member of the Ku Klux Klan.

Slay the Nation

A term for the show Face the Nation.

Stack of stuff

A number of relevant web links offered to subscribers of his website, that his staff has found on the Internet. The links are culled from a variety of current on-line news organizations, and highlight various issues of the day. Limbaugh uses the material here as show prep, and refers to it throughout the broadcast. It also refers to his show's daily agenda.

"Updates" on everything from the Kennedy family to homelessness.

Wolf Blitzed

CNN reporter and newscaster Wolf Blitzer.

Wikipedia mention

On April 19, 2005, Limbaugh mentioned Wikipedia in the final minutes of his show, calling it "… some kind of left wing Internet encyclopedia.", in response to the viewing of Pope Benedict XVI Wikipedia Article (most likely dated April 192005 at 2:52 PM EST).

On April 22, 2005, during his radio program, Rush corrected his previous assertion that Wikipedia was "some kind of left wing Internet encyclopedia" by stating that he had received incorrect information from one of his staff members.

Links

• http://www.rushlimbaugh.com -- Website of the Rush Limbaugh Show and Rush 24/7 content service
• http://www.paulshanklin.com -- Website of Paul Shanklin
• http://www.paulsilhan.com -- Website of Paul Silhan