How did Rush Limbaugh become so prominent in the first half of the 90s?

[Benjamin Frank]

1.He started in the late 1980s.  

2.There were national late night talk show hosts before Rush Limbaugh, he did not pioneer that format as some people have falsely claimed.  Larry King (T/N Larry Zeiger) was doing it long before Limbaugh and King often on his program mentioned somebody who started the late night national format.  

Larry King discussed politics on his program but did not editorialize. According to Wikipedia, Rush Limbaugh started up nationally anyway shortly after the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine.  So, in that sense, his success may have been simply because he was the first out of the gates.

3.According to Wikipedia, his audience grew significantly during the run up to the first Gulf War, but I remember hearing of him, and listening once or twice before that.

4.Rush Limbaugh started out similar to the way the right still operates in terms of grievance politics. In fact, he was synonymous with the rise of the 'angry white male' in the early 1990s. I think the 'angry white male' phenomena of the early 1990s has more to do with the rise of Limbaugh than the Gulf War.

As now, a lot of this is strawman attacks or cartoonish characterizations, but for the first few years he tended to make a lot of broad attacks that were neither falsifiable not verifiable. They were red meat for the base that wanted to have their biases and prejudices confirmed.

There is, in fact, a guidebook for radio station owners and that is what it says about right wing listeners of political talk shows: 'they listen to have their biases and prejudices confirmed.'  That may even be the direct quote.  


5.The 1993 movie 'Falling Down' with Michael Douglas has been mis-characterized by some as a character study of a specific individual.  In fact, the writer of the film has said that the character is meant as a composite of the 'angry white male' in California (more specifically Southern California.)  If you want to get a good sense of the views of the 'angry white male' in the early 1990s, I'd recommend seeing that movie.

6.I don't know this for certain, but what I suspect happened is that, after a few years on the air, one day Limbaugh said something that was outright false, but nothing happened to him and that's when he realized he could lie with impunity.  This was not something that happened right away, but evolved over time.  

[Benjamin Frank]

Well, there was a guy more radical an than Rush for a while but got brought down for being too problematic even for the time.

If you're referring to a person on radio, I don't know who that would be.

If you're referring to a person on television, that would be Morton Downey Jr.

[Benjamin Frank]

Well, there was a guy more radical an than Rush for a while but got brought down for being too problematic even for the time.

If you're referring to a person on radio, I don't know who that would be.

If you're referring to a person on television, that would be Morton Downey Jr.

I randomly watched Morton Downey Jr, TV show a few years ago. He was more deplorable and in your face then Rush. He was also a militant smoker's right supporter, and chain smoked live on his show. He died of lung cancer a decade or so later.

I'm pretty sure there was some nepotism in the rise of Morton Downey Jr.  Morton Downey Sr was a jazz singer and pianist who hosted a television show in the early 1950s.