Limbaugh Is Back on the Air, With Fans and Foes All Ears
Published: November 17, 2003
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To Phil Friedman, a Democratic strategist who has worked for former Gov. Mario M. Cuomo, former Mayor Edward I. Koch and Senator Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, the circumstances of Mr. Limbaugh's fall may differ from those of Mr. Clinton's, but the loyalty of his fiercest supporters is a common thread. Mr. Friedman also saw parallels to the situation of Marion S. Barry Jr., who was re-elected mayor of Washington in 1994, four years after investigators caught him in a hotel room smoking crack cocaine.
"When you have a constituency that strong and an audience that devoted, they will forgive you anything, short of murder," Mr. Friedman said. "I think the cause is so important to them that they're not willing to sacrifice a leader because of his personal flaws."
After announcing on Oct. 10 that he was addicted to prescription painkillers and was checking into a rehabilitation center for 30 days, Mr. Limbaugh was replaced by a succession of guest hosts, including Tony Snow and Walter Williams, both political commentators, and Matt Drudge, the creator of the online Drudge Report (drudgereport.com).
It will be several weeks before Arbitron, the ratings service, compiles the audience figures during that period. But Mr. Mayer said that surveys of about 1,000 listeners each week, conducted for Mr. Limbaugh's producers by another company, showed that few were defecting. Moreover, the 150 advertisers who buy time on Mr. Limbaugh's nationally syndicated broadcast have expressed their desire to continue to do so, Mr. Mayer said, and none of the 600 stations that carry the program have dropped it.
The passion of Mr. Limbaugh's loyal listeners, who refer to themselves as dittoheads, has been on parade daily on rushlimbaugh.com, his Web site, which as of yesterday had posted reams of e-mail messages sent by well-wishers since his departure. All were identified by their first names and hometowns, as if they were calling in to the show.
They included Akiva from New York, who wrote that Mr. Limbaugh was in the prayers "of all your fans at my rabbinical seminary."
Mr. Limbaugh has said that he became addicted to painkillers after spinal surgery in the 1990's, an admission that prompted a torrent of similar testimony. "I made it," wrote Richard of South Lyon, Mich., "you can too!!!"
There is much riding on whether Mr. Limbaugh can beat his addiction, including a lot of money. His program generates many millions in advertising revenue, not only for Clear Channel Communications, which owns the company that syndicates it, but for the stations that broadcast his program.
Rick Jackson, the general manager of WBT, an AM station in Charlotte, N.C., that has carried Mr. Limbaugh for more than a decade, said he expected today to be "one of the biggest days in our broadcast history" — maybe even bigger, he said, than the few hours during Hurricane Hugo in 1989 when WBT was believed to be the only local station on the air.
"Now who knows what will happen after he returns?" Mr. Jackson said. "A lot will depend on how he handles it."
David Limbaugh announces that the Maha Rushie will be returning to the Golden EIB Microphone on Monday...transcript, audio>