[Aggie Mama]

Yep. What's he talking about -- soul searching? I wonder if he's sick?

[toupsie]

Exactly!!! I thought it was just my radio shorting out. But his voice does sound different -- less "manly" than usual. Hope he is not in serious medical trouble.

[Incorrigible]

Mullah Omar says:

Zoom!  Zoom!  Zoom!

[DoughtyOne]

To be honest it almost sounds distorted at times. I wonder what's going on here. Hope the guy is okay.

[JacksonCalhoun]

He sounds terrible; maybe the radio station is playing tricks to compress the sound with all of the news updates.

[uncitizen]

ya know you're right. Is it because he's not using that phony aristocratic tone ?

[MoJo2001]

LOL! There for a second it sounded like Drudge talking. I think his nose could use a really big tissue and he needs to take care of that issue.lol!! I was just wondering if it was actually Rush or someone from Art Bell's neighborhood doing the show.

[DCPatriot]

Maybe it's just gas. < /sarcasm >

Geesh! Leave the guy alone. He takes off a week, and everybody thinks he's got a terminal illness.

[marktuoni]

Beyond higher register...he sounds nasal..almost like Bachelor and/or Alexander from WABC in NY!

[TomB]

People around here have said recently that they think his voice has sounded different, and up until now I couldn't hear a difference, but there's no doubt he sounds different today. It's almost annoying.

He talked about discussing something serious. I'm wondering if there is some kind of heath problem. Maybe he's experimenting with pre-taped shows, like he did yesterday, because he is going to be out of action for a while.

Well, he'll tell us eventually.

[Terry Mross]

He finally admitted a few weeks ago there is something wrong with his voice....he was concerned it was "getting higher" in pitch.

[Kay]

You are SO right!!! I am delighted. I turned him on because of your comment and he sounds back to his old self. I had stopped listening to him because he sounded fake for the past few months. He sounded as though he was playing to his video coverage, like a B-rated actor trying to be an opera star. Even my kids complained when I turned him on.

Nice to have Rush back to a regular-Joe.

[Crusher138]

I didn't even recognize the voice at first!

I'm willing to be he had nodules on his vocal cords and has had them removed.

Happened to a friend of mine. Went from a baritone to first tenor. The surgery can tighten your vocal cords. His recovery time was about a week.

[bluegrass]

Logged on just to see if anyone else noticed. Guess so....

[KC_Conspirator]

I noticed that as well. Its sounds like he is on speed.

[aruanan]

Vocal pitch and speed: It has previously been established that some big markets do real-time time compression on Rush's show in order to have a greater amount of time each hour to sell for local ads. Sometimes this results in audible artifacts. It can sound like a slight garble. If someone doing it doesn't watch which knobs he's tweaking, it can result in a higher pitch, though both pitch and duration can be adjusted separately. Today both the speed and the pitch seem to be bumped up.

In looking through reviews on vocal pathologies, I have not yet located one that describes a shift to a higher pitch.

[Bosco]

Rush said he'll talk about the past week later in his first hour. He did say that he was NOT on vacation last week (and wished he was...).

[cactusSharp]

I don't care if he talks out his hands..Rush is why Republicans rule. I could care less anothers opinion on this...It is true !!!!!!! God bless you Rush

[Rustynailww]

rush should run is show thru tube amps.

[Gone_Postal]

I wounder if you play his monolog backwards will you hear something like "I love FreeRepublic" repeated several times.

nah