It was about one year ago today that I wrote about Rush Limbaugh when he was diagnosed with lung cancer.  I wished him the best at that time.  I watched my father battle lung cancer for years and it took him away from us nearly 27 years ago.

I learned today that Rush Limbaugh has died.  I have so many thoughts about that, allow me to spare you and will just share a few here.

I hosted many radio talk shows during a broadcasting career that spanned about 14 years.  I know the work that goes into preparing for, and performing before, a radio audience.  It is not easy.

Limbaugh provided a different perspective, a very conservative one.  In the radio business, you don’t need a majority of the available audience, just enough of a slice to keep advertisers interested in your product, the radio program.

Sometimes I agreed with Limbaugh, often I did not.  What concerned me the most about him was playing fast and loose with the facts.  You do not need to do that in order to express a conservative viewpoint.

But commercial radio is not about persuading or educating your audience, it is mostly about entertaining them.  And Rush Limbaugh knew how to do that.

My sympathies go to his family and friends.  Rush Limbaugh carved-out his own part of the radio landscape and made the best of it.  May he rest in peace.