Bill Text: SC S0585 | 2021-2022 | 124th General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: Rush Limbaugh sympathy
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Passed) 2021-02-18 - Introduced and adopted [S0585 Detail]
Download: South_Carolina-2021-S0585-Introduced.html
A SENATE RESOLUTION
TO REMEMBER AND CELEBRATE THE LIFE OF AMERICAN RADIO PERSONALITY AND CONSERVATIVE POLITICAL COMMENTATOR RUSH HUDSON LIMBAUGH III AND TO HONOR HIS DEVOTION TO LIBERTY AND FREEDOM AND HIS REMARKABLE BROADCASTING CAREER SPANNING MORE THAN THREE DECADES.
Whereas, the members of the South Carolina Senate were saddened to learn of the death of Rush Hudson Limbaugh III at the age of seventy on February 17, 2021; and
Whereas, born in 1951 in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, Rush Limbaugh was the son of Mildred Carolyn Armstrong Limbaugh and Rush Hudson Limbaugh II, an attorney and United States World War II fighter pilot. During his career at Cape Girardeau Central High School where he played football, he worked his first radio job at KGMO, a local station in Cape Girardeau, at age sixteen; and
Whereas, he attended Southeast Missouri State University for two semesters, but his heart was in radio. In 1971, he accepted an offer to DJ at WIXZ, a Top 40 station in McKeesport, Pennsylvania. He worked at various radio stations during the '70s before accepting a position as director of group sales and special events with the Kansas City Royals baseball team in 1979; and
Whereas, in 1983, Mr. Limbaugh returned to radio and launched a successful show in Sacramento, California, in 1984. In 1988, he began a radio program on WABC-AM, that would become his radio home in New York City and his flagship station for many years, where his show was first nationally syndicated. From 1992 through 1996, he had a syndicated half-hour television show; and
Whereas, by 2001, Mr. Limbaugh acknowledged that he had become almost completely deaf, although he regained much of his hearing with a cochlear implant, and in 2003, he confirmed he was addicted to pain medication and sought treatment; and
Whereas, his WABC show moved in 2014 to WABC's cross-town rival WOR-AM. His influence and popularity paved the way for other conservative talk radio programming to become commonplace on AM radio. Talkers magazine estimated that Limbaugh's show attracted a cumulative weekly audience of 15.5 million listeners to become the most-listened-to radio show in the United States on more than six hundred fifty stations, and he was among the most highly compensated figures in American radio; and
Whereas, from 1990 until his death, Mr. Limbaugh held an annual fundraising telethon to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, totaling over fifteen million dollars since the first cure-a-thon. He conducted annual drives for the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation, collecting contributions to provide scholarships for children of Marines and law enforcement officers and agents who die in the line of duty. He also helped to raise over five million dollars to benefit the Tunnel to Towers Foundation; and
Whereas, he authored seven books, including The Way Things Ought to Be in 1992, and See, I Told You So in 1993, both of which were number one on the New York Times Best Seller list for twenty-four weeks. In 2013, he authored his first children's book, Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims: Time-Travel with Exceptional Americans, earning him the Author of the Year Award from the Children's Book Council, and his next children's books in 2014 included Rush Revere and the First Patriots: Time-Travel with Exceptional Americans and Rush Revere and the American Revolution; and
Whereas, inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame and the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame, he was a leading voice of the conservative movement in the United States since the 1990s. By 2007, TALKERS magazine again named him No. 1 in its "Heavy Hundred" most important talk show hosts, and in 2009, TIME magazine listed him among "100 Most Influential People in the World." His chosen profession earned him five Marconi awards for "Excellence in Syndicated and Network Broadcasting" from the National Association of Broadcasters, and during the 2020 State of the Union Address, President Donald Trump awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom; and
Whereas, the members of the South Carolina Senate appreciate the life and legacy of Rush Limbaugh and the example of innovation and patriotism he set for all who heard him. Now, therefore,
Be it resolved by the Senate:
That the members of the South Carolina Senate, by this resolution, remember and celebrate the life of American radio personality and conservative political commentator Rush Hudson Limbaugh III and honor his devotion to liberty and freedom and his remarkable broadcasting career spanning more than three decades.
