The Rush Limbaugh Show - Show Airtime and Format

Show Airtime and Format

The Rush Limbaugh Show has a format which has remained basically unchanged since the program began. The program airs live and primarily consists of Limbaugh's own monologues, based on the news of the day, interspersed with parody ads, phone calls from listeners and a variety of running comedy bits (some live, some taped). Limbaugh also does a few live commercials during the show for certain sponsors, and he also sometimes promotes his own products, such as his political newsletter, The Limbaugh Letter. He only occasionally features guests, but once in a while a politician or a fellow political commentator will appear on the show. A toll-free telephone number is announced for incoming calls from listeners. However, Limbaugh generally takes far fewer calls per show than most other national talk programs.

The listeners to the show are referred to as "Ditto-heads." Early in the show's run, listeners began to use the variations on the expression "ditto" to speed up the beginnings of calls, which typically (as on most popular call-in shows) tend to open with the listener excitedly expressing his or her gratitude to the host and his or her appreciation of the show. Mr. Limbaugh claims the term originated with a caller who said "ditto what the previous caller said." Others claim that "Ditto-heads" refers more to how listeners of the show blindly accept everything Limbaugh says as true, and tend to repeat it unquestioningly.

An edited instrumental version of The Pretenders' “My City Was Gone” has been Limbaugh's theme song almost continuously since the start of his show. Briefly in 1999, Limbaugh stopped playing the song after a 'cease and desist' order was issued by EMI. After the song's writer, Chrissie Hynde, said in a radio interview she did not mind the use of the song, an agreement was reached for an annual usage fee of one hundred thousand dollars to EMI, which reportedly is donated to the animal rights organization PETA.

The Rush Limbaugh Show airs on a network of approximately 590 AM and FM affiliate stations throughout the United States. Limbaugh also hosts his own online Internet streaming audio and video broadcast, through Streamlink. This broadcast is restricted to members of Limbaugh's “Rush 24/7” service, but can also be heard on some stations' streaming audio feeds. Premiere Radio Networks, a division of Clear Channel Communications, the largest U.S. radio station owner, owns distribution rights to the program. The program is not heard on any stations in Canada, although stations along the northern border of the United States give the show coverage in much of southern Canada. The show has never been carried on any satellite radio service.

The show airs live on weekdays from noon to 3 pm Eastern time. A few stations (such as KOA in Denver) air it on tape delay. The program normally originates from Limbaugh's studios near his home in Palm Beach County, Florida, where Limbaugh has lived since 1996. In the early years of the program, it normally originated from the studios of WABC in New York City (the program's traditional flagship station), which still serves as the home to some of the program's staff and broadcast facilities. Limbaugh states that he avoids New York as much as possible due to that state's high taxes and that he spends an average of 15 days in the state, usually to keep updated with his staff and as a backup in the event of a hurricane (in the latter case, he is seeking an alternative location). Despite Limbaugh's physical location in Florida, WABC introduces Limbaugh with Johnny Donovan's announcement: "Broadcasting from high atop the WABC broadcast center, overlooking Madison Square Garden in midtown Manhattan, this is New York City‘s most listened to talk radio host: Rush Limbaugh." Limbaugh also produces a "Morning Update," a 90-second monologue recorded after the show that airs on many of Limbaugh's stations the next morning.

An official weekend edition of the program, consisting of "best of" clips from the weekday show, entitled The Rush Limbaugh Week in Review, launched in January 2008.