By David Limbaugh
This week marks the 30th anniversary of my brothers national syndication in radio and it has been a phenomenal success. Congratulations and kudos Rush.
Rush was born for broadcasting especially radio broadcasting. While he has enormous talent and makes broadcasting look easy he cultivated his skills into a finely developed art through years of dogged determination and dedication.
He sensed he had this gift because he began broadcasting when we were very young without any prompting. He sat in front of the TV with the volume down and announced St. Louis Cardinals baseball games. When listening to sports broadcasts and AM radio he did more than follow the play-by-play or the songs; he studied the great broadcasters and DJs with rapt fascination.
Like any beginner he started out emulating the pros but over time he crafted his own style. He worked on his elocution and meticulously trained himself to ditch our Midwestern accent.
He was so enthused that my parents bought him a Remco Caravelle -- an electronic device that allowed him to broadcast over the AM airwaves inside our home. He began using that with delight and we were his audience.
Unlike some people who passionately pursue career or recreational paths for which they have no particular gifts Rush was richly blessed with natural abilities tailor-made for broadcasting.
His voice is a malleable instrument under his complete dominion. He could do lights-out impressions of people from colorful local characters to national celebrities. Impressionists dont just have pliable voices; they hear details others miss. They notice the subtle nuances of voice patterns -- the pitch the enunciation the unique vocal tics.
I remember one time when Rush and I discussed an eccentric family friend. Rush spontaneously launched into a monologue in this mans voice. The guy had a penchant for name-dropping and he always bragged about one prominent persons being his personal friend. When Rush pronounced this hotshots name in our friends voice I almost drove off the road from laughing so hard. I had never picked up on the subtly goofy way he proudly pronounced this name until Rush said it -- in his voice. Amusingly Rush had no idea why I was tickled because imitating the guy precisely in the mans voice came so naturally to him. But he hears things other people dont; he observes things other people miss. He has always used those faculties in broadcasting.
Rush has a steel-trap mind and is one of the quickest studies I know a gift he acquired from our brilliant father. He instantly absorbs anything he reads -- assuming he has the slightest interest in the material -- and has a wide-ranging aptitude for most subjects.
He was uncannily precocious in certain areas which dazzled my parents and frankly left them speechless -- a near impossibility for both of them. He could identify any car we passed on the road starting not too long after he began talking. I dont know whether he even remembers this but my parents swore there was no way he could have acquired the information as to cars identities -- yet he knew as if he were a reincarnated automaker. They never did figure out how he did it and I doubt he did either. He also had an intimate knowledge of aviation -- identifying planes and understanding the science of flight -- an interest he acquired from our World War II fighter pilot father but here again I swear my dad didnt just spoon-feed it to him. Its as if he absorbed it out of thin air.
