TIME: Rush Limbaugh Talks to TIME

TIME: Rush Limbaugh Talks to TIME

What makes Rush Limbaugh tick, and what he gets about talk radio and his role that lesser lights overlook: "And most of my audience is there not because I have Pied Pipered them to where they believe. They already believed what they believe -- I just came along and validated it. When I started in '88, there was CNN, the three networks, your magazine and Newsweek and US News and the newspapers. That was it. I started in '88 and I was the first so-called national voice espousing conservatism and people glommed onto it because finally, 'Somebody who agrees with me!'"