Dori, Todd Herman react to Rush Limbaugh cancer announcement

The news that Rush Limbaugh, host of the nationally-syndicated Rush Limbaugh Show, was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer hit KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson especially hard.

Limbaugh made the announcement on Monday on his show, which has been running over 30 years.

Dori called Limbaugh one of the top two most influential broadcasters in radio history, the other being Howard Stern. He explained that when he was a kid, top 40 music was played on AM stations. In the 1980s, however, FM radio became the hotspot for music stations, leading to what looked like the demise of AM radio.

“Then along came this guy who started in Sacramento, Rush Limbaugh … Rush Limbaugh changed talk radio — he created the viability of talk radio,” Dori said.

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Radio host Todd Herman, who has filled in for Limbaugh about 20 times, told Dori that the news had him physically shaking.

“I’m in tears. Rush has meant a lot to me as a man, far before I ever had the idea that I would fill in for Rush,” he said. “He guided my career, not just in radio, but in many other ways, by a lot of the wisdom he shared.”

Herman said that the Limbaugh team is full of some of the kindest, most generous people in radio who work incredibly hard to bring the show to the country every day.

“There wouldn’t be many voices without what he did for talk radio,” Herman said.

However, he hopes that the same spirit that launched Limbaugh to national success against all odds will help Limbaugh to successfully fight the disease.

“This is the same man who was told, ‘You can’t do national radio talking about politics without guests, you can’t do bumper music’ … This diagnosis, for us, is a gut-punch; I’m sure it was for Rush,” Herman said. “But track the man’s career and his decision to do things that people say cannot be done. I don’t think you heard a man today say, ‘I am going to die.’ I think you heard a man say, ‘I have advanced lung cancer.'”

Listen to the Dori Monson Show weekday afternoons from 12-3 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.