Honoring America’s Anchorman in Hernando County

Rush Limbaugh Way Unveiled

BROOKSVILLE – On September 19, 2024, state and county officials unveiled the sign for Rush Limbaugh Way to the public. Afterwards, the crowd gathered at the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office’ Emergency Operations Center for a presentation featuring speakers Kathryn Limbaugh and Florida Senator Blaise Ingoglia.

The moment that Kathryn Limbaugh learned that her late husband would be honored with the naming of a road, she knew she had to be there to represent him and to thank Senator Ingoglia personally.

With the talk radio host’s show having been broadcast at the local WWJB (now WXJB) FM radio station for years, it is fitting that Hernando became the first county to name a roadway after him. In fact, if Senator Ingoglia had it his way, “there would be a Rush Limbaugh Way in every single county in the state of Florida.”

Denoted with a placard near the intersection of US 41 and Cortez Boulevard, the newly minted thoroughfare stretches westward from that crossing to the nearby Cobb Road intersection. Following Rush Hudson Limbaugh III’s passing in 2021, the wheels began turning as to how the conservative talk radio legend would be honored.

When the senator heard of Limbaugh’s passing on a Fox News Alert, his first thought was: “This man had a profound impact on a lot of conservatives […] in the United States and the world. This man should not go into history without being memorialized, remembered which is a true American patriot.”

This eventually materialized into a transportation bill that included Rush Limbaugh’s name as one of the many roadway memorializations. Such legislation normally goes off without a hitch, but Senator Ingoglia remarked that certain lawmakers were regrettably against the inclusion.

Regardless, the act was passed in the Florida Senate by a vote of 38-2 and signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis on May 31 of last year. The road officially became known as Rush Limbaugh Way on July 1, 2023. Senator Ingoglia praised the late political commentator for his optimism in the face of adversity.

“The thing that was great about Rush Limbaugh is the idea of American Exceptionalism,” the Florida senator stated. “No matter how dark it seemed – dark days we had in this country – after 9/11, after the market crash, you always got an opportunity to turn on Rush Limbaugh for that optimism […] no matter what happens to this country, we will never go down because we believe in God, and we believe in His people. That’s what [Rush Limbaugh] believed in.”

Senator Ingoglia continued that when he told people that he is from Brooksville, they always knew where it was, thanks in part to the city’s local radio station broadcasting Limbaugh’s voice across the airwaves for decades.

Limbaugh was not just a leader in the realm of radio, but Kathryn also described her husband as “arguably the greatest broadcaster and pioneer on radio there has ever been and will ever be.” Despite his larger-than-life persona, his wife affectionately referred to her husband as an introverted “fuzzball” who knew what he wanted to do ever since he was an eight-year-old boy living in Missouri.

He began by interning at a local radio station in his hometown and would eventually find work in New York on the way to fulfilling his dream, but it would not be all smooth sailing. He would be fired from radio at least seven times and lived off a credit card at one point. Despite detractors and opponents, Rush would eventually get his big break when the Rush Limbaugh Show debuted with national syndication on August 1, 1988.

He was a patriot who loved every facet of his country from the flag to the military, the police, the firefighters, and first responders. His goal was to let every citizen of this country know that the American dream was alive and well and that they can always improve their circumstances because they live in this great nation.

Rush Limbaugh’s indomitable spirit rang out in a recording during Thursday’s presentation. “It’s never going to be time to panic because we’re never going to give up on America,” he said.