From the historic campus of Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan, where the good, the true, and the beautiful are taught, nurtured, and honored, this is the Radio Free Hillsdale Hour, bringing the activity and education of the college to listeners across the country.

I think he treated the microphone like a good buddy. He was hanging out with you and talking about things that he found should be important.

He knew he had a large audience, but he always made it seem like he was talking specifically to you.

This is your host, Scott Bertram.

And that's Dr. James Brandon, our first guest on today's program.

Dr. Brandon is chairman and professor of theater at Hillsdale College.

We talked at length with Dr. Brandon about Rush Limbaugh, his life and work in radio. Dr. Brandon, thanks for joining us.

Happy to be here, Scott.

And we are talking today about the late Rush Limbaugh for many reasons, but specifically because both you and I have studied him and have written some things about him.

I wrote recently over at National

Review about the relationship that Rush had with his audience. That's special relationship.

Word of peace last year for the American Spectator. A Rush Limbaugh, exceptional American.

I didn't write the headline, but it fits. It was a little more in-depth about the business

side of things, how he sort of took advantage of the

fairness doctrine being eliminated and was the first man through the door to be this talk radio

star. And you actually wrote your dissertation on Rush Limbaugh. How did that come about?

Well, I did. And it came about because I was studying for my PhD in theater, and I was in a contemporary theory

course that was heavy on political performance artists and got the spiel at the beginning,

how we were going to encounter all points of view and all, and, well, that really wasn't the

case.

So I decided to challenge things a bit by writing a paper about Rush Limbaugh, actually

specifically about Rush Limbaugh's fans who had created some performances and some protests

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