Rush Limbaugh launched his phenomenally successful radio broadcast into national syndication on August 1, 1988, with 56 radio stations. Twenty years later it is heard on nearly 600 stations by up to 20 million people each week and is the highest rated national radio talk show in America.

Rush Limbaugh announces he has advanced lung cancer

Rush Limbaugh announces his diagnosis during his radio show.

Talk radio king Rush Limbaugh stunned his 20-million member audience Monday with the announcement he’s been diagnosed with “advanced lung cancer.”

The 69-year-old conservative talk pioneer closed his broadcast with the grim news, saying he will be leaving his golden EIB microphone for treatment, but hopes to return later this week.

“This day has been one of the most difficult days in recent memory, for me, because I’ve known this moment was coming,” Limbaugh said. “I’m sure that you all know by now that I really don’t like talking about myself and I don’t like making things about me.. one thing that I know, that has happened over the 31-plus years of this program is that there has been an incredible bond that had developed between all of you and me.”

The radio icon then told his audience that his job has provided him with the “greatness satisfaction and happiness” of his life.

“So, I have to tell you something today that I wish I didn’t have to tell you. It’s a struggle for me because I had to inform my staff earlier today,” he said. “I can’t help but feel that I’m letting everybody down. The upshot is that I have been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer.”

Radio personality Rush Limbaugh, seen here at a November 2018 rally for President Trump in Missouri, announced Monday he's been diagnosed with 'advanced' lung cancer. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File)

Limbaugh told listeners that the disease will keep him off the air on certain days when he’ll receive treatment. He said two medical institutions confirmed the diagnosis since he first realized something was wrong on Jan. 12 when he experienced shortness of breath.

“I thought about not telling anybody,” he said. “It is what it is. You know me, I’m the mayor of Realville. This has happened and my intention is to come here every day I can, and do this program as normally and competently and expertly as I do each and every day because that is the source of my greatest satisfaction professionally, personally.”

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“I told the staff today that I have a deeply personal relationship with God that I do not proselytize about, but I do, and I have been working that relationship tremendously,” he said. 'I am, at the moment, experiencing zero symptoms.'

Limbaugh said he will undergo further testing and planned to “push ahead and keep everything as normal” as he could.

“I felt that I had to tell you because that’s the kind of relationship that I feel like I have with those of you in this audience,” he said. “Over the years, a lot of people have been very nice, telling me how much this program has meant to them but, whatever that is, it pales in comparison to what you all have meant to me.”

The radio veteran -- widely considered one of the most powerful voices in conservative media -- said he “can’t describe” the feeling but he’s aware his audience understood him.

“The rest of the world may not,” Limbaugh said. “But, I know that you do.”

'I have a deeply personal relationship with God that I do not proselytize about, but I do, and I have been working that relationship tremendously.'

Limbaugh called his listener base one of “the greatest sources of confidence” that he’s ever had in his life.

“I hope I will be talking about this as little as necessary in the coming days, but we’ve got a great bunch of doctors, a great team assembled, we’re at full speed ahead on this,” Limbaugh said. “It’s just now a matter of implementing what we are going to be told later this week.”

He said he “hopes” to be back on Thursday.

“If not, it’ll be as soon as I can,” Limbaugh said. “Every day I’m not here, I’ll be thinking of you and missing you.”

Sean Hannity reacts to Rush Limbaugh's lung cancer diagnosis

On his radio show, Sean Hannity discusses how he was hit by Rush Limbaugh's announcement of stage 4 lung cancer

Limbaugh’s name began trending on social media within minutes of his shocking announcement as countless users offered thoughts and prayers. “The Rush Limbaugh Show” has reached up to 27 million people per week on more than 600 stations, according to his website.

Fox News’ Sean Hannity responded on his own radio show: “I don’t think talk radio would ever be anything like it is, or I’d be here, if it wasn’t for all that Rush has done.”

Limbaugh began the “The Rush Limbaugh Show” in 1988 and has since earned a variety of awards and honors. He’s a five-time winner of the National Association of Broadcasters Marconi Award for “Excellence in Syndicated and Network Broadcasting,” a No. 1 New York Times bestselling author and a member of the Radio Hall of Fame and National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame. Doodle army 2 mini militia online. He also was named one of Barbara Walters’ 10 Most Fascinating People in 2008 and one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2009.

Limbaugh has been named to Forbes Magazine’s 50 Most Powerful Celebrities in the United States list, received the William F. Buckley, Jr. Award for media excellence, won the “Defender of the Constitution Award” at the Conservative Political Action Conference [CPAC] in 2009 and was invited to stay in the Lincoln Bedroom of the White House by President George H. W. Bush.

He also was an honorary member of the House of Representatives Republican freshman class of 1995.

Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh has claimed that the COVID-19 death toll is being exaggerated by governments 'eager' to use modeling predictions to further their policies.Limbaugh made the remarks on the Thursday edition of The Rush Limbaugh Show. He insisted that models used to predict the spread of disease were helping promote government policies, although he did not define which policies he meant or who exactly was behind the alleged scheme.' People die on this planet every day from a wide variety of things,' said Limbaugh. 'But because the coronavirus is out there, got everybody paranoid, governments are eager, almost, to chalk up as many deaths to coronavirus as they can because then it furthers the policies they have put in place by virtue of their models.' Limbaugh suggested that many reported COVID-19 deaths could be from other causes instead. Talk radio host Rush Limbaugh attends President Donald Trump's State of the Union address in Washington, D.C. On February 4, 2020.

Drew Angerer/GettyLimbaugh also cited speculation by Dr. John Lee, a retired British pathologist who claims that deaths attributed to COVID-19 could be from other illnesses. Lee disagrees with a large majority of experts in claiming that the virus is not much worse than the seasonal flu while maintaining that health officials are ' to the pandemic.' He's concerned that with this new arrival of COVID-19, that coronavirus is being listed as a cause of death for many people who are not dying because of it,' Limbaugh said. 'They're dying because of other things.

But it's speculation.' Limbaugh closed the segment by admitting that he hadn't spent much time thinking about his remarks, insisting that everything on his radio show and his personal life is spontaneous.' Everything's spontaneous on this program, folks. I'm a spontaneous person.

I don't plan very much in advance, in my life at all,' Limbaugh said. 'I want to leave the option open for something better to come up.

I plan so little in advance, I actually don't even need a calendar.' Read more.On Tuesday, the host claimed that U.S. Hospitalization rates due to COVID-19 were being by the 'drive-by media' as part of an unspecified agenda.' They're clearly trying to create the impression that we don't have any hospitals,' said Limbaugh. 'We're so overflowing with cases that we don't have any hospitals.' Cases of COVID-19 passed 1 million globally on Thursday, with over 53,000 deaths and 212,000 recoveries. Leads the world in confirmed infections, with more than 240,000 cases representing more than double the totals in hard-hit countries like Italy and Spain.Limbaugh has also claimed that concerns about the virus have been 'weaponized' to attack President Donald Trump and likened the disease to nothing more than a 'common cold.'