NEW YORK — Radio commentator Rush Limbaugh surprised his listeners with the revelation that he has gone almost completely deaf over the past few months.
Limbaugh, whose nationally syndicated talk show reaches some 20 million people on nearly 600 stations, said Monday that he wants to continue his show despite his impaired hearing.
"All I've lost is my ability to hear," he said, "but it doesn't mean I've lost my ability to communicate. Those are two different things, given the technological advances we have in this country today."
Limbaugh said he noticed in May that he had trouble hearing in his left ear. His condition progressively worsened to the point where he is totally deaf in that ear and has only partial hearing in his right ear.
"I can occasionally talk to people in person one on one if their voice frequency happens to fit the range that I can still hear, but I cannot hear radio," he said. "I cannot hear television. I cannot hear music. I am, for all practical purposes, deaf — and it's happened in three months."
Limbaugh said his hearing has worsened to the point that hearing aids no longer help. He said doctors have a theory about his deafness, "but I'm going to keep that to myself."
He told listeners, "you would not believe the medication that is flowing through me in an attempt to reverse this."
Limbaugh, with his legion of like-minded "dittoheads" who listen to his nationally syndicated show live on weekday afternoons, is a legend of conservative commentary who spent most of the 1990s assailing then-President Clinton. He was frequently lampooned from the left, most notably by comedian Al Franken, who wrote a book titled "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot" before Limbaugh lost weight.
The 50-year-old Limbaugh got his start in 1985 on KFBK in Sacramento, Calif., and became nationally syndicated in 1988.
This summer, Limbaugh renewed his contract with the Premiere Radio Networks through 2009, reportedly for the highest price ever in radio syndication. Representatives of Premiere Radio Networks could not immediately be reached for comment Monday.
Limbaugh said Monday that many of his listeners had written to say that his voice had changed in recent months.
"It could well be that my voice is changing," he said. "I don't know. I cannot hear myself well enough to know."
He said he is experimenting with ways to continue communicating with telephone callers on his show. If that doesn't work, he may do the show without callers.
Limbaugh had a syndicated television talk show that lasted four years and ended in 1996. CNN, which Limbaugh frequently derided as the "Clinton News Network," talked briefly about putting him on the air this summer, but nothing came of the discussions.
Limbaugh also briefly sought a color commentator job on ABC's "Monday Night Football," but the gig went to comedian Dennis Miller.