When he was 16 years old, Rush started in the radio business, with a series of disc jockey jobs. His talk show began in 1984 at Sacramento radio station KFBK, featuring his ongoing format of political commentary and listener calls. In 1988 Rush began broadcasting his show nationally from radio station WABC in New York City.

He currently lives in Palm Beach, Florida, from where he broadcasts the The Rush Limbaugh Show, the highest-rated talk-radio program in the United States. Talkers Magazine in 2012 lists Limbaugh as the most-listened-to talk show host with a weekly audience of 15 million.

In the 1990s Rush's books The Way Things Ought to Be (1992) and See, I Told You So (1993) made The New York Times Best Seller list.  Rush is an expert at exposing the impact of liberalism as well as what he calls a pervasive liberal bias in major U.S. media.