KTRH-AM covering local news from Houston and across Texas.
Rush Limbaugh was an innovator in radio, an influential and persuasive political analyst and an astute observer of people, but he’s often overlooked as the founder of scholarships and a foundation, which remain his legacy, according to Michael Berry.
The 2025 applications are now in for the American Patriot Scholarship, set up a few years ago in honor of the radio talk host who at one time reached an audience of 30 million listeners.
Some radio experts say it was Mr. Limbaugh who helped save the AM radio band when listeners were moving en masse to the FM radio band in the 1980s and ’90s.
But talk radio host Michael Berry says "Rush was first and foremost a teacher, a caring, loving teacher. He had a university course every day that every person could afford to go to because it was free."
"He cared about us and this nation and the next generation. I love to hear people say, ‘I was a Rush baby,’ meaning they first heard Rush in the back seat while their parents were driving and they grew into adults."
Mr. Berry followed in Rush Limbaugh‘s footsteps, growing up in Southeast Texas to become Houston’s most popular talk host on Newsradio 740 KTRH and on KPRC 950.
For the American Patriot Scholarship, applicants are told to finish a 500-word essay that starts with: “Like Rush Limbaugh, I demonstrate American Excellence by…”
The scholarship competition is open to any US citizen 16 and older, whether in college, high school or homeschool.
"Rush shared his knowledge, his fearlessness, his experience, his love with us, and the scholarships he’s sponsored are just an extension of that," Berry noted in an interview.
"Y’know, he has a scholarship named for his parents, he has a scholarship for children, he has multiple scholarships out his foundation that his wife Katheryn and he did together.
"But everyone who listened to Rush loved Rush. Even if you never met him, if you heard him, you knew him and you knew he loved you back," Berry said.
"It’s just the further extension of him that continues to live beyond him.
"It’s the Rush Limbaugh legacy."
