DITTOS FROM HOME: OPERATING WITH HALF HIS BRAIN TIED BEHIND HIS BACK, RUSH LIMBAUGH DEBUTS BOOK AND TELEVISION SHOW

It's been said that getting to the top is easier than staying there.

But don't tell that to Cape Girardeau native Rush Limbaugh III, the undisputed king of talk radio.

With more than 12 million listeners each week, his daily, three-hour radio talk show has broken all radio broadcasting records for audience size. At 520 stations nationwide and counting, it's difficult to guess when the show's popularity will peak.

Yet, unwilling to restrict his talents to one medium, Limbaugh this week will launch a syndicated TV show. He also recently released his first book, "The Way It Ought To Be," which already is topping best-seller lists across the nation.

But only time will tell if the immense popularity of his radio show can be transferred to the merciless medium of TV. "Rush Limbaugh," a half-hour, late-night program will debut Monday at 10 minutes past midnight on KFVS, Channel 12, in Cape Girardeau. The show will run Monday through Friday.

His brother and legal counsel, David Limbaugh of Cape Girardeau, said he thinks if anyone can accomplish the task, Rush can.

"I'm optimistic that it will be successful," he said. "The odds are against anyone in TV, and he'll receive some resistance from advertisers who view his show as too controversial.

"But just like in radio, he'll have to convince advertisers that the content is not objectionable. It takes different talents to do radio and TV, and some people can do both," he added. "The question is if he has the talent to do both."

Even the presumed bias of a mother is tempered when it comes to the show's chance of success. Millie Limbaugh said the odds are against her eldest son's TV success.

"I'm always leery of TV, because so many don't make it," she said. "The radio show is phenomenal. It's really seemed to catch on.

"But I have no idea if he will be able to translate that success into a TV show. It's like anything, he's going to have to prove himself."

The show isn't the first such venture by Rush Limbaugh. In 1988, he was scheduled to star in "Talk Wrestling," along with noted feminist lawyer, Gloria Allred.

The producer, Lorimar Television, canned the show after taping the pilot. "They liked Rush, though, and offered him a deal for his own show," David Limbaugh said. "But we couldn't come to terms on it."

Since then, a number of guest appearances on TV shows as diverse as "Nightline" and the "Geraldo Rivera Show" have given Rush the opportunity to hone his performance skills.

"As he's been on TV more, he's become more and more poised and confident," his brother said. "I think he's really come into his own and he's ready for TV.

"I think he's a natural performer and a natural entertainer. He'll just have to develop the type of visual performance that TV requires."

Rush has repeatedly advised his radio listeners that, like his radio program, the TV show will break new ground.

The content of the show will include a combination of news analysis, satire, viewer call-ins, videos and instant polls, film, book and music reviews, comedy, and occasional guests.

The set is a reflection of Rush himself: a den-like atmosphere complete with TV monitors, newspapers and a fax machine, and walls adorned with various awards he's received.

Multimedia Entertainment which produces the Phil Donahue and Sally Jessy Raphael shows will co-produce and distribute the show.

The other producer, Roger Ailes, formerly served as senior media adviser to George Bush's 1988 presidential campaign and to former President Ronald Reagan's 1984 campaign.

Ailes is no stranger to television. He produced NBC's "Tomorrow," and the nationally syndicated "Mike Douglas Show."

David Limbaugh said Ailes approached Rush with the idea for a show about 1 years ago. Since then, the producers and Rush have wrestled with the format.

"They know that his talents have been unique in radio," he said. "He's broken rules, but he's been enormously successful. Just like his radio show, he'll be the center of the show. They know he's the forte. That doesn't mean they won't rule out guests on the TV show, but they're going to stick with a formula that's worked and make Rush the focus."

Limbaugh said the show has received mixed reviews from those who have seen early takes. Although many compliment the idea and content, they doubt it will be successful in the tough TV market particularly given Rush's conservatism, which is seen as too controversial.

Limbaugh said it's been exciting for him to watch the meteoric rise in Rush's popularity.

"I never would have anticipated it not that I doubted his talent but no one would anticipate that kind of success," he said. "And he never aspired to it. As he was growing up, his goal was to be a top deejay at a top station."

The secret of Rush's success is a combination of spontaneous creativity and his political philosophy, his brother said.

"Contrary to what liberals think, his politics are in the mainstream of America. The evidence of that is in the size of the audience."

His talent as an entertainer and comedian and his political philosophy are a hybrid of his gene pool. "I tell people he gets his sense from his father and his nonsense from me," said Millie Limbaugh.

An avid radio listener, she said she first knew Rush had a talent for the medium when she heard tapes of his first radio stint as a deejay at a Pittsburgh station.

"He was doing some really creative things, and I remember thinking that if someone would hear these tapes, boy, he could have a chance," she said.

Radio has always been a passion for Rush Limbaugh. When he was a junior in high school, at age 16, he started working afternoons and weekends as a deejay at KGMO (now KAPE) radio in Cape Girardeau.

He so loved his work that he quit Central High School's debate and football teams. "He didn't even go to his senior prom, because he was working," his mother said.

"I felt bad, because I thought he had his whole life to work, and he didn't need to be starting at that young age. His dad really worried about it."

His dad, Rush Limbaugh Jr., needn't have worried. The senior Limbaugh should have considered the profound impact he would have on his eldest son's life. As much as anyone, his father who died last year has most shaped Rush Limbaugh's politics and work ethic.

"My dad was a very astute political thinker and very conservative," David Limbaugh said. "That was his passion."

Millie Limbaugh said that when she listens to Rush's radio show, she hears her late husband. "People may die, but they live on in other ways. Rush's political views are exactly like his dad's.

"I was so glad to see that before he died he had the opportunity to see what Rush had done. I think his dad realized that he had an effect on Rush."

With his mother's knack for entertainment and comedy she tried her hand early in life as a professional singer with a group in Chicago and his father's staunchly conservative views, Rush has found the secret to success in radio.

"Whether he'll be able to translate that into TV will be the question," David Limbaugh said. "In TV, there needs to be more movement and higher energy than just a guy sitting behind a desk.

"Rush and Ailes acknowledge they need a different type of movement and energy. They'll just do it in a different way. All the feedback from the inside people is very positive."

And what if the show turns out to be a flop?

"It would bother him deeply, but he would recover and continue to be highly successful in radio," his brother said. "But there's no doubt it would get to him.

"I'm ready to accept that possibility," said Millie Limbaugh, "and I think he would too."