Sean Hannity remembers Rush Limbaugh: 'Changed hearts and minds' of generations of Americans

Talk radio and Fox News Channel would not exist today without conservative radio pioneer Rush Limbaugh, said Fox News host Sean Hannity, reacting to Limbaugh's "heartbreaking" death on Wednesday.

During a phone interview, Hannity reminisced on Limbaugh’s impact on the news and radio industries, asserting that Limbaugh changed the "hearts and minds" of generations of Americans and singlehandedly saved AM and FM radio.

Hannity recollected that when Limbaugh started in nationally syndicated radio there were less than 200 stations across the country. Today, there are more than 4,000.

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"You can never replace Babe Ruth, but I’d even take it a step further, [Limbaugh] was Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Hank Aaron, Derek Jeter, and everyone in-between," Hannity said. "He loved this country, he was a patriot and he loved his family and he loved his life."

Hannity added that he owed a great deal of his own success to Limbaugh and that he was a man of liberty, god, and individualism.

On Wednesday morning, Limbaugh, the influential, political talk radio icon passed away at the age of 70 after a battle with lung cancer.

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Limbaugh's wife, Kathryn, made the announcement on his radio show. "Losing a loved one is terribly difficult, even more so when that loved one is larger than life," she said. "Rush will forever be the greatest of all time."

The radio icon learned he had Stage IV lung cancer in January 2020 and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Trump at the State of the Union address days later.

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"The Rush Limbaugh Show" began in 1988 and is widely regarded as one of the most influential and consequential conservative political radio shows in American history.

Fox News' Brian Flood contributed to this report.