Limbaugh Is Back on the Air, With Fans and Foes All Ears
By JACQUES STEINBERG

More than five weeks after he entered a residential treatment center for what he described as an addiction to prescription pain medication, Rush Limbaugh is to return to the airwaves today.

While his voice will be beamed into an atmosphere swirling with questions ? not the least of which center on whether he acquired some of those drugs illegally ? one point seems assured: Mr. Limbaugh, by far the biggest star in talk radio, is poised to draw one of the biggest audiences in his 15-year career in syndication.

Of those tuning into the program, which will be broadcast live on the East Coast beginning at noon, the most vocal are likely to be split into two camps. Some will be loyalists, many of them conservatives, who have expressed a willingness in recent weeks to forgive Mr. Limbaugh his transgressions.

Others, however, may be less familiar with his show ? many of them the "feminazis" and other liberals Mr. Limbaugh says he loves to hate ? who wonder how he might reconcile his own behavior with his past statements recommending jail time for drug users.

"I would expect that Limbaugh's listenership will be three to four times its normal size when he comes on the air," said Michael Harrison, the editor and publisher of Talkers magazine, a trade journal, which estimates Mr. Limbaugh's weekly audience at more than 14.5 million. "Personally, he might be in the worst trench he's ever been in. But people are curious to hear what Rush's going to say, which puts him, professionally, at the peak of his career."