Biography
American radio personality,
particularly noted for hosting talk shows in his inimitable provocative,
often offensive style.
His appearance is unmistakable. Thin and craggy, sporting his signature
unkempt hair and bushy eyebrows, he usually dresses cowboy-style,
complete with boots, hats and lots of denim. Imus has strong opinions
and doesn't hesitate to express them no matter whom he might offend. His
popularity as a talk show host stems from his on-the-air pranks, biting
humor, and challenging remarks.
Imus is the older of two sons of a cattle rancher; he grew up in Arizona
where he left school to help alleviate his family's financial woes. He
joined the Marines. After his honorable discharge in 1959, he drifted,
earning his living as a window dresser, a musician, a miner, and a train
brakeman. His luck changed in 1968 when he was hired to be a disk jockey
by a small radio station in Palmdale, CA. His off-the-cuff ease and his
impertinence established him as a presence in radio though his on-air
antics often gave his bosses serious heartburn.
By 1971, he had moved to New York to work for WNBC. Imus' battle with
alcohol became obvious when he began missing work, and he was eventually
fired. His addiction to alcohol led to cocaine. In 1977 he moved to
Cleveland but two years later he returned to New York and was rehired by
WNBC. For the next several years, his addictions often got the better of
him. His producer, Bernard McGuirk, recalled one scene where Imus was
"running up and down the hallways in his underwear screaming at people."
In 1987, Imus checked himself into a rehabilitation center in Florida.
His career later took off when WFAN, a sports radio show, began
broadcasting his program. He completely overhauled his show into an
all-talk format and gave it a new title, Imus in the Morning. Providing
him with a hefty annual salary, the show was widely popular and
subsequently syndicated. With a focus on current events, political
issues, and sports, it featured prominent guests with whom Imus engaged
in his own brand of banter, name-calling, heated exchanges and pointed
remarks. In 1989 Imus was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame. His
radio show was so popular that, in September 1996, MSNBC began to
simulcast it on its cable TV network.
Imus has been married twice. He and his first wife divorced in 1979;
their marriage had produced four daughters. In 1992 he met a beautiful
blond woman, Deirdre Coleman, twenty-five years his junior, when she
auditioned for a skit on his show. They began dating and married in
December 1994, but not before Imus suffered a serious health problem
that led to a collapsed lung and surgery. The couple has one son, Wyatt.
Despite his gruff voice, glaring eyes, and often insulting remarks, Imus
has a soft spot for children with difficulties. He became an advocate
for children's health charities and successfully raised money for
research into children's diseases and sudden infant death syndrome. Imus
owns a cattle ranch in New Mexico where he hosts children who suffer
from cancer as well as siblings of SIDS babies. The children work on the
ranch that is staffed with professional caregivers as a way to build
self-esteem and deal with their anguish. With funds raised from his
various charities, Imus sponsored construction of the Don Imus/WFAN
Pediatric Center for Tomorrows Children at Hackensack (NJ) Medical
Center. In 2005, allegations were made that he used the charity’s ranch
for his own personal purpose. After a short investigation, the NY
Attorney General’s Office concluded that no impropriety had taken place.
In addition to his radio work and his attention to fund-raising for
charities, Imus has been on the best-seller book list and dabbles quite
proficiently in photography. His novel, “God’s Other Son,” published in
1981 and reissued in 1993, spent three months on the New York Times
best-seller list. In 1997 he and his brother Fred wrote “Two Guys, Four
Corners,” primarily a collection of photographs. He and his brother
joined forces again in 2001 to product "Big Guy Country."
The talk show host was fired from his popular CBS radio show on April
12, 2007. On his morning broadcast of April 4th, he and his producer
were flinging comments on the air about the Rutgers Women’s Basketball
team. Imus remarked "That's some rough girls from Rutgers. Man, they got
tattoos ...." After McGuirk added "Some hardcore hos," Imus completed
the insulting exchange with "That's some nappy-headed hos there, I'm
going to tell you that.” Imus later apologized for the racially
insensitive insults, saying, “Our characterization was thoughtless and
stupid, and we are sorry," but his words of regret were not enough. CBS
and MSNBC initially suspended him for two weeks to begin on April 16th.
But, as public outrage continued and advertisers began withdrawing
money, MSNBC made the decision to stop simulcasting his show on a
permanent basis. CBS radio followed shortly thereafter with the decision
to fire him.
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