American radio personality, television show host, recording artist, and author, particularly noted for his nearly 50-year career of hosting radio talk shows in his inimitable, provocative, and often offensive style.
His appearance was unmistakable. Thin and craggy, sporting his signature unkempt hair and bushy eyebrows, he usually dressed cowboy-style, complete with boots, hats and lots of denim. Imus had strong opinions and didn’t hesitate to express them no matter whom he might offend. His popularity as a talk show host stemmed from his on-the-air pranks, biting humor, and challenging remarks.
Imus was 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, California. 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 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 had one son, Frederick Wyatt, and adopted another, Zach.

Despite his gruff voice, glaring eyes, and often insulting remarks, Imus had 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 owned a cattle ranch in New Mexico where he hosted children who suffered from cancer as well as siblings of SIDS babies. The children worked on the ranch that was 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 was on the best-seller book list and dabbled 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 produce Big Guy Country.
The talk show host was fired from his popular CBS radio show on 12 April 2007. On his morning broadcast of 4 April, 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 16 April. 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.
After an absence from the airwaves of nearly eight months, Imus returned to radio on 3 December 2007 at 6 AM EST. Although he said the essence of his program would not change, he added: “I will never say anything in my lifetime that will make any of these young women at Rutgers regret or feel foolish that they accepted my apology and forgave me. And no one else will say anything else on my program that will make anyone think that I didn’t deserve a second chance.”
In 2000, Imus suffered serious injuries after a fall from a horse at his ranch and broadcast several shows from a hospital. The injuries resulted in chronic breathing problems, especially at higher altitudes, which he spoke about on his program.
In March 2009, Imus was diagnosed with stage 2 prostate cancer. He was advised to have radiation treatments, but said he chose to treat the disease holistically.
Imus died at Baylor Scott & White Medical Center in College Station, Texas, on 27 December 2019 at the age of 79.

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