Don Imus
John Donald Imus Jr. (/ˈaɪməs/; July 23, 1940 – December 27, 2019), also known as Imus, was an American radio personality, television show host, recording artist, and author. His radio show Imus in the Morning was aired on various stations and digital platforms nationwide until 2018.
Don Imus
December 27, 2019 (aged 79)
Radio and television talk show host, writer, humorist
1964–2018
6
Imus began his first radio job at KUTY in Palmdale, California in 1968. Three years later, he landed the morning broadcast position at WNBC in New York City. He was fired from WNBC in 1977, worked for a year at WHK in Cleveland, and was rehired by WNBC in 1979. He remained at WNBC until it left the air in 1988, at which time his show moved to WFAN, which took over WNBC's former frequency of 660 kHz. Howard Stern's success with national syndication led Imus in the Morning to adopt the same model in 1993.
Imus was labeled a "shock jock" in his later career.[2] He was fired by CBS Radio in April 2007 after describing the Rutgers University women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos".
In January 2018, Cumulus Media told Imus that the company was going to stop paying him, and his final show aired on March 29, 2018.[3] He died the following year of complications from lung disease.[4]
Early life[edit]
Imus was born in Riverside, California, to a wealthy family,[5] the son of John Donald Imus Sr. and Frances E. Imus (née Moore) who ran a 35,000-acre (140 km2) ranch named The Willows near Kingman, Arizona.[6] Imus claimed at one time to practice Judaism then later recanted, calling himself, "spiritual."[7][8][9][10] He had a younger brother, Fred Imus (1942–2011). Imus disliked school, moving "from one hideous private school to another" and described himself as a "horrible adolescent". When he was 15, his parents divorced. His father died when Imus was 20.[7]
In 1957, while living in Prescott, Arizona, Imus dropped out of high school and joined the United States Marine Corps at Base Camp Pendleton where he was stationed in an artillery unit before transferring to the Drum and Bugle Corps.[7][11] He left the Marines with an honorable discharge, and secured work as a window dresser in San Bernardino, before he was fired for performing strip teases on the mannequins for passersby.[7] Imus then moved to Hollywood with his brother in an attempt to find success as musicians and songwriters, but they struggled to get radio DJs to play their songs on the air. This left Imus homeless, resorting to sleeping in a laundry and hitchhiking back to Arizona.[7] After dropping out of the University of the Pacific,[10] Imus worked as a brakeman on the Southern Pacific Railroad and in a uranium mine in Arizona.[12] He suffered a mining accident that broke both of his legs.[11]
Business interests[edit]
Don Imus was also a part owner of Autobody Express stores with his late brother, Fred (who was a frequent caller to the radio show, commenting on NASCAR races, the NFL and related pop culture matters). The Autobody Express stores were located in Santa Fe, and inside the Mohegan Sun Native American Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut. In 2003, the company failed, and both stores closed.
Imus owned a small coffee and pastry store also located in the Mohegan Sun casino. The Autobody Express became Imus Ranch Foods, which offered its signature chips and salsa via online sales and in Northeastern stores, prior to the discontinuation of the Imus Ranch Foods line in 2014.
Honors[edit]
Imus won four Marconi Awards, three for Major Market Personality of the Year (1990,[105] 1992[106] and 1997[107]) and one for Network Syndicated Personality (1994).[108]
He was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 1989.[109]
Personal life[edit]
Family[edit]
Imus was married twice. Around 1969, he married his first wife Harriet Showalter, who had two daughters from a previous marriage, Nadine and Toni; Imus adopted Showalter's daughters.[10] The couple had two daughters of their own, Ashley and Elizabeth. They divorced in 1979. Imus married Deirdre Coleman on December 17, 1994, and they stayed together until Imus's death in 2019.[110] Their son Frederick Wyatt was born in 1998. Imus adopted his sixth child, Zach, in the 2010s.
At the time of his death, Imus resided in Brenham, Texas, at a ranch he acquired in 2013. He moved there full-time in 2015, after ending his Fox Business television simulcast in New York and from there started broadcasting his show solely on radio with the cast members broadcasting from the WABC radio studios. His former waterfront mansion in Westport, Connecticut, was sold that same year for $14.4 million.[111]
According to journalist Robert D. McFadden, Imus was admired for his private charity work.[112] He raised millions for the rehabilitation of wounded veterans of the Iraq war, children with cancer, and siblings of victims of sudden infant death syndrome, who had spent summers since 1999 on his ranch near Ribera, New Mexico.[112]
Imus Ranch[edit]
In 1999, Imus and Deirdre founded the Imus Ranch, a working 4,000-acre (1,600 ha) cattle ranch near Ribera, New Mexico, 50 miles (80 km) southeast of Santa Fe, for children with cancer.[113] The ranch was used as a tax deduction by Imus, and eventually, due to the personal use of the ranch by the Imus family, saw its property tax exemption reduced to 55%.[114] The ranch was also criticized for the relatively high ratio of cost to each child served, which was over $25,000.[114] The summer program serving children ended in 2014, following a rib injury Imus suffered in a fall from a horse.[114]
In the three years from 2014 onward, the ranch reported losses on its Form 990, totaling nearly $3 million.[114] The board members of the non-profit were Imus, his wife Deirdre, and Imus's agents, Vincent and Robert Andrews.[114]
In October 2014, the ranch was offered for sale with an asking price of $32 million.[115] The ranch repeatedly failed to sell, leading Imus to put the property up for auction in May 2017.[116] The ranch was sold to broadcaster Patrick Gottsch in April 2018, for $12.5 million.[117] A spokesperson for Imus stated that the non-profit organization had not been active since 2014.[114]
Health and death[edit]
During his early years broadcasting in New York City, Imus battled with alcoholism. In 1983, he was persuaded by Michael Lynne, then his lawyer, to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. Imus attended meetings and ceased drinking in public, but continued to drink in private.[7] On July 17, 1987, after a nine-day vodka binge, he attended rehabilitation at a Hanley-Hazelden treatment center in West Palm Beach, Florida, for six weeks[7][11] and remained sober.[118] By 1991, Imus had adopted a vegetarian diet.[7]
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.[119][120][121] He was advised to have radiation treatments, but said he chose to treat the disease holistically.[112]
Imus was hospitalized at Baylor Scott & White Medical Center in College Station, Texas, on December 24, 2019. He died three days later, on December 27, at the age of 79, of complications from lung disease.[4][122] In reporting his death, David Bauder of the Associated Press said, "the quote that might best serve as Imus's epitaph" was the shock jock's statement to Vanity Fair magazine in 2006: "I talk to millions of people every day. I just like it when they can't talk back."[123]
