Don Imus, pioneering talk-radio host and shock jock, dies at 79

Don Imus, one of radio’s most popular and polarizing figures, who sparked a national firestorm with a racially charged joke about the Rutgers University’s women’s basketball team, has died. He was 79.

The pioneering shock jock, whose career spanned nearly 50 years, was hospitalized on Christmas Eve and died Friday morning at Baylor Scott and White Medical Center in College Station, Texas, according to a statement from his family. No cause of death was given.

Imus, or “the I-Man” as many of his friends and guests tagged him, reshaped radio with his crass but often insightful observations about current events and helped open the floodgates for the coarsened chatter that animates talk radio today. He retired from his show “Imus in the Morning” in March 2018.

Despite the base nature of his programs, the ex-Marine was still able to attract a lengthy and enviable guest list of prominent journalists, historians and politicians that included governors, U.S. senators and presidential candidates. At the height of his popularity, Imus reportedly earned about $10 million a year, and split his time between a Central Park West penthouse, a ranch in New Mexico and an estate on Long Island Sound.

“He’s one of the first who stretched the envelope on what could be said,” said Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers, a radio industry trade magazine. “He was dangerous in terms of language, an early pioneer in making the culture of radio reflect the mood of the street. He had moved beyond shock jock and influenced a lot of younger talent.”

Born in Riverside on July 23, 1940, John Donald Imus Jr. became one of the medium’s first so-called “shock jocks.” A hint of his wild and pranksterish behavior came early in his radio career in the late 1960s when he was at KXOA in Sacramento. He telephoned a local McDonald’s on-air and ordered 1,200 hamburgers — with and without various condiments.

The stunt earned him scores of listeners and eventually led to a Federal Communications Commission rule requiring disc jockeys to identify themselves when telephoning listeners.

Soon he moved to New York, and by the early 1970s was a top broadcaster for WNBC, where his biting humor earned him stellar ratings. But in what would be one of many personal setbacks suffered in his career, Imus was fired from the station for drug and alcohol abuse in 1977. After a stint in rehab, he came back after a couple years stronger than ever on another station.

From that point, he was more candid about his shortcomings, frequently speaking about his struggles with addiction and crediting recovery programs with making him a better person.

“Don Imus didn’t just go through the barriers of radio, he crashed through them,” said Tom Taylor, a journalist who has long covered the radio industry. “His irascibility and his determination to play the game by his own rules made him the opposite of all disc jockeys before him.”

As his show matured, Imus began infusing it with politics, a tack that began attracting politicians who were eager to court his millions of daily listeners. During the 1992 presidential campaign, Bill Clinton appeared on the show to helped revive his then-battered campaign, which had just suffered a sound defeat in Connecticut by former California Gov. Jerry Brown. Clinton and Imus clicked.

The future U.S. president went into “his good ol’ boy routine,” recalled Newsweek’s Howard Fineman, and “talked about the fact that he drove a pickup when he was a kid with Astro Turf in the back. ... and this fit squarely with the Imus constituency — with country music and pickup trucks and politics.”

In many ways, Imus was his own mixed message — a cranky, crude comedian one minute, a well-read authority on history and politics the next. And even though he treated some of his political guests harshly, the show soon became a regular pit stop for pundits and members of the Washington/New York politico-media elite.

Among Imus’ many guests were NBC newsman Tim Russert, newspaper columnist Maureen Dowd, historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd, NBA star Charles Barkley, Arizona Sen. John McCain, Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf.

Frank Rich, the New York Times columnist, appeared several times on the show and said: “Imus was never an ideologue. At his best, despite the various meltdowns and controversies and egregious embarrassments, his show was a real meeting ground for an oddball collection of people, politicians from both parties and all over, and journalists both well known and obscure.”

Rich added that one of Imus’ defining traits was that he was “incredibly candid. He didn’t require you to speak in sound bites, and he was not afraid to ask the rude question, the question that would not be asked on the Sunday morning shows or NPR.”

Imus also had a charitable side. He and his wife ran the Imus Ranch, a cattle ranch near Ribera, N.M., where children with cancer or serious blood disorders, and those who had lost siblings to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), could work as cowhands and experience a cowboy lifestyle.

To many radio fans, Imus will be remembered for his ongoing, bitter yet colorful feud with shock-jock rival Howard Stern. Both men worked at WNBC during the early 1980s, and their brief overlap fueled decades of name-calling and excoriating comments.

Don Imus, right, with Rev. Al Sharpton in 2007.

(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Imus’ uncensored style landed him in trouble on more than a few occasions as he routinely made offensive remarks on his program about gays, Jews, blacks and women. But nothing he said compared to the tempest prompted by his remarks on April 4, 2007, when he referred to the Rutgers University women’s basketball team as “nappy-headed hos.”

The comment might have passed without notice were his show solely on radio. But at the time his show was also simulcast on cable TV channel MSNBC, and the video snippet soon took on a life of its own across the internet. The reaction was swift and angry, with personalities ranging from NBC weatherman Al Roker to then-presidential candidate Barack Obama calling for Imus to be fired.

Imus apologized, first on his show and then in an appearance on the Rev. Al Sharpton’s radio show, but the furor still escalated. MSNBC and CBS, which owned the station broadcasting his radio show, then tried to quell the storm by suspending Imus for two weeks, but protests continued and sponsors were still withdrawing their support.

Next, the Rutgers team held a nationally televised news conference to condemn Imus, and a few days later MSNBC yanked the simulcast off the air. Finally, on April 12, Imus was fired, ending his syndicated program that had aired on 70 stations.

He largely disappeared from public life for about eight months. But on Dec. 4, 2007, Imus returned to the airwaves on WABC-AM (with a simulcast on Fox Business Network added in the fall of 2009).

He introduced a new cast of characters, including two black comedians, and told listeners he had learned his lesson: “I didn’t see any point in going on some sort of Larry King tour to offer a bunch of lame excuses for making an essentially reprehensible remark about innocent people who did not deserve to be made fun of.”

Despite the uproar, Imus’ career will not be overshadowed by the Rutgers remark, Taylor said.

“He really didn’t want to go out that way,” he said. “He wanted to redeem himself in the eyes of those people. When he said he was sorry, he was really speaking from the heart.”

Imus is survived by his wife of 25 years, Deirdre; daughters Nadine, Ashley, Elizabeth and Toni; and sons Wyatt and Zachary.

The family will hold a small private service in the coming days and requests that any donations be made to the Imus Ranch Foundation.

Times staff writer Christie D’Zurilla contributed to this report.

1/33

Notable deaths 2019 

2/33

Pioneering shock jock Don Imus was one of radio’s most popular and polarizing figures. Born in Riverside, he became a top broadcaster in New York, but he also sparked a national firestorm in 2007 with a racist remark about the Rutgers University women’s basketball team. He was 79.  (Richard Drew / Associated Press)

3/33

Cokie Roberts covered Washington from Jimmy Carter to Donald Trump for NPR and ABC News. A co-anchor of the ABC Sunday political show “This Week” from 1996 to 2002, Roberts devoted most of her attention to Congress, where her father Hale Boggs was a House majority leader until his death in 1972. She was 75.  (Donna Svennevik / Walt Disney Television via Getty)

4/33

T. Boone Pickens followed his father into the oil and gas business and built a reputation as a maverick, unafraid to compete against industry giants. In the 1980s, Pickens sought riches on Wall Street by leading bids to take over big oil companies including Gulf, Phillips and Unocal. Even when he failed to gain control of his targets, he scored huge payoffs by selling shares back to the company and dropping the hostile takeover bid. He was 91.  (Riccardo Savi / Getty Images)

5/33

When Robert Mugabe took over as Zimbabwean president in 1980, he was celebrated as a hero in the liberation war against Britain. But after international sanctions, a series of fraudulent elections and an economic collapse sparked by the seizure of white-owned farms, Mugabe become a pariah and retired in 2017 rather than face impeachment. He was 95.  (Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi / Associated Press)

6/33

David Koch was the aide de camp to Charles, his older brother, as the two leveraged the family fortune to push American politics to the right. The Koch brothers pushed the boundaries of dark money in politics and fueled a backlash against environmental regulations and government programs such as healthcare and mass transit. He was 79.  (Phelan M. Ebenhack / Associated Press)

7/33

Peter Fonda was the son of a classic Hollywood star and a key player in the 1969 countercultural road trip saga “Easy Rider,” which he co-wrote and produced. The screenplay earned Fonda his first Academy Award nomination; his second came in the lead actor category for the 1997 independent film “Ulee’s Gold.” He was 79.  (AP)

8/33

Hard-line Chinese premier Li Peng was best-known for ending the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests with a bloody crackdown by troops. A keen political infighter, he spent two decades at the pinnacle of power before retiring in 2002, leaving a legacy of prolonged economic growth and authoritarian control. He was 90.  (AP)

9/33

Chris Kraft, shown with President Reagan in 1981, never flew in space but was the creator and longtime leader of NASA’s Mission Control. The legendary engineer served as flight director for all Mercury flights and seven of the Gemini flights, helped design the Apollo missions and later oversaw the beginning of the shuttle era at Johnson Space Center. He died just two days after the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11’s moon landing. He was 95.  (AP)

10/33

Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens joined the court as a centrist Republican but emerged in his later years as the leading voice of its liberal bloc. Appointed by President Ford, Stevens played a key role in decisions that preserved a woman’s right to abortion, maintained a strict separation of church and state, and put limits on the death penalty. He was 99.  (AP)

11/33

Billionaire Ross Perot blazed across America in the 1990s as a third-party presidential candidate and won nearly 19% of the popular vote in the 1992 election, finishing third behind Democrat Bill Clinton and Republican President George H.W. Bush. The diminutive Texan was an early tech entrepreneur who founded Electronic Data Systems, a computer services company, in 1962 with $1,000 in savings. He was 89.

  (Peter Muhly / AFP/Getty Images)

12/33

Pitcher Tyler Skaggs grew up an Angels fan in Santa Monica and joined the organization as a first-round draft pick. He battled injuries throughout his career but started 24 games last season and showed signs of dominance this year. He was 27.

  (Charlie Riedel / AP)

13/33

Judith Krantz wrote blockbuster romance novels including “Scruples” and “Princess Daisy” that sold more than 80 million copies worldwide. Her books have been translated into more than 50 languages, and seven have been adapted as TV miniseries, with her late husband, Steve Krantz, serving as executive producer for most. She was 91.

  (Aaron Rapoport / Getty Images)

14/33

Italian director Franco Zeffirelli was best-known for his films, including the 1968 critical and box office hit “Romeo and Juliet” and a 1990 “Hamlet” with Mel Gibson. His massive opera productions included a version of Puccini’s “La Boheme” that became the most-often presented production in the Metropolitan Opera’s history. He was 96.

  (Paolo Cocco / AFP/Getty Images)

15/33

Danish-born socialite Claus von Bulow, left, shown with attorney Alan Dershowitz in April 1985, was convicted in 1982 and then acquitted three years later on two counts of attempting to murder his American heiress wife, Sunny, with injections of insulin. The high-profile case has been called one of the most sensational courtroom dramas in modern U.S. history. He was 92.

  (Charles Krupa / AP)

16/33

Herman Wouk explored the moral fallout of World War II in the Pulitzer Prize-winning “The Caine Mutiny” (1951) and other widely read books. Determined to produce a “great war book,” Wouk wrote “The Winds of War” and its sequel, “War and Remembrance,” in the 1970s, and the two sweeping novels became the basis for a pair of television miniseries. He was 103.

  (Douglas L Benc Jr / AP)

17/33

Architect I.M. Pei had a client list that included French President Francois Mitterrand for the Louvre and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis for the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library in Boston. Among several Pei projects in the Los Angeles area are the former Creative Artists Agency headquarters in Beverly Hills and the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. He was 102.

  (Pierre Gleizes / AP Photo)

18/33

Tim Conway came to prominence on television as a bumbling ensign in “McHale’s Navy” opposite Ernest Borgnine from 1962 to 1966, then became a regular on “The Carol Burnett Show,” where he famously developed a knack for making costar Harvey Korman crack up. He also starred in the “Apple Dumpling Gang” movies in the 1970s and gained fame with a new generation as the voice of Barnacle Boy on “SpongeBob SquarePants.” He was 85.

  (George Brich / AP)

19/33

John Singleton’s 1991 debut, “Boyz n the Hood,” was an inner-city coming-of-age story that earned two Oscar nominations and put the young filmmaker in the company of emerging black moviemakers such as Spike Lee and Mario Van Peebles. Singleton went on to direct “Poetic Justice” (1993), “Higher Learning” (1995) and “Baby Boy” (2001), which featured Taraji P. Henson at the start of her career. He was 51.

  (Christopher Polk / AFP/Getty Images)

20/33

Grammy-nominated rapper Nipsey Hussle was gunned down outside his Marathon Clothing store in the same South L.A. neighborhood where he was known as much for his civic work as he was for his hip-hop music. He was 33.

  (Matt Winkelmeyer / Getty Images for Warner Music)

21/33

Sidney Sheinberg, right, with Steven Spielberg and Lea Adler, Spielberg’s mother, at a 1994 Beverly Hilton gala.

  (Shepler, Lori / Los Angeles Times)

22/33

Jan-Michael Vincent was a golden boy of 1970s Hollywood action films and went on to star in the mid-1980s TV adventure series “Airwolf.” But his erratic behavior and cocaine consumption was a major reason “Airwolf” was canceled. He was 74 by most accounts, but the death certificate listed him as 73.

  (Alex Garcia / Los Angeles Times)

23/33

Sitcom star Katherine Helmond had memorable roles as ditzy matriarchs in “Soap,” “Who’s the Boss?” and “Coach.” Her work as Jessica Tate on the 1970s parody “Soap” earned her seven Emmy nominations, and she was nominated again in 2002 for her guest role in “Everybody Loves Raymond.” Helmond also starred in director Terry Gilliam’s films “Brazil” and “Time Bandits.” She was 89.

  (Chuck Burton / AP)

24/33

André Previn conquered L.A. with his artistic genius twice: first as an Academy Award winning composer of Hollywood movie music, then as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. A conductor and pianist who toggled between classical, pop and jazz, Previn won Oscars for “My Fair Lady” (1964), “Irma la Douce” (1963), “Gigi” (1958) and “Porgy and Bess” (1959). He was 89.

  (Patrick Downs/ Los Angeles Times)

25/33

Dodgers right-hander Don Newcombe was the first outstanding African American pitcher in the major leagues and in 1949 became the first to start a World Series game. The 6-foot-4, 240-pound hurler was also the first player in major league history to have won the rookie of the year, Most Valuable Player and Cy Young awards. He was 92.

  (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

26/33

Michigan Democrat John Dingell Jr. used his considerable power in the House of Representatives to uncover government fraud and defend the interests of the automobile industry. Known as “Big John” and “The Truck” for his forceful nature and 6-foot-3-inch frame, Dingell was the longest-serving member of Congress in U.S. history. He was 92.

  (Win McNamee / Getty Images)

27/33

Albert Finney starred in films as diverse as “Tom Jones,” “Annie” and “Skyfall.” One of the most versatile actors of his generation, he played an array of roles, including Winston Churchill, Pope John Paul II, a southern American lawyer and an Irish gangster. He was 82.

  (Graham Barclay / For The Times)

28/33

Michelle King was the first African American woman to lead Los Angeles Unified School District. Her major accomplishment was pushing the graduation rate to record levels by allowing students to quickly make up credits for failed classes. She was 57.

  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

29/33

Grammy-winning singer and songwriter James Ingram topped the charts in the ‘80s with hits like “Baby, Come to Me” and “Somewhere Out There.” He also co-wrote the Michael Jackson hit “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing).” He was 66.

  (Stefano Paltera / AP)

30/33

Emmy Award-winning writer Bob Einstein was best known as stuntman Super Dave Osborne, whose feats always went wrong. The comedy veteran got his start writing for 1970s variety shows such as “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,” and he later played Larry David’s devout friend Marty Funkhouser on HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” He was 76.

  (Archive Photos / Getty Images)

31/33

Carol Channing was a Broadway star best known for her enduring portrayal of the title character in the musical “Hello, Dolly!” A winner of three Tony Awards, including one for lifetime achievement, she appeared in the play at least 5,000 times. She was 97.

  (Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images / Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

32/33

Mary Oliver, one of the country’s most popular poets, focused on spirituality, nature and New England. Her poems won the Pulitzer Prize in 1984 and the National Book Award in 1992. She was 83.

  (Josh Reynolds / For the Times)

33/33

Herb Kelleher built Southwest Airlines into the biggest discount carrier and set the standard for budget air travel for more than three decades. He and co-founder Rollin King used a formula of short, no-frills trips that spawned dozens of imitators. He was 87.

  (Ed Betz / AP)