Don Imus facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Don Imus
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Imus, c. mid-1980s
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| Born |
John Donald Imus Jr.
July 23, 1940 Riverside, California, U.S.
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| Died | December 27, 2019 (aged 79) College Station, Texas, U.S.
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| Occupation | Radio and television talk show host, writer, humorist |
| Years active | 1964–2018 |
| Spouse(s) |
Harriet Showalter
(m. 1969; div. 1979)Deirdre Coleman
(m. 1994) |
| Children | 6 |
| Awards | NAB Broadcasting Hall of Fame, 4 NAB Marconi Radio Awards |
John Donald Imus Jr. (/ˈaɪməs/; July 23, 1940 – December 27, 2019), also known mononymously 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.
In 1968, he began his first radio job, at KUTY in Palmdale, California. Three years later, he landed the morning broadcast position at WNBC in New York City. Imus was fired from WNBC in 1977, and following a one-year stint at WHK in Cleveland was rehired by WNBC in 1979. Imus remained at the station 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. Following Howard Stern's success with national syndication, Imus in the Morning adopted the same model in 1993.
Throughout his later career, Imus was labeled a "shock jock".
In January 2018, Cumulus Media, in bankruptcy reorganization, told Imus the company was going to stop paying him. His final show aired on March 29, 2018. He died the following year of complications from lung disease.
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Early life
Imus was born in Riverside, California, to a wealthy family, 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. He was said to have Welsh, English, and Polish roots. Imus claimed at one time to practice Judaism then later recanted, calling himself, "spiritual." 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.
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. 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. 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. After dropping out of the University of the Pacific, Imus worked as a brakeman on the Southern Pacific Railroad and in a uranium mine in Arizona. He suffered a mining accident that broke both of his legs.
Career
Early career
In 1966, Imus enrolled at the Don Martin School of Radio and Television Arts and Sciences, in Hollywood, after seeing a newspaper advertisement; he was thrown out for being "uncooperative", but studied enough to obtain a broadcasting license from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Upon winning a talent contest at Johnny Otis's night club, he worked as a singer-songwriter, with Otis serving as his manager. After hearing a morning radio DJ at KUTY, in Palmdale, California, Imus went to the station and successfully persuaded the owner to hire him. He signed on the air on June 2, 1968. While at KUTY, Imus debuted his on-air character Billy Sol Hargis, a radio evangelist inspired by and named for preacher Billy James Hargis and businessman Billie Sol Estes. Imus was an instant success at the station; in two months, he had become number one in ratings for his time slot, and earned a Billboard Award for Air Personality of the Year in a medium-sized market.
Imus then had a brief tenure at KJOY in Stockton, California, from which he was fired due to an incident that some sources attributed to his Eldridge Cleaver look-a-like contest in which the winner would be incarcerated for a year. Other sources suggest the firing was because of his saying "hell" and multiple raunchy jokes on-air. Imus moved to KXOA in Sacramento, California, whose management team—including general manager Jack G. Thayer and program director John Lund—both left for identical positions at Cleveland station WGAR and took Imus with them. Thayer and Lund were hired by WGAR to revamp the station's old-line middle of the road (MOR) format, and had Imus as the centerpiece for their new adult contemporary format that had been developed at KXOA. Imus's tenure at WGAR lasted for less than 15 months but immediately showed success. The October/November 1970 Arbitron ratings listed Imus at number one in the 18–49 demo, ahead of WKYC's Jim Runyon and WJW's Ed Fisher; WGAR as a whole topped both the 25–34 and 25–49 demos. Imus was honored by Billboard as the number one radio personality for 1971, an honor he shared with KMPC's Gary Owens.
Imus in the Morning was controversial and satirical, with Imus's existing characters and comedy skits garnering immediate attention. One of his earliest on-air jokes involved promoting the 1958 Bobby Darin single Queen of the Hop as "a WGAR exclusive" and talking over it in the mode of a Top 40 deejay. Imus also became infamous for his series of prank calls, even dialing Ohio Attorney General William J. Brown's publicly listed phone number and inviting him to "join the swinging world of show biz". He once contacted an Ohio Bell phone operator to ask if she was married and if "you mess around", prompting the phone company's lawyers to contact the station. His most infamous prank call was to a McDonald's restaurant claiming to be an Ohio National Guard official and ordered 4,000 hamburgers as lunch for the troops. While the phone call was entirely scripted by Imus and Lund (with Lund voicing the McDonald's worker) the segment influenced a later FCC ruling that required all radio DJs to identify themselves when they make phone calls on the air. Imus also devoted one show to help a Yugoslavian immigrant find a bride in order to prevent his deportation after it was discovered he entered the country illegally. Meanwhile, Imus, Jack Thayer, and WGAR were hit with a defamation lawsuit by television meteorologist Robert Zames after Imus repeatedly questioned Zames's sobriety and joked about it on-air.
1971–1979: WNBC and WHK
On December 2, 1971, less than three years into his radio career, Imus started his morning show at WNBC in New York City, with a $100,000 per year salary which was said to have been double his WGAR salary. On his second day, he overslept and missed the show. Imus was involved in various projects during his time at WNBC. In March 1973, he began a stand-up comedy and stage act called Imus in the Evening; his first shows were held at The Bitter End in New York City. By the early 1980s, he was earning as much as $10,000 a performance. Imus retired his stand-up in December 1985. He released three albums containing radio segments and songs: 1200 Hamburgers to Go (1972), One Sacred Chicken to Go (1973), and This Honky's Nuts (1974). The latter features material from his stand-up comedy at Jimmy's Club in Manhattan.
During this period, Imus started to miss work and became increasingly unmanageable. He missed 100 days of work in 1973. In August 1977, WNBC decided to reformat the station and let go of their on-air staff. Imus described himself as "awful" and "a jerk" during this time, and struggled to find a suitable job in New York City that satisfied his salary demands. He returned to Cleveland and began an afternoon drive show on WHK in 1978. He found the experience humiliating, but took the job in order to earn money and "get my act together". During this time, Imus recorded episodes of IMUS, plus..., a late-night talk show on WNEW-TV in New York.
1979–1988: WNBC
On September 3, 1979, Imus returned to the air in mornings at WNBC from 5:30 am. By 1981, Imus and Charles McCord secured a deal with Paramount Pictures that involved the development of three screenplays. In April 1981, Imus renewed his contract with WNBC with a five-year deal worth $500,000 a year with bonuses if he surpassed ratings targets. Following the addition of Howard Stern in afternoons in 1982, Imus and Stern began a longtime feud though both were paired on WNBC print and television advertisements.
In July 1981, Imus released his first book, God's Other Son, a novel about the life of his on-air character Billy Sol Hargis that he wrote with McCord. It was republished in 1994 and spent seven weeks on The New York Times best seller list. By October 1981, Imus was the most popular radio DJ in the US, reaching 220,000 regular listeners and number one in 12 of 13 demographic categories. Other regular Imus characters included the supposed general manager "Geraldo Santana Banana" (played by doo-wop singer Larry Chance), and "Moby Worm", a monstrous creature who devoured local schools (which was reported on the show's "breaking news updates").
Imus was also the utility announcer for Geraldo Rivera's monthly TV series Good Night America, which aired as a recurring segment of ABC's Wide World of Entertainment program (1973–1976), and he was one of the inaugural video jockeys (VJ) for the launch of VH-1, sister cable channel to MTV, in 1985.
1988–2007: WFAN and national syndication
On October 7, 1988, after WNBC was sold to Emmis Broadcasting, the station permanently signed off the air to have WFAN, an all-sports station, move to the station's signal. The entire station staff was let go except Imus and his radio show team, who stayed to become WFAN's morning show.
In 1989, Imus signed a five-year deal to continue his show on WFAN. In April 1989, Imus was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame. Later in 1989, Imus accepted an invitation to become an honorary assistant coach for a basketball game between the Fordham Rams and La Salle Explorers the following January.
The show began syndication in June 1993 when it was simulcast on WEEI in Boston, followed by four other stations around the country. They began simulcasting on MSNBC in 1996.
Imus was instrumental in raising over $60 million for the Center for the Intrepid, a Texas rehabilitation facility for soldiers wounded in the Iraq War. The largest technological center of its kind in the country, it is designed to treat disabled veterans and help them with their transition back into the community. Imus also took on the cause of the living conditions at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, visiting wounded veterans at the hospital to boost morale. Imus's reporting preceded Army resignations, including that of Lieutenant General Kevin Kiley, then Army Surgeon General. Imus had earlier criticized Kiley's personal fitness for military duty and dedication to wounded soldiers.
2007–2018: WABC and retirement
The program was heard on WABC starting on December 3, 2007. In 2018, Cumulus Media informed Imus that the company was going to stop paying him because of the bankruptcy reorganization that Cumulus was undergoing. The show aired its final episode on March 29, 2018.
Business interests
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
Imus won four Marconi Awards, three for Major Market Personality of the Year (1990, 1992 and 1997) and one for Network Syndicated Personality (1994).
He was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 1989.
Personal life
Family
Imus was married twice. Around 1969, he married his first wife Harriet Showalter, who had two daughters from a previous marriage, Nadine and Toni; Don Imus legally adopted Showalter's daughters. 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. 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.
According to journalist Robert D. McFadden, Imus was admired for his private charity work. He raised millions for the rehabilitation of wounded veterans of the Iraq war and for 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.
Imus Ranch
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. 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%. The ranch was also criticized for the relatively high ratio of cost to each child served, which was over $25,000. The summer program serving children ended in 2014, following a rib injury Imus suffered in a fall from a horse.
In the three years from 2014 onward, the ranch reported losses on its Form 990, totaling nearly $3 million. The board members of the non-profit were Imus, his wife Deirdre, and Imus's agents, Vincent and Robert Andrews.
In October 2014, the ranch was offered for sale with an asking price of $32 million. The ranch failed to sell after repeated efforts to do so, leading Imus to put the property up for auction in May 2017. The ranch was sold to broadcaster Patrick Gottsch in April 2018, for $12.5 million. A spokesperson for Imus stated that the non-profit organization had not been active since 2014.
Health and death
By 1991, Imus had adopted a vegetarian diet.
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 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. 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."
Discography
- Albums
- 1200 Hamburgers to Go (1972, RCA Records)
- One Sacred Chicken to Go (1973, RCA Records)
- This Honky's Nuts (1974, Bang Records)
- The Imus Ranch Record (2008, New West Records)
- The Imus Ranch Record II (2010, New West Records)
- Singles
- I'm A Hot Rodder/The Boogala (credited as Jay Jay Imus & Freddy Ford) (1964, Challenge Records) (Freddy Ford is Imus's brother, Fred)
- From Adam's Rib To Women's Lib/The Ballad Of Rick (1971, RCA Records)
- 1200 Hamburgers To Go/Reverend Billy Sol Hargis (1972, RCA Records)
- Son of Checkers (The Watergate Case)/Oh Billy Sol Please Heal Us All (1973, RCA Records)
- Play That Country Juke Box (1975, RCA Records)
- Everybody Needs Milk (Just Give Me A Bottle Of Wine) (1975, RCA Records)
- The Presidential Debate (credited as Road Hog & The Neon Cactus) (1976, RCA Records)
Books
