Polarising radio host dies, 79
DISC jockey Don Imus, whose career as an acidtongued radio star came to an abrupt end after a nationally broadcast racial slur, died on December 27. He was 79.
The American shock jock survived drug and alcohol woes, a raunchy appearance before President Bill Clinton and several firings during his long career behind the microphone. But he faced widespread condemnation after describing a women’s college basketball team as ‘‘nappyheaded hos’’.
His April 2007 racist and misogynist crack about the mostly black Rutgers squad, an oftreplayed 10second snippet, crossed a line that Imus had long straddled as his rants catapulted him to prominence. The remark was heard coast to coast on 60 radio stations and the MSNBC cable network.
Despite repeated apologies, Imus — just 10 years earlier named one of Time magazine’s 25 most influential Americans — became a pariah for a remark that he acknowledged was ‘‘completely inappropriate . . . thoughtless and stupid’’.
His radio show, once home to presidential hopefuls, political pundits and platinumselling musicians, was yanked eight days later by CBS Radio.
The US news website
HuffPost announced his death with the headline ‘‘Don Imus, Racist Radio Show Host, Dead at 79’’. Others took issue with publications omitting Imus’ racist remarks from their obituaries.
Rae Sanni, a writer for the popular HBO comedy Black Lady Sketch Show, wrote on Twitter: ‘‘Don Imus has died. A victory for nappy headed hos everywhere.’’
Imus was also known for his offair philanthropy, having raised more than $40 million for groups including the CJ Foundation for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. He ran a New Mexico ranch for dying children and often used his radio show to solicit donations from guests. A pediatric medical centre bearing Imus’s name was opened at the Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey.
Imus, born on a Riverside, California, cattle ranch, was the older of two boys — his brother Fred later became an Imus in the Morning show regular. The family moved to Flagstaff, Arizona, where Imus joined the Marines before taking jobs as a freight train brakeman and uranium miner.
Only at age 28 did he appear on the airwaves. His caustic persona, though it would later serve him well, was initially a problem: Imus was canned by a small station in Stockton, California, after uttering the word ‘‘hell’’. The controversy only enhanced his career, a pattern that continued throughout the decades.
He rarely missed a chance to get in trouble. He engaged in a longrunning feud with shock jock Howard Stern, and outraged guests at the annual Radio and Television Correspondents Association Dinner in 1996 when he joked about Bill Clinton’s extramarital activities as the first lady sat stonefaced nearby.
A February 2006 profile in Vanity Fair contained the quote that might best serve as Imus’s epitaph.
‘‘I talk to millions of people every day,’’ he said while riding home in a limousine after one show. ‘‘I just like it when they can’t talk back.’’
Imus remarried in December 1994, to the former Deirdre Coleman. They had one son, Wyatt. — Guardian News and Media