Legendary talker Don Imus passed away this morning at the age of 79.
The longtime Cleveland and New York disk jockey turned syndicated political talker passed away t Baylor Scott and White Medical Center in College Station TX, after being hospitalized since Christmas Eve according to a statement released by his family. No cause of death was released.
Imus’ career can be broken into three distinct parts. He began his broadcasting career in 1968 at KUTY Palmdale CA. After bouncing around California and WGAR Cleveland for a few years, he joined 660 WNBC New York in December 1971 for his first run that lasted until 1977. He then returned to Cleveland at 1420 WHK for afternoons until returning to WNBC in 1979 through its sale and flip to Sports WFAN in October 1988. During that time he was one of the VJ’s at VH-1 when it launched in 1984.
At WFAN his show moved completely into the political spectrum as he then entered syndication in 1993. Many other well known broadcasters would launch their careers as part of the Imus show including Mike Francesa, Christopher ‘Mad Dog’ Russo, Mike Breen, and current WABC New York morning hosts Sid Rosenburg and Bernard McGuirk. In 1996 Imus In The Morning added a national television simulcast on the newly launched MSNBC that would last until his April 2007 racist comments about the Rutgers University women’s basketball team that led to his termination from WFAN and MSNBC.
Imus would then join 770 WABC in December 2007 and re-entered syndication while his show was aired on Fox Business Network until 2015. In his final years he has hosted his show from his ranch in Texas while the remainder of the staff remained in New York until his retirement in March 2018.
During his career 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.
Imus dedicated his large cattle ranch in New Mexico to support kids with cancer and many other fund-raisers for that cause throughout his career.
Imus is survived by his wife Deirdre Coleman and six children sons Wyatt and Lt. Zachary Don Cates and daughters Nadine, Ashley, Elizabeth and Toni.
