The so called "shock jock" who has graced the American airwaves with his own brand of hard hitting, biting, and political humour for many decades, was born July 23, 1940, in Riverside, California. He and his younger brother, Fred, were raised on their father’s cattle ranch until Imus was fifteen when his parents divorced, after what Imus has described as a "horrible adolescence."

Imus’s early life was not one of success either. He moved from school to school and finally left the education system with no formal qualifications. While living in Prescott, Arizona, he joined the Marines where initially he was in the artillery and then went on to play the bugle in the Drum and Bugle Corps.

After leaving the Marines, with an honourable discharge at the age of nineteen, where he had his fair share of disputes with the authorities, he had several jobs including minor, gas station attendant, railway brakeman, and rock musician.

After an unsuccessful first marriage, Don Imus met and married his second wife, Deidre Coleman, who was twenty-four years younger than him. Together they have one son, named Frederick Wyatt who goes only by the name Wyatt. Imus also had four daughters from his first marriage and one son.

Imus’s radio career, from which he has been fired from more than twenty times, and which has been peppered with ups and downs, began in 1966 as a disc jockey in Palmdale, California. He began on the radio station KUTY, where he actually went to the station’s manager and asked him to give Imus a chance at the show as he believed he could do a better job than the current D.J. After two years with that station he went on to a small radio station in Stockton, California. Little did he know that when he was fired from that station for using the word "hell" on the air, that the use of colorful, descriptive language would lead to his "Shock Jock" approach to broadcasting demise in 2007.

His shows have always contained language and political commentary that has been met with adversity among both the public and more noticeably among celebrities who are often the brunt of his loose cannon humor.

In March of 1996, Imus delivered a speech at the Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner in Washington, D.C., which Imus and his fans call "The Speech From Hell." The dinner was attended by President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton who promptly became the butt of his jokes. Other celebrities who have born the brunt of his humor are actor Steve Martin, singer Loretta Lyn, anchorman Dan Rather, and The View host, Barbara Walters.

Imus has used his show as a platform for many politicians including Rudy Giuliani and John Kerry. Imus himself has been interviewed by talk show celebrities such as David Letterman and Larry King. But Imus put the final nail in his "broadcasting coffin" while on the air and on TV with MSNBC in April 2007. After having watched the Rutgers University women's basketball team match the night before, he referred to the team as "nappy headed hoes." No sooner had the words left his lips than the likes of Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and other celebrities such as Al Roker, the weatherman for The Today Show, who appears with Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieiria, began to react. The powers of CBS also reacted, first by giving Imus a two week suspension and then, among nationwide disapproval of his remarks, removed him from their staff. Once again he was fired.

Although always controversial, during his career Imus has performed many charitable deeds such as opening The Imus Ranch in 1990, along with his wife Deidre, which is a charitable organization for children with cancer as well as siblings of SIDS victims. Since 1990, Imus has headlined a radio-thon with New York radio station WFAN that has raised over fifty million dollars to benefit the Tomorrows Children Fund.

Don Imus himself had battled with alcohol and drug addiction while living in New York in 1987, but managed to take control of the situation and in 2006 he announced that he remained sober and drug free for eighteen years.

Even when Imus himself was injured in a horse back riding accident in 2000 and was confined to hospital, he still continued to broadcast his show from his hospital bed.

After being fired from the next station, Imus went on to broadcast from KXOA in Sacramento, California. He became an instant success with his listeners when he played pranks on local business while on the air.

In 1971 he moved to New York and signed up with WNBC where his on air antics and crude humor became his signature mark. Once again this lead to his sacking and he moved back to Cleveland, Ohio, and commuted back and forth to New York to Jimmy’s Night Club where he had a stand up comedy act. He also taped his Imus Plus talk show while in New York with WNEW-TV a show which was nationally syndicated.

Imus was reinstated at WNBC in 1979 during the period that the station employed Howard Stern. Together the couple advertised themselves saying, "If We Weren’t So Bad We Wouldn’t be That Good." They appeared on each other's programs during the day and built up a following of listeners who would tune in just to hear the pair in their on- and off air-rivalry.

Throughout his career Imus has been outspoken and controversial. He famously referred to Rush Limbaugh as "a fat pill-popping loser" on air and to Lesley Stahl as a "gutless, lying weasel."

After his April 2007 remarks about the Rutgers University women's basketball team, Imus’s time was really up when CBS board member and former NAACP president Bruce S Gordon said that Imus should not be allowed to come back even after the two week suspension, claiming that his remarks "crossed the line, a very bright line that divides our country."

Imus was released form his program Imus in the Morning, effective immediately.

Imus publicly apologized to the basketball team and their coach, Stringer, and met with them at the New Jersey governor's mansion. The three-hour meeting was arranged by Buster Soaries, the former New Jersey secretary of state. New Jersey governor, Jon Corzine, planned to attend the meeting but was badly injured in a car accident on the New Jersey Turnpike on his way to the meeting.

Imus left without commenting but it was reported by Stringer that the team had accepted Imus’s apology and at no time had they actually called for him to be fired.

YUDDY