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
