The I-Man Redux?

[x Wikipedia]

Don Imus was born in Riverside, California. He served in the Marine Corps from 1957 to 1959. When interviewed in Vanity Fair, Imus stated that he dropped out of school while living in Prescott, Arizona, and joined the Marines, transferring from an artillery unit to play the bugle in the Drum and Bugle Corps. According to the interview, he received an honorable discharge, despite an incident when he and a friend stole the stars off a general's jeep and put them on their own vehicle. He subsequently worked as a miner, gas station attendant, railway brakeman and rock musician.

Imus had battled alcoholism during his early career in New York, but in 1987 finally pursued effective treatment. (As of 2006, he says that he has remained sober for 18 years and counting). In 1988, with his cocaine and alcohol addictions now part of his self-publicity, Imus reshaped his show from strictly comedy into a forum for political issues, charitable causes and news-based parodies.

In 1979, he divorced his first wife, Harriett, and he married his second wife, Deirdre Coleman on December 17, 1994. He has four daughters from his first marriage and one son, Frederick Wyatt (nicknamed Wyatt, born July 3, 1998), from his current marriage. Both Don and Deirdre Imus are vegetarians.

In 1999, Imus and his wife founded the Imus Ranch, a working cattle ranch near Ribera, New Mexico, 50 miles southeast of Santa Fe. The Imus Ranch is a charitable organization for children with cancer, as well as siblings of SIDS victims. Between Memorial Day and Labor Day each year, the Imus family goes to the New Mexico ranch. Until the cancellation of his show on April 12, 2007, Imus would broadcast from a studio there, while the rest of his cast broadcast from New York and New Jersey. In 2000, Imus suffered serious injuries after a fall from a horse at his ranch, and broadcast several shows from a hospital.

Imus maintains three residences, one in Manhattan, another in Westport, Connecticut, and one in Ribera, New Mexico.

If this is *fair & balanced) self-reinvention, so be it.

[x NY Fishwrap]
Imus in Talks With Channel That Has Long Rural Reach
By Jacques Steinberg

Don Imus, expected to announce soon that he will begin broadcasting on WABC radio in New York City in December, is in serious discussions with an unlikely partner to simulcast his radio show on television. It is RFD-TV, a satellite and cable channel aimed primarily at farming and other rural communities.

The conversations with RFD-TV were described yesterday by someone on the Imus side who insisted on anonymity because no deal has been signed. Patrick Gottsch, the founder and president of RFD-TV, based in Omaha, did not return a telephone message yesterday seeking comment. The channel says it can be seen in more than 30 million homes.

For Mr. Imus, whose previous show on CBS Radio was seen nationally on MSNBC, RFD (which stands for rural free delivery) would offer a lower profile. Mr. Imus used to share a cable network with hosts like Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews; at RFD-TV his show would be a marquee lead-in to others with titles like “Cattlemen to Cattlemen” (a 30-minute newsmagazine about the cattle industry) and “Horse Babies” (an eight-week mini-series).

Over Labor Day weekend RFD broadcast a one-hour documentary about Mr. Imus’s ranch in New Mexico, where he regularly plays host to children with cancer and other illnesses. If Mr. Imus were to sign with RFD-TV, he would be seen in New York, Los Angeles and other big cities (with the notable exception of Des Moines) only by viewers with satellite service, including from Dish and DirecTV.

The person familiar with Mr. Imus’s conversations with RFD said that the channel hoped to use his show as a calling card that might earn it a place on Time Warner and other cable systems in New York and other metropolitan areas.

Jacques P. Steinberg is a journalist and author who covers the media, primarily television, for The New York Times's cultural news desk.

Copyright © 2007 The New York Times Company

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