[7][11] He left the Marines with an honorable discharge, and secured work as a window dresser in San Bernardino, before he was fired for performing strip teases on the mannequins for passersby.

[7] Imus then moved to Hollywood with his brother in an attempt to find success as musicians and songwriters, but they struggled to get radio DJs to play their songs on the air.

[11] In 1966, Imus enrolled at the Don Martin School of Radio and Television Arts and Sciences, in Hollywood, after seeing a newspaper advertisement; he was thrown out for being "uncooperative", but studied enough to obtain a broadcasting license from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Imus was an instant success at the station; in two months, he had become number one in ratings for his time slot, and earned a Billboard Award for Air Personality of the Year in a medium-sized market.

[7][11] Imus then had a brief tenure at KJOY in Stockton, California, from which he was fired due to an incident that some sources attributed to his Eldridge Cleaver look-a-like contest[7][9] in which the winner would be incarcerated for a year.

One of his earliest on-air jokes involved promoting the 1958 Bobby Darin single "Queen of the Hop" as "a WGAR exclusive" and talking over it in the mode of a Top 40 DJ.

[11] Imus also devoted one show to help a Yugoslavian immigrant find a bride in order to prevent his deportation after it was discovered he had entered the United States illegally.

In March 1973, he began a stand-up comedy and stage act called Imus in the Evening; his first shows were held at The Bitter End in New York City.

[29] On January 30, 1974 he appeared as himself (a patient at Hope Memorial with a broken leg from skiing while on vacation from his radio show) on the NBC-TV daytime soap opera The Doctors.

[7] Imus described himself as "awful" and "a jerk" during this time, and struggled to find a suitable job in New York City that satisfied his salary demands.

He continued to drink, and his on- and off-air behavior became erratic; he turned up for work without shoes and slept on park benches with large amounts of money in his pocket.

[11] By 1981, Imus and Charles McCord secured a deal with Paramount Pictures that involved the development of three screenplays, including work on Joy of Sex.

[37] Other regular Imus characters included the supposed general manager "Geraldo Santana Banana" (played by doo-wop singer Larry Chance), and "Moby Worm", a monstrous creature who devoured local schools (which was reported on the show's "breaking news updates").

[citation needed] Imus was also the utility announcer for Geraldo Rivera's monthly TV series Good Night America, which aired as a recurring segment of ABC's Wide World of Entertainment program (1973–1976), and he was one of the inaugural video jockeys (VJ) for the launch of VH-1, sister cable channel to MTV, in 1985.

[citation needed] Imus was instrumental in raising over $60 million for the Center for the Intrepid, a Texas rehabilitation facility for soldiers wounded in the Iraq War.

Imus also took on the cause of the living conditions at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, visiting wounded veterans at the hospital to boost morale.

On MSNBC's Scarborough Country on April 10,[59] Pat Buchanan said Imus was "a good guy" who "made a bad mistake and apologized for it" and that the show should stay on the air.

After the Rutgers team incident, Page said that he would not appear on the show again and said of the original two-week suspension: I know other stations… some shock jock who lost his job for less than this, or been at least suspended for a month or two.

Moonves said that CBS had to take Imus off the air in order to change "a culture that permits a certain level of objectionable expression that hurts and demeans a wide range of people.

"[77] Imus hired prominent attorney Martin Garbus by May 2, 2007, to pursue a wrongful termination lawsuit against CBS for the remaining $40 million on his five-year contract.

The new Imus in the Morning program was distributed nationally by Citadel Media and based at Citadel-owned WABC in New York City beginning in December.

[84] The New York Times reported on November 14 that Imus had agreed to terms with cable network RFD-TV to air a video simulcast of the new radio program.

In the weeks before Congress recessed on September 29, 2006, Barton used his chairmanship to prevent the legislative proposal from coming to a vote in the House, rousing the ire of Imus and his wife, staunch supporters of autism research.

"[93] Nichole Mallette sued Imus on November 29, 2004, for wrongful termination and defamation after a Thanksgiving 2003 incident in which she was allegedly fired from her position as nanny and escorted off his property at 4:15 am.

Imus subsequently referred to Pearson several times on the air as "an arrogant fucking doctor who doesn't mind letting a child suffer."

[95] In late 2005, Imus expressed his grievances about the case on the record to journalist Buzz Bissinger, for a Vanity Fair article that was published in the February 2006 issue.

Some examples include: Imus was also a part owner of Autobody Express stores with his late brother, Fred (who was a frequent caller to the radio show, commenting on NASCAR races, the NFL and related pop culture matters).

[112] He raised millions for the rehabilitation of wounded veterans of the Iraq war, children with cancer, and siblings of victims of sudden infant death syndrome, who had spent summers since 1999 on his ranch near Ribera, New Mexico.

[7] On July 17, 1987, after a nine-day vodka binge, he attended rehabilitation at a Hanley-Hazelden treatment center in West Palm Beach, Florida, for six weeks[7][11] and remained sober.

[4][122] In reporting his death, David Bauder of the Associated Press said, "the quote that might best serve as Imus's epitaph" was the shock jock's statement to Vanity Fair magazine in 2006: "I talk to millions of people every day.