NEW YORK (AP) — Longtime conservative radio host Bob Grant, whose combative style became the template for broadcasters such as Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh, has died at age 84.
Grant’s death on Tuesday in Hillsborough, N.J., after a short illness was confirmed on Thursday by New York radio station WABC, which once fired him over his acid-tongued remarks about the plane crash death of one of President Bill Clinton’s cabinet members, the first black commerce secretary.
“Remember this: If you are offended during the next two hours, it’s nobody’s fault but mine,” Grant said at the top of a broadcast featured in a 2010 tribute. “Because somebody’s got to say these things. It has to be me.”
Grant was born Robert Ciro Gigante in Chicago in 1929. He began his broadcasting career in the 1940s at WBBM in Chicago. He moved on to radio and television jobs in Los Angeles and was named afternoon drive time host at WABC in 1984.
Over the years, Grant, who was white, offended some listeners by referring to former New York Mayor David Dinkins, who’s black, as a “washroom attendant,” calling Clinton a “sleazebag” and suggesting women on welfare should be sterilized.
