Conservative radio host Bob Grant, 84, died on Tuesday December 31, 2013, in Hillsborough, N.J., after suffering from a short illness, according to a report by WABC, a New York radio station.
Grant, known for his combative style and fiery remarks, provided a broadcasting template for broadcasters like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.
WABC, the New York radio station that reported Grant's passing, fired the radio broadcaster over his remarks about one of former U.S. President Bill Clinton's cabinet members who died in a plane crash in Croatia. The cabinet member was Ron Brown, the first black commerce secretary of the nation.
"Remember this: If you are offended during the next two hours, it's nobody's fault but mine," reported the Wall Street Journal, recalling Grant saying 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 gave many controversial remarks during the time when he was still on air broadcasting. Grant, who was white, offended some listeners of his radio program when he referred to former New York Mayor David Dinkins, who was black, as a "washroom attendant."
He also called former U.S. president Clinton a "sleazebag" and suggested that women on welfare should be sterilized, according to WSJ.
"I can't take these screaming savages, whether they're in the African Methodist Church, the A.M.E. church, or whether they're in the streets, burning, robbing, looting," Grant once said on radio.
The New York radio station WABC mostly defended Grant's First Amendment right to voice his opinions. However, Grant crossed the line when he talked about the plane crash death of U.S. Commerce Secretary Ron Brown in Croatia.
His notorious comment on the crash went,
"My hunch is that he (Brown) is the one survivor," he said. "I must have a hunch. Maybe, 'cause at heart, I'm a pessimist."
Grant was born Robert Ciro Gigante in Chicago in 1929. His broadcasting career began in the 1940s at WBBM in Chicago, but later moved on to radio and television jobs in Los Angeles and was named afternoon drive time host at WABC in 1984.
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