Downey worked as a
program director and
announcer at radio station
WPOP in
Hartford,
Connecticut, in the 1950s. He went on to work as a
disc jockey, sometimes using the moniker "Doc" Downey, in various markets around the U.S., including
Phoenix (KRIZ),
Miami (
WFUN),
Kansas City (KUDL),
San Diego (
KDEO) and
Seattle (
KJR). He had to resign from WFUN after drawing ire from the
FCC for announcing a competing disc jockey's home phone number on the air and insulting his wife. Like his father, Downey pursued a career in music, recording in both
pop and
country styles. He sang on a few
records and then began to write songs, several of which were popular in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1958, he recorded "
Boulevard of Broken Dreams", which he sang on national television on a set that resembled a dark street with one street light. In 1981, "Green Eyed Girl" charted on the
Billboard country chart, peaking at No. 95. In the 1980s, Downey became a
talk show host at
KFBK-
AM in
Sacramento, California, where he employed an abrasive style. He was fired in 1984, and was subsequently replaced by
Rush Limbaugh. He also had a stint on
WMAQ-AM in Chicago where he unsuccessfully tried to get other on air radio personalities to submit to drug testing. Downey's largest effect on American culture came from his popular, yet short-lived, syndicated late-1980s television talk show,
The Morton Downey Jr. Show. The United Students for Life, at
California State University, Sacramento helped organize his California presidential rallies. Downey worked to help promote anti-abortion candidates in California and around the country.
Television Downey headed to
Secaucus, New Jersey, where his
television program The Morton Downey Jr. Show was taped. Starting as a local program on
New York–
New Jersey superstation WWOR-TV in October 1987, it expanded into national
syndication in early 1988. The program featured screaming matches among Downey, his guests, and audience members. Using a large silver bowl for an
ashtray, he would
chainsmoke during the show and blow smoke in his guests' faces. Downey's fans became known as "Loudmouths", patterned after the studio
lecterns decorated with gaping cartoon mouths, from which Downey's guests would go head-to-head against each other on their respective issues. On a few occasions, his attempts to provoke outbursts on his show resulted in physical confrontations. Because of the controversial format and content of the show, distributor
MCA Television had problems selling the show to a number of stations and advertisers. Even Downey's
affiliates, many of which were low-rated
independent television stations in small to medium markets, were so fearful of advertiser and viewer backlash that they would air one or even two local
disclaimers during the broadcast. During one controversial episode Downey introduced his
gay brother, Tony Downey, to his studio audience and informed them Tony was
HIV positive. During the episode Downey stated he was afraid his audience would abandon him if they knew he had a gay brother, but then said he did not care.
The Washington Post wrote about him, "Suppose a maniac got hold of a talk show. Or need we suppose?"
David Letterman said, "I'm always amazed at what people will fall for. We see this every ten or twelve years, an attempt at this, and I guess from that standpoint I don't quite understand why everybody's falling over backwards over the guy."
Celebrity, cancellation, and bankruptcy The success of the show made Downey a pop culture celebrity, leading to appearances on
Saturday Night Live in 1988,
WrestleMania V in 1989 in which he traded insults with
Roddy Piper and
Brother Love on ''
Piper's Pit, and later roles in movies such as Predator 2 and Revenge of the Nerds III: The Next Generation''. The album's single, "Zip It!" (a catch-phrase from the TV show, used to quiet an irate guest), became a surprise hit on some college radio stations. However, over the course of the 1988–89 television season, his TV show suffered a decline in viewership, resulting in many markets downgrading its time slot; even flagship station WWOR moved Downey's program from its original 9:00 p.m. slot to 11:30 p.m. in the fall of 1988. Beginning in January 1989, the time slot immediately following Downey's program was given to the then-new
Arsenio Hall Show. Following Hall's strong early ratings, however, the two series swapped time slots several weeks later, thus relegating Downey to 12:30 a.m. in the number-one
television market. In late April 1989, Downey was involved in an incident in a
San Francisco International Airport restroom in which he claimed to have been attacked by
neo-Nazis who painted a
swastika on his face and attempted to shave his head. Some inconsistencies in Downey's account (e.g., the swastika was painted in reverse, suggesting that Downey had drawn it himself in a mirror), and the failure of the police to find supportive evidence, led many to suspect the incident was a
hoax and a ploy for attention. At the time of its cancellation, the show was airing on a total of 70 stations across the country, and its advertisers had been reduced primarily to "direct-response" ads (such as 900 chat-line and
phone sex numbers). In February 1990, Downey filed for
bankruptcy in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey.
Later career In 1990, Downey resurfaced on
CNBC with an interview program called
Showdown, which was followed by three attempted talk radio comebacks: first in 1992 on
Washington, D.C. radio station
WWRC; then in 1993 on
Dallas radio station
KGBS, where he would scream insults at his callers. He was also hired as the station's VP of Operations. The following year, he returned to CNBC with a short-lived television show,
Downey, which was also carried by some broadcast stations; in one episode, Downey claimed to have had a
psychic communication with
O. J. Simpson's murdered ex-wife,
Nicole Brown Simpson. It marked his return to the Cleveland market, where Downey had been a host for crosstown radio station
WERE in the early 1980s, prior to joining KFBK. This stint came shortly after the surgery for lung cancer that removed one of his lungs. At WTAM, Downey abandoned the confrontational schtick of his TV and previous radio shows, and conducted this program in a much more conversational and jovial manner. On August 30, 1997, Downey quit his WTAM show to focus on pursuing legal action against
Howard Stern. Downey had accused Stern of spreading rumors that he had resumed his smoking habit, to which publicist Les Schecter retorted, "He hasn't picked up a cigarette." His replacement was former WERE host Rick Gilmour. Following his death, news reports and obituaries incorrectly (according to the
Orange County Register) credited him as the composer of "
Wipe Out." As of 2008, Downey's official website (and others) continue to make this claim. Prior to Downey's death,
Spin in April 1989 had identified the
Wipe Out authorship as a myth.
Controversies In 1984, at KFBK radio, Downey used the word "Chinaman" while telling a joke. His use of the word upset portions of the sizable Asian community in
Sacramento. One Asian-American city councilman called for an apology and pressured the station for Downey's resignation. Downey refused to apologize and was forced to resign. Downey was sued for allegedly appropriating the words and music to his theme song from two songwriters. He was sued for $40 million after bringing then-stripper
Kellie Everts onto the show and calling her a "slut", a "pig", a "hooker", and a "tramp", saying she had
venereal diseases, and banging his pelvis against hers. In April 1988, he was
arraigned on criminal charges for allegedly attacking a gay guest on his show, in a never-aired segment. In another lawsuit, he was accused of slandering a newscaster (a former colleague), and of indecently exposing himself to her and slapping her. Downey punched
Stuttering John during an interview done for
The Howard Stern Show, while also shouting verbal insults at John, referring to him as an "uneducated slob". The situation then began to evolve into a brawl between the two until Downey had to be pulled off of John by security; the entire incident was caught on camera. When an
Inside Edition camera crew approached Downey in 1989 to question him about his involvement in an alleged business scam, Downey grabbed the boom mike and struck the
soundman's head with it. In his later years, Downey expressed remorse for some of the extreme theatrics of his TV show, However, he also said his show was of a higher quality than and not as "sleazy" as
Jerry Springer's
show. ==Personal life==