For the first 52 years of his life, he was Michael Alan Weiner, a Bronx-born botanist who documented the plant life of the South Seas, swam naked with Allen Ginsberg and told friends that he wanted to be the next Lenny Bruce.

Under that name, he wrote a total of 18 books with titles such as Herbs that Heal and developed a range of herbal teas and other products. As a nutritionist he was not afraid to challenge mainstream medicine, recommending huge doses of vitamin C to help fight Aids, for example, or coffee enemas as a cure for cocaine addiction.

Yet, even though Mr Weiner made a bit of a name for himself around the San Francisco Bay area, it wasn't until he invented a new name for himself that he really found his voice.

On March 21, 1994, his alter ego, Michael Savage, burst into life on KGO, a San Francisco talk radio station. According to his own slogan, he was "to the Right of Rush [Limbaugh] and to the Left of God".

His attacks on "anal rights", "Islamo-fascism" and a range of liberal causes quickly made Savage No 1 in the drivetime slot in the Bay Area. Within five years his loud-mouthed rants had won national syndication.

Now the shock jock has an estimated 10 million listeners a week, making him one of the most influential voices on the American Right. Guests on his Savage Nation show have included Dick Cheney, during his time as Vice-President.

He has also found time to write another half a dozen books under his new psedonym, including Liberalism is a Mental Disorder and The Political Zoo. His 2003 work The Savage Nation: Saving America from the Liberal Assault on Our Borders, Language and Culture reached the top spot of the New York Times bestseller lists.

Although both Michael Alan Weiner and Michael Savage were named on this week's Home Office "least wanted" list of 22 people banned from entering Britain because of their views, it was the shock-jock Savage, not the herbalist Weiner – who got married in a rainforest and gave his first child the middle name Goldencloud – who was the clear target.

Justifying his inclusion on the list, Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, said that the radio host was “someone who has fallen into the category of fomenting hatred, of such extreme views and expressing them in such a way that it is actually likely to cause inter-community tension or even violence if that person were allowed into the country”.

For his part, Savage professed himself shocked by news that he has been listed alongside Nazi skinheads and "Hamas murderers who kill Jews on buses" and said that he would sue the Home Secretary for defamation.

He was also at a loss to explain why his name should ever have been included on the Home Office list, given that he has no public profile in the UK, had not the country in more than 25 years and had no plans to do so.

Among those criticising the decision to list Savage was Bill Bowman, a New Jersey journalist and author of Savage Lies: The Half-Truths, Distortions and Outright Lies of a Right-Wing Blowhard.

"Jacqui Smith is an idiot. With a few keystrokes of her computer, she has managed to do what practically no one else has accomplished, much less tried. She has made a victim of Michael Savage," Bowman wrote on his weblog.

"Lady, you have no idea how large a self-righteous pity party you have unleashed."

The British list was also criticised by the Council for American-Islamic Relations, which called for an advertiser boycott of Savage's show last year after he made disparaging comments about the Koran.

"As a matter of principle, we don't support such bans," Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the council, told the San Francisco Chronicle.

"Usually, these types of things just give people like this publicity," he said. I don't think Savage will be too upset. It will give him something to talk about on his show for the next six months. 'I was banned in England.' "

Savage agreed. "If I didn't have an audience yesterday, I will have one today," he said.

Times Recommends

• Please help: maimed children of war want their lives back
• Cabal seizes diamond riches to buy power
• White House gatecrashers got to the president