Don Imus returning to radio, television
NEW YORK – Will Don Imus be defiant or contrite? Will he mock his skeptics while making his triumphant return to radio Monday?
Or will he muzzle his mouth?
“That question is part of the drama of his re-emergence,” said Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers magazine, an industry trade journal. “Imus faces some choices.”
Imus isn’t talking, yet, but it’s safe to say radio’s best-known curmudgeon will have lots to say when his show kicks off at 6 a.m. EST Monday on WABC-AM and other Citadel Broadcasting Corp. stations around the country, ending his nearly eight-month banishment from the air.
The morning show will be simulcast on cable’s RFD-TV, owned by the Rural Media Group Inc., and rebroadcast on radio in the evenings.
Monday’s four-hour premiere will be broadcast from Town Hall in Times Square, where $100 tickets were sold to benefit the Imus Ranch for Kids With Cancer. After its debut, the Imus spectacle will be on 6-9 a.m. weekdays, from a studio across the street from Madison Square Garden.
Not much is known about the show’s format, other than at least one black person will participate regularly, along with longtime newsreader Charles McCord. Imus, through a spokesman, declined to comment.
Whether this will temper his staunchest critics, like the Rev. Al Sharpton, is unclear. Sharpton’s spokeswoman said the civil rights leader wasn’t commenting. In Boston on Friday, a group of black community leaders protested a local station’s plan to air the Imus program.
MSNBC and then CBS Radio jettisoned Imus in April after he called the Rutgers University women’s basketball players “nappy-headed hos.”
Imus’ nemesis, Howard Stern, said in a recent interview that his acerbic competitor’s career had peaked.
“At this point, I don’t think he’s very relevant,” Stern said. “People will tune out within a week. I defy you to listen. It’s like a rodeo – you know, see how long you can ride a bull? See how long you can keep listening to Imus.”
The people who helped orchestrate the Imus comeback believe he’ll succeed and say he’s learned his lesson since the Rutgers debacle.
“I don’t have any doubt on his future,” said Phil Boyce, WABC-AM program director. “He’ll obviously be wiser, smarter and a bit more careful. He’s learned from this. I’m not concerned that he’ll have a repeat.”
RFD reaches nearly 30 million homes, but with Imus on board the 24-hour cable network hopes to boost that number to 50 million over the next two years.