Don Imus Fired, Imus In The Morning, CBS, Satellite Radio

IMUS: I'LL BE BACK

Does The I-Man Have A Radio Future?







Taking a cue from the Terminator himself, Don Imus intends to return to the airwaves at some point in the future. But where and how?

According to the AP, satellite radio might be an option for the I-Man:

Opie & Anthony were fired from WNEW-FM in New York in 2002 for an on-air sexual bit but found new life on satellite radio two years later. CBS Radio now simulcasts a version of their show.

Experts said Imus could move to satellite. XM said it had not reached out to Imus. Sirius would not comment. But "all the bad boys of radio are on satellite, where they can say what they want," said Michael Burgi of MediaWeek.

Tracey Riese, president of T.G. Riese and Associates, a branding and public-relations firm in New York, wasn't so sure about an Imus comeback. "This was a terrible mistake that you almost cannot recover from," she said.

For his part, Imus made it clear Thursday night that he doesn't intend to fade out quietly. He called in to the Conway and Whitman show on Los Angeles radio station KLSX-FM and complained that he had been fired while he was doing a charity show. "I plan to be on the radio," he said. "I plan to work again. I'm not going to sit around like an old woman."

CBS initially had suspended Imus for two weeks, but President and Chief Executive Officer Leslie Moonves said his network reconsidered "the effect language like this has on our young people, particularly young women of color trying to make their way in this society."

The Rev. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson met with Moonves on Thursday to demand Imus' removal.

Jackson called the firing "a victory for public decency. No one should use the public airwaves to transmit racial or sexual degradation."

Said Sharpton: "He says he wants to be forgiven. I hope he continues in that process. But we cannot afford a precedent established that the airways can commercialize and mainstream sexism and racism."

The young Rutgers women targeted by Imus included a class valedictorian and a musical prodigy. When the players tearfully responded to Imus' comments this week, it only reinforced how undeserving they were of his scorn.

"All of our accomplishments were lost. ... We were stripped of this moment by the degrading comments," sophomore forward Heather Zurich said.

Even on satellite radio, however, Imus faces the same problem: where is the revenue potential? Would he draw listeners?

Imus lacked ratings, but had plenty of advertisers. Now, he's lost the latter, probably for good.

Beyond that, he turns 67 this year, which wouldn't in itself be a problem except for the fact that he sounds twenty years older than that.

It's hard to say for sure where Imus will go from here, but if that oft- mentioned charity work is so important, perhaps he should consider it as a full- time career.


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