Don Imus returned
to the airwaves Monday eight months after he was fired
for a racially charged remark about the Rutgers University
women's basketball team, and his new
program introduced a new cast that included two
black comedians.
As he's
done several times already, Imus condemned the
controversial remark he made last spring and said he
had learned his lesson. He apologized again to the
basketball players and called the ensuing furor a
''life-changing experience.''
''I didn't see
any point in going on some sort of Larry King tour to
offer a bunch of lame excuses for making an
essentially reprehensible remark about innocent people who
did not deserve to be made fun of,'' he said Monday during
his debut on WABC-AM. ''I will never say anything in
my lifetime that will make any of these young women at
Rutgers regret or feel foolish that they accepted my
apology and forgave me,'' he added. ''And no one else will
say anything else on my program that will make anyone
think that I didn't deserve a second chance.''
His debut Monday
completed a comeback that seemed improbable at the
height of the uproar last spring over his calling the
players ''nappy-headed hos.'' CBS Radio fired him on
April 12, pulling the plug on his Imus in the
Morning program that had aired on more than 70
stations and the MSNBC cable network.
Imus's lineup of
guests featured two presidential hopefuls, Republican
John McCain and Democrat Chris Dodd. McCain, who called into
the show, answered questions about gays in the
military (he said he would continue the ''don't ask,
don't tell'' policy unless military leaders said it
wasn't working), the recent surge in Iraq (he said it was
doing the job), and the 2008 presidential election.
''Thanks for
having me on,'' McCain said upon signing off. ''Welcome
back, old friend.''
An hour before
the 6 a.m. show began, more than a dozen fans -- all of
them white -- waited outside the Town Hall theater for the
sold-out show. The $100 tickets benefited the Imus
Ranch for Kids With Cancer.
Shortly after the
program began, Imus introduced his new cast, including
two black comedians, Karith Foster and Tony Powell.
Returning was Bernard McGuirk, the producer who
instigated the Rutgers comment and was fired as well.
On the air, Imus
said that every time he would get upset about getting
fired, ''I would remind myself that if I hadn't said what I
said, then we wouldn't be having this discussion.'' He
also talked about when he and his wife, Deirdre, met
with the team, their coach and some of the players'
parents and grandparents, for four hours the night he was
fired from CBS Radio. The team members accepted Imus's
apology that evening.
''I was there to
save my life. I had already lost my job,'' he said.
''They said they would never forget and I said I would never
forget.''
He talked about
his experience over the past 20 years as a recovering
alcoholic and drug addict and said that participating in
recovery programs had given him the opportunity to be
''a better person ... to have a better life.'' While
saying he had learned his lesson, he stated, ''The
program is not going to change" -- to applause from the live
audience.
His guests also
included historian Doris Kearns Goodwin and political
analysts James Carville and Mary Matalin.
Imus pledged to
use his new show to talk about race relations, but he
added, "Other than that, not much has changed. Dick Cheney
is still a war criminal, Hillary Clinton is still
Satan, and I'm back on the radio.''
Imus's
resurrection is just the latest in his four-decade career.
The veteran shock jock has emerged intact in the past
after assorted firings, bad publicity, and a
disastrous appearance at a Washington dinner before
President Clinton.
Just three months
after he was fired, Reverend Al Sharpton, one of the
strongest voices calling for his firing, said Imus had a
right to make a living and could return to radio. He
reiterated that view in a news conference Monday.
''Imus was fired.
The move to hold people accountable was won,'' Sharpton
said. ''Whether he can, in the course of time, redeem
himself, time will tell.''
The prospect of
Imus's return had outraged critics including the National
Association of Black Journalists and the National
Organization for Women.
Just before his
dismissal, Imus had signed a five-year $40 million
contract with CBS. He threatened a $120 million lawsuit
after he was fired, but he settled in August for an
undisclosed amount of money.
In addition to
being aired on the Citadel Broadcasting-owned
station, WABC, the new program will air on four other
Citadel stations and 17 other stations owned by other
companies, said Phil Boyce, program director of WABC.
Other stations are expected to sign up to carry Imus in
the coming weeks, Boyce said.
The show also
will be simulcast on cable's RFD-TV, owned by the Rural
Media Group Inc. 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. (AP)