Kerry DoughertyThe clock radio crackled to life a few minutes after 6 Monday. Cutting through the fog of sleep, a familiar voice. One I'd been missing for eight months.
It was Don Imus. The I-Man. The Comeback Cowboy. It was like waking up with an old friend.
Broadcasting before an adoring audience in New York City, the cantankerous radio host was on the air again after being fired in April because of offensive comments he made about the Rutgers women's basketball team.
Back behind the mike, Imus was the same as he'd always been. Yet entirely different.
There had been speculation that Don Imus would use this show to blast away at the politicians, pundits and scribes who'd used his program to launch their books and their careers but who'd scurried away when the broadcaster got in trouble.
Imus wisely left these juicy targets for another day. Let 'em squirm.
Instead, he brought back stalwarts who'd remained loyal to the man in the Stetson, er, Resistol, even as they condemned his insulting statements.
Presidential hopefuls John McCain and Chris Dodd got airtime. So did historian Doris Kearns Goodwin and political strategists James Carville and Mary Matalin.
Imus promised that the show would be as clever and edgy as before. It wasn't.
The 67-year-old radio survivor was tentative. Not timid, exactly, but hesitant in the way lovers are after a nasty fight. You know how it goes. You bicker with your spouse, blurt out something hurtful you immediately regret, then apologize over and over. Eventually, your beloved forgives you, but you're both left bruised and wary.
So it was for Imus and his audience. We'll either live happily ever after with this ancient of the airwaves, or he'll go too far and be off the airwaves.
My money's on Don Imus. The smartest man in radio.
Imus wisely kept quiet during his out-of-work months and avoided making himself look insincere.
"I had said earlier in the week that I was a good person who had said a bad thing," he said Monday. "And I thought about how irrelevant that was... that doesn't give you a license to make any kind of remark you feel like making...
"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.
"And no one else will say anything on my program that will make anybody think I didn't deserve a second chance."
People change. If there's proof of that, it's Imus, who reminded listeners that he's a drug addict and drunk who's managed to stay sober for almost 20 years.
Imus can be heard on WTAR 850-AM. Station owner Bob Sinclair said he had no trouble selling ads for the show.
"He gets great guests to come on and talk about politics," Sinclair said of the key to Imus' success.
A friend of mine says the I-Man is an acquired taste. That he is. Once acquired, though, Imus is an addiction.
Fortunately, there were flashes of the impish Imus on this debut day.
"Dick Cheney is still a war criminal," he declared, as the audience whooped. "Hillary Clinton is still Satan. And I'm back on the radio!"
In the words of John McCain, "Welcome back, old friend."
Kerry Dougherty, (757) 446-2306,
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Doughtery's double standard
Ms. Doughtery made a big stink over Mr. Albert getting a job with the city of Norfolk because of his past criminal convictions (30 years ago), but at the same time welcomes Imus back less than 9 months after he cruelly hurled racist insults at the Rutgers women's basketball team. So in her eyes the black man is forever condemned, and the white guy gets a pass. Then she has the gall to lecture Paul Riddick on racist behavior. It seems that Mr. Doughtery wishes black people to just sit down, shut up and stay "in their place". While at the same time look the other way when whites like Imus, insult black people. I guess being white is like American Express, membership has its privlidges.
To be the prize.
Hey, don't you be making fun of pro wrasslin! I'd rather listen to Macrini and his side kick. WNIS could've replaced Sean Hannity w/ Imus.
Oh, how I wish people...
...knew the definition of racism. Those spouting racism are truly guilty of ignorance.
Old Imus Dinosaur Bones Recently Dug Up in South Dakota
Imus is a smug, arrogant old dinosaur. He may think he's bettering humanity because he's invited a few kids over to his ranch, but the reality is humanity would be much better off if Imus never existed. What a surprise you enjoy him so much, Kerry.
So let me get this straight...
If I say what Imus said, then I am a racist? I thought racism was holding back someone for nothing other than being a different race. So saying something that black folks created is racist? What white guy created the term that Imus said in order to hinder the advance of the black race. I feel sad that we are still talking about this topic. Instead of talking about the real problems, like black culture's embarassing treatment of it's own young men and women, we are talking about something a guy said on the radio to be funny. He used a term created by black folks to describe black folks! If Imus is a racist, am I a racist for supporting Wu-Tang or "Fitty"? They speak that way, right?
Not my first choice, but
to each his/her own! I much rather listen to Tony Macrini-WNIS 790-AM. However, if Tony has a guest or a topic that is not interesting to me, then Imus would do. I am pleased to read that Imus still recognizes the truth, that Cheney is still a war criminal!! Well, happy listening Kerry, but please, give Macrini a try now and then!
Wait a minute.....
Imus is not racist....he's just telling you all how he really feels! He is really a sweet misunderstood man.
Reward for racism
"If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, people it's a duck"!
IMUS
Only in America! How about giving the 13 year old from the inner city who knows nothing else but how his father struggled as a black man in America a second chance when he goes out and sell crack because he has seen the rapture of racist white America and he too want to live the American dream. Give him a second chance instead of putting him behind bars for 10 years!!! Give the woman who killed her abusive husband in self defense a second chance!! How dare this idiot say the things he said and still be embraced......he knew better! Racist like him will push the envelope every time. Let God give him a second chance! hopefully he will show you his true colors and have his ass off the air in no time. Racism is embedded in this monster-wake up
acquired taste?
did your friend also acquire a taste for McRibs? PBR? Spam?....
Hillary is Satan???
Did not know. Thanks, that explains a lot. Is Bill the anit-christ? Just trying to figure out the Revelations thing. Do you have any leads on the horsemen?
Lowbrow?
I've never understood the alure of Don Imus, Howard Stern, Pro Wrasslin, Jerry Springer, or that guy married to Connie Chung. I just don't get it. However; I suppose that there is an entertainment venue for almost everyone these days. God bless America.