Immensely popular? Not even close.
http://radio.about.com/b/a/165454.htm
I don’t think that what Imus did was so terrible (certainly compared to Howard Stern, who I will absolutely never listen to again), but people are in a punitive mood and no one’s safe.
He's still a major player at Clear Channel (CBS). If his ratings were so horrible, they would have let him go years ago. They didn't fire him. They gave him two weeks off (calling it a "suspension"). The network plays his reruns all the time anyway. He is at his ranch for sick kids all summer with his wife. I never saw a radio guy work so little.
He'll do this "suspension" standing on his head. He's pissed off so many people over the years, it's hard to keep count. He constantly tries to ruin and bate politicians on his show to destroy their carreers. There is a certain element that loves that cr*p. Kind of like the morons that would show up to watch an execution.
This is all about the almighty dollar. If anything, this whole deal will generate some serious buzz for his show.