Another Imus Update [Greg Pollowitz]
He’ll be on TV, too:
Don Imus is hanging his familiar cowboy hat in a new television home: RFD-TV.
The radio personality, who returns to the airwaves Dec. 3 on WABC-AM, will debut the same day on the seven-year-old cable and satellite television station that caters to viewers with homes on the range, the Rural Media Group, Inc., announced Wednesday.
The radio show will be simulcast on weekdays from 6-9 a.m., and will be rebroadcast from 6-9 p.m. each evening, said Patrick Gottsch, founder and president of the Rural Media Group. The program will also be available to RFD’s nearly 30 million homes through on-demand services, Gottsch said.
Imus signed a five-year agreement with RFD, Gottsch said. An e-mail sent to Imus’ lawyer for comment was not immediately returned Wednesday.
Link: http://media.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDQyZjY1ZGM1ODVmMjNmNDZiMTcwZDNjZmIyMzE4NmU=
Crucially, many of Mr. Imus’ big-name guests from the worlds of politics and media appear ready to welcome him back with open arms, unconcerned about the inevitable charges that by returning to the scene of the crime, they’re accessories to buddy-buddy bigotry. Indeed, Mr. Carville—not a man known for turning down opportunities for publicity—told The Observer that he’s already locked in as a guest on Mr. Imus’ first day back.
The New Yorker’s Ken Auletta was similarly unequivocal. “I said I wouldn’t go on at the time of the controversy,” he told The Observer. “But I wouldn’t make that same claim today. Because I think people deserve second chances. If you believe in rehabilitation, if you don’t believe in the death penalty, you believe that some people can be reformed and changed.”...
And even after his fall from grace, Mr. Imus would appear to be a safe bet on that score. Mr. Boyce said that a number of national advertisers had already lined up behind Mr. Imus, though he declined to name any. “I can tell you from talking to our sales force that’s out pitching the show, I don’t think they have had a great deal of resistance,” he said...
According to Mr. Boyce, for the past couple of weeks since the deal was inked, Mr. Imus, who declined to be interviewed for this story, has been micromanaging every facet of the soon-to-launch program, from the sound of the jingles to the look of the clock, to the frequency and timing of the commercial breaks. “He’s intimately involved with these decisions,” said Mr. Boyce. “This isn’t a guy who is sitting back with his feet propped up letting other people put this show on the air.”
One of Mr. Imus’ priorities seems to be bringing back his old gang. Charles McCord, Mr. Imus’ longtime on-air sidekick, will return to the show, according to Mr. Boyce. And Bernard McGuirk, the producer who, during an on-air call, goaded Mr. Imus into making his fateful comments about the Rutgers team, is rumored to have an off-air role—though Mr. Boyce wouldn’t comment on it.