Don Imus Back On The Airwaves

Don Imus returned to the airwaves Monday eight months after he was fired for racist and sexist remarks about the Rutgers women's basketball team, introducing a new cast that included two black comedians.

Imus' lineup of guests featured two presidential hopefuls, Democrat Chris Dodd and Republican John McCain. As he did several times in the days after the episode, Imus condemned his controversial remark last spring and said he had learned his lesson.

"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.

Every time he would get upset about the uproar in the media, Imus said, "I would remind myself that if I hadn't said what I said, then we wouldn't be having this discussion."

Again, Imus apologized to the basketball players and called the ensuing furor a "life-changing experience."

He talked about what it was like 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' 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 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."

"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 said. "And no one else will say anything else on my program that will make anyone think that I didn't deserve a second chance."

While saying he had learned his lesson, he added - to applause from the live audience at Manhattan's Town Hall - "The program is not going to change."

His debut, on WABC-AM, completed a comeback that seemed improbable at the height of the furor 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.

Shortly after the new program started at 6 a.m., Imus introduced the cast, which included two black comedians, Karith Foster and Tony Powell. Powell did the sports segment of the show. Also returning was Bernard McGuirk, the producer who instigated the Rutgers comment and was fired as well.

Imus' guests on Monday's show included historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, Dodd and McCain, and political analysts James Carville and Mary Matalin.

While Imus pledged to use his new show to talk about race relations, 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."

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.

"You're still my choice. Today. And for the foreseeable future," Imus told McCain.

McCain jokingly said that Imus' support meant more to him than the polls, which show him in the single digits, lagging far behind frontrunners Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani.

"Thanks for having me on," McCain said upon signing off. "Welcome back, old friend."

An hour before the show began, more than a dozen fans - all of them white - waited outside Town Hall for the sold-out show. The $100 tickets benefited the Imus Ranch for Kids With Cancer.

David Walter, a fan from Kansas City, said he thought the reaction to Imus' remarks was "overblown" and a "double standard."

"It was a comedy context, a comedy show. He said something that was supposed to be funny and everybody beat him over the head with it," Walter said.

Not far away, Anthony Royal, who is black, was making a delivery in the Times Square neighborhood.

"I don't think it's a good thing," Royal said. "I think that he made a bad statement."

Imus' 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 from CBS Radio amid a national debate over his remark, the Rev. 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. Sharpton planned a news conference later Monday.

The prospect of Imus' return had outraged critics including the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Organization for Women.

Just before his dismissal, Imus 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.

Imus replaces the morning team of Curtis Sliwa and Ron Kuby on the Citadel Broadcasting-owned station. WABC-AM is already home to several syndicated hosts: Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Mark Levin.

Citadel owns more than 240 radio stations around the country.