TStecker1
10-09-2007, 08:12 AM
Shock jock Don Imus poised for Dec. return to radio
BY KAREN ANGEL, DAVID HINCKLEY and CORKY SIEMASZKO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Tuesday, October 9th 2007, 4:00 AM
RADIO JOCK Don Imus is poised to return to the airwaves less than a year after he was fired for racist remarks about the Rutgers women's basketball team.
The players he offended will be listening closely.
"If he shows signs of not having changed, we will register our displeasure," said the Rev. DeForest Soaries, who mediated the emotional face-to-face session where Imus apologized to the players for calling them "nappy-headed ho's."
"They're hoping he'll use his expanded platform for good," said Soaries, senior pastor of the First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens in Somerset, N.J. "This has caused them lots of problems they are still working through, but they have no malice in their hearts."
Imus, ousted in April from his nationally syndicated WFAN show by CBS Radio, will on Dec. 1 reportedly take over the morning slot at WABC occupied by Curtis Sliwa and Ron Kuby.
Reached by e-mail at his New Mexico ranch, Imus declined to discuss his future plans, saying, "Ha ha....nice try" when a reporter pressed him for details.
A potential roadblock to Imus' return was cleared in August when he and CBS quietly settled a multimillion-dollar breach of contract suit his lawyer Martin Garbus had threatened to file.
Imus reportedly got $20 million - about half the amount remaining on the five-year CBS contract he had signed just months earlier.
A radio revolutionary who pushed the envelope of propriety and taste with sometimes savage attacks on pop culture figures and powerful politicians, Imus was undone by an unwarranted attack on 10 young women whose only offense was playing basketball.
Reached at Rutgers, the coach of the university's Scarlet Knights women's basketball team said yesterday, "I just want to forget the issue and move on."
"He has every right to go back on the air," Vivian Stringer told the Daily News. "Our business is about basketball and that's what we're going to focus on."
Brittany Smith, 18, a freshman from Salem, N.J., who is trying out for the team, said she doesn't think Imus should be allowed anywhere near a microphone.
"I believe he shouldn't have gotten his job back because it gives him room to do it again," she said.
Reaction was mixed elsewhere on the Rutgers campus, where some students said Imus had been punished enough and others were far less forgiving - especially women who complain that Imus' slur against the ballplayers was a slur against them as well.
"It's still messed up what he said," said Anita Wilson, a 20-year-old junior from Woolwich Township, N.J. "If guys find out you go to Rutgers, you're a nappy-headed ho."
The Rev. Al Sharpton, who helped lead the charge to get Imus fired, said he wants to know if "there are any safeguards in his contract against his past behavior."
"If there are not, then we may approach advertisers and say, 'How can they support this,'" he said.
When Imus returns, it will be with longtime sidekick Charles McCord and producer Bernard McGuirk. It was McGuirk who made the initial "ho" reference that led to Imus' downfall.csiemaszko@nydailynews.com
How do you feel about the I-Man's return?
BY KAREN ANGEL, DAVID HINCKLEY and CORKY SIEMASZKO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Tuesday, October 9th 2007, 4:00 AM
RADIO JOCK Don Imus is poised to return to the airwaves less than a year after he was fired for racist remarks about the Rutgers women's basketball team.
The players he offended will be listening closely.
"If he shows signs of not having changed, we will register our displeasure," said the Rev. DeForest Soaries, who mediated the emotional face-to-face session where Imus apologized to the players for calling them "nappy-headed ho's."
"They're hoping he'll use his expanded platform for good," said Soaries, senior pastor of the First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens in Somerset, N.J. "This has caused them lots of problems they are still working through, but they have no malice in their hearts."
Imus, ousted in April from his nationally syndicated WFAN show by CBS Radio, will on Dec. 1 reportedly take over the morning slot at WABC occupied by Curtis Sliwa and Ron Kuby.
Reached by e-mail at his New Mexico ranch, Imus declined to discuss his future plans, saying, "Ha ha....nice try" when a reporter pressed him for details.
A potential roadblock to Imus' return was cleared in August when he and CBS quietly settled a multimillion-dollar breach of contract suit his lawyer Martin Garbus had threatened to file.
Imus reportedly got $20 million - about half the amount remaining on the five-year CBS contract he had signed just months earlier.
A radio revolutionary who pushed the envelope of propriety and taste with sometimes savage attacks on pop culture figures and powerful politicians, Imus was undone by an unwarranted attack on 10 young women whose only offense was playing basketball.
Reached at Rutgers, the coach of the university's Scarlet Knights women's basketball team said yesterday, "I just want to forget the issue and move on."
"He has every right to go back on the air," Vivian Stringer told the Daily News. "Our business is about basketball and that's what we're going to focus on."
Brittany Smith, 18, a freshman from Salem, N.J., who is trying out for the team, said she doesn't think Imus should be allowed anywhere near a microphone.
"I believe he shouldn't have gotten his job back because it gives him room to do it again," she said.
Reaction was mixed elsewhere on the Rutgers campus, where some students said Imus had been punished enough and others were far less forgiving - especially women who complain that Imus' slur against the ballplayers was a slur against them as well.
"It's still messed up what he said," said Anita Wilson, a 20-year-old junior from Woolwich Township, N.J. "If guys find out you go to Rutgers, you're a nappy-headed ho."
The Rev. Al Sharpton, who helped lead the charge to get Imus fired, said he wants to know if "there are any safeguards in his contract against his past behavior."
"If there are not, then we may approach advertisers and say, 'How can they support this,'" he said.
When Imus returns, it will be with longtime sidekick Charles McCord and producer Bernard McGuirk. It was McGuirk who made the initial "ho" reference that led to Imus' downfall.csiemaszko@nydailynews.com
How do you feel about the I-Man's return?