Return To Radio and Television
On July 8, 2007, the Drudge Report indicated that Imus would return to the air before the 2008 presidential election. The New York Post reported on July 16, 2007, that Imus was in search of a black comedian to join the show upon its return to help cushion racially insensitive comments he might say on the air. The same paper reported on July 27, 2007, that CBS was close to a buyout of Imus's contract. The report also said Imus's representatives had contacted Buckley Broadcasting, Citadel Broadcasting, and Clear Channel Communications. On August 14, Imus reached a settlement with CBS Radio over his contract, leaving him free to pursue other media opportunities.
On November 1, Citadel announced they had agreed to what was reportedly a multi-year syndication contract with Imus. The new Imus in the Morning program would be distributed nationally by Citadel Media, and would be based at Citadel-owned WABC in New York City, beginning in December. On November 14, the New York Times reported that Imus had agreed to terms with cable network RFD-TV to air a video simulcast of the new radio program. Charles McCord and Bernard McGuirk have joined Imus in the new version of the show. On December 3, Imus returned to the airwaves on ABC Radio and RFD-TV. When asked about Imus's return to radio, Al Sharpton said in an interview, "We’ll monitor him; I’m not saying I’m going to throw a banquet for him and say welcome home. He has the right to make a living, but because he has such a consistent pattern with this we are going to monitor him to make sure he doesn’t do it again." On April 4, 2008, Jesse Jackson appeared on "Imus in the Morning" to discuss the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King—a booking that would have seemed impossible nearly a year before, when Reverend Jackson joined 50 demonstrators in Chicago demanding that "Imus Must Go." Many media commentators declared Don Imus's rehabilitation complete.
In 2008, Little Richard appeared as a guest artist on "The Imus Ranch Record," to help raise funds to benefit sick and dying children, as well as to debunk the notion that Imus was racist. In September of that year, Imus signed a multi-year deal with Fox Business Network to simulcast his radio show Imus in the Morning. The program airs Monday through Friday from 6–9 AM ET and was first broadcast on October 5, 2009.
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Famous quotes containing the words return to, return, radio and/or television:
“I got my first clear view of Ktaadn, on this excursion, from a hill about two miles northwest of Bangor, whither I went for this purpose. After this I was ready to return to Massachusetts.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The mother as a social servant instead of a home servant will not lack in true mother duty.... From her work, loved and honored though it is, she will return to her home life, the child life, with an eager, ceaseless pleasure, cleansed of all the fret and fraction and weariness that so mar it now.”
—Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935)
“Now they can do the radio in so many languages that nobody any longer dreams of a single language, and there should not any longer be dreams of conquest because the globe is all one, anybody can hear everything and everybody can hear the same thing, so what is the use of conquering.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“There was a girl who was running the traffic desk, and there was a woman who was on the overnight for radio as a producer, and my desk assistant was a woman. So when the world came to an end, we took over.”
—Marya McLaughlin, U.S. television newswoman. As quoted in Women in Television News, ch. 3, by Judith S. Gelfman (1976)