Captain Ed notes [1] Imus may be back very soon indeed…
I wonder if ABC got Al Sharpton’s endorsement on this decision [2]. Don Imus, whose racially-charged description of the Rutgers womens’ basketball team not only got him fired but started a backlash against rap music, has reached an accommodation with CBS that will bring him back to the airwaves on its rival station:
Don Imus has reached a settlement with CBS over his multimillion-dollar contract and is negotiating with WABC radio to resume his broadcasting career there, according to CBS and a person familiar with the negotiations.Imus and CBS Radio “have mutually agreed to settle claims that each had against the other regarding the Imus radio program on CBS,” the network said in a statement Tuesday. …
CBS confirmed only that the settlement had been reached. The person familiar with the talks told The Associated Press that Imus is taking steps to make a comeback with WABC. The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the details had not been announced, also said the deal with CBS calls for a “non-disparaging” agreement that forbids the parties from speaking negatively about each other.
So now ABC will have Imus, while CBS has … Boomer Esiason. WFAN, where Imus broadcasted his show, just announced that they have signed the former NFL star to Imus’ old slot. CBS wound up settling a $120 million lawsuit and only got a quarterback.
Imus shouldn’t have been fired in the first place. That kind of violaton traditionally gets a suspension, and a few weeks off without pay would have been just and fair.
The ex radio guy in my pipes up… Purely from the perspective of programming and format, Boomer Esiason (Along with Craig Carton WKXW’s current afternoon host in New Jersey) makes more sense on WFAN, than Imus ever did. Best guess from here is that the MSNBC gig will likely be staying with Joe Scarborough. Scott Fybush, over at NERW [3] thinks that the YES network (The New York Yankees inhouse system) may pick up the show, however. That, too, makes and a good deal of sense given that YES Has been picking up a simulcast of Mike and the Mad Dog, which is currently heard on WFAN every afternoon. the networking is already in place.
All that said, I think Ed makes a mistake in suggesting that Imus shouldn’t have been fired in the first place.
OK, granted, that kind of violation does get a suspension… usually. However, the incident in question could hardly be considered his first foray into the area on other side of the line. Further, to this day we’re still not familiar with all of the demands of good behavior that were laid down in his contract originally. I seem to recall there were some .
The whole affair surrounding Don Imus, comes down to a matter of balance. Personally, I think the man to be a blithering idiot. At the same time, I tend to agree, that when CBS finally got around are reacting, by definition of was an overreaction. Still, that overreaction was understandable, given that they’ve been biting their tounge for so many years with this guy. that’s the price you pay for not reacting correctly the first time, I suppose.
It will be interesting to see how Don Imus does in the somewhat chastened mode he will be operating in.
There are some additional details as regards signal coverage for each station, that get rather technical, but suffice it to say that WABC’s transmitter in Lodi, NJ has a rather dramatically better coverage with its 50,000 Watts then does WFAN with it’s 50,000 Watts. Mostly, that has to do with the fact that WFAN shares WCBS’s tower, out on High Island, through a diplexer. at least, when I’ve tuned up on New York City, which is fairly often, WABC is usually the strongest signal from the neighborhood on an order of scale.
All of these matters, I should think, will affect his ratings .