Waiting For Imus

James Brady

More From James Brady Don Imus Related Quotes CDL 2.23 - 0.06

Much like Beckett's tramps and their patient vigil for Godot, I've been waiting for Imus. Or rather, for his return after seven months of exile.

His sabbatical, as New York weekly the Observer politely puts it, ends this coming Monday morning at dawn. Imus and his madcap troupe will be back in morning drive time on Citadel Broadcasting's (nyse: CDL - news - people ) flagship WABC in New York and a scattering of other stations, the beginnings of what is expected to be a national syndication and eventually, if not sooner, a TV spinoff.

I don't know if they measure such things, but I expect this one will draw the biggest audience ever for an AM station show airing at 6 in the morning.

Imus, as far as I'm concerned, is the single most intelligent, sensitive and occasionally orneriest broadcaster there has ever been, the opposite poles of his personality as disparate as his moods. He said something both brutal and stupid last April, and there were some who stood with him and others who didn't. I think most of us are happy that his period in the wilderness is now coming to an end.

I am especially happy that Bernie McGuirk is back. He never had the millions Imus had, and there were school bills to pay. I called ABC the other day to ask if he was going to be on the air again or reduced to producer/writer. I asked for the PR person. "There isn't one." Then give me the GM. "Can I answer your question?" the young woman said. Sure. "Well, it's the whole cast of the same characters."

Would McGuirk be on-air or producing only? She didn't know that. She didn't sound like the kind of person who would lie to a reporter, so I thanked her and concluded ABC has some damned nice people answering phones over there.

Chuck McCord, well, he's back. I talked to him after the whole mess began, when he kept his mouth shut and the others didn't. Now he and Imus are back together again, and I'm glad of it. And not too happy about the people who used to be on Imus in the Morning and then recoiled. And now some of them say, "Well, we'll be back."

Others are still waxing pious. Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore." A few are in proximate peril of rupturing themselves with their anguished indecision. All I know is, I miss the guy and am grateful for his book plugs.

Aw, to hell. Whom am I to lecture or preach? Some months ago, I wrote that Imus would be back, somewhere, somehow, and now he is and let's see what happens after this. The Observer story said James Carville will be back. I know Kinky Friedman will be there. None of the Newsweek people will. The magazine's ruling, not that of the individual writers and editors.

Tim Russert told the Observer he'd changed his mind, that now he believes in rehabilitation. Then again, he might have to check with NBC. Equivocation? Or honest uncertainty? As to those like Carville who don't shilly-shally, is this "buddy-buddy bigotry," as the Observer suggests, or old-fashioned loyalty?

Clarence Page is quoted as disagreeing with other black journalists who want Imus banned. "You make a martyr out of him. It's not worth it. He's not worth it." Carville says, "I defend the speaker. Not the speech." And Friedman cracks, "God created one perfect man. His name was Al Sharpton."

What about Imus' favorite triumvirate at The New York Times--Mo Dowd, Frank Rich, Tom Friedman? Will they return to the fold? Will the paper rule on it? Will we hear Ken Auletta again on the Imus show? Back in 1998, Auletta profiled him for The New Yorker, opening with this passage, "The Don is not pleased when visitors blather. He holds grudges, he is personally insulted when companies don't reward his favorite charity, and if don't amuse him, you're whacked. Every morning he is quick to let loose on "wimps," "jerks," "weasels" and "punks."

All this nine years ago was in very good humor on Auletta's part. But now? That's part of the tension building as Dec. 3 nears. Who's with the guy, who's against him? And who just doesn't give a damn?"

Some love him, some don't, and then there's self-interest. Why couldn't Imus have come back just one month earlier? When I needed him. For years I've done a first interview with Imus on every new publication date. This November he didn't have a show. I sent producer McGuirk a copy of the new one with a wry note about this being just for his own entertainment. Since he had no show to book, there was no one out there for me to "suck up" to.

And now? He's back on the air. Hey, Imus, I've got another lousy book to pitch.

Or as WABC's admirably bottom-line operations manager, Phil Boyce, puts it, "There's a lot of money to be made there. And we're in the business of making money."