Don Imus, the grouchy 67-year-old disc jockey, returns to radio Monday morning after an 8-month banishment for making racially charged remarks. New York’s conservative talk radio station WABC-AM has hired Imus to fill its 6-9 morning slot with the “Imus in the Morning” program and like his old show on WFAN, the new show will be nationally syndicated and have a televised simulcast. Except not on MSNBC, the cable news network where Imus resided in the mornings from 1996 until April of this year. So what will be Imus’ television address for the next 5 years? No, not Fox News, but good guess. It’s RFD-TV, or Rural Free Delivery TV, “rural America’s most important network.” And if you’ve never heard of it, it might be because the network isn’t carried on either of America’s major cable providers. Only on satellite, what most of rural America has anyway, and a couple of lesser-known hillbilly cable systems. Suffice it to say, there’s no RFD-TV in New York City, where Imus will be taping his live radio show. Perhaps MSNBC, a more left-leaning cable station, was a bit too “urban” for the cowboy hat wearing Imus. It’s a safe bet that all those people who skewered the I-Man in April for calling the Rutgers women’s basketball team a bunch of “nappy-headed hos” won’t be tuning in to WABC, the radio home of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, or to RFD-TV which features programs called “Classic Tractors,” “Cowboy Church” and “The Cattle Show.” Not only am I not joking, but all these shows are in primetime. While Imus has made a career of using racist, anti-Semitic, sexist and homophobic language during his broadcasts — in 1998 he referred to CNN’s Howard Kurtz as “that boner-nosed… beanie-wearing little Jew boy” — it is unclear to many whether the reemergence of the shock jock will bring a new, contrite, tamer Imus or whether he will merely transport his disregard for political correctness to a new studio and a new set of broadcasters. Because if he plans on picking up where he left off, his new platforms are perfect for this. His new radio station WABC affords its hosts extreme leniency with regard to racism (Limbaugh) and even drug use (Limbaugh), both terms very familiar to Don Imus. As for his new television station, well I’m certain Al Sharpton isn’t watching, unless he tunes into the “Gaither Gospel Hour” on Thursdays at 7pm. The average viewer of RFD-TV is over 55 years of age, lives on a farm or ranch, drives a pickup truck and owns more hogs than any other type of livestock. It looks like Imus has found himself a perfect new home.
•AP: Don Imus’ Return to Radio Sparks Protest
•RFD-TV Homepage