Imus returns to air 8 months after firing

His producer who was also fired returned as well.

By CRISTIAN SALAZAR

ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

NEW YORK — Don Imus returned to the airwaves Monday eight months after he was fired for a racially charged remark about the Rutgers women’s basketball team, and introduced a new cast that included two black comedians.

Imus’ lineup of guests featured two presidential hopefuls, Democrat Chris Dodd and Republican John McCain. As he did several times in the days after the episode, Imus condemned his controversial remark last spring and said he had learned his lesson.

“I didn’t see any point in going on some sort of ‘Larry King’ tour to offer a bunch of lame excuses for making an essentially reprehensible remark about innocent people who did not deserve to be made fun of,” he said Monday during his debut on WABC-AM.

Again, Imus apologized to the basketball players and called3 the ensuing furor a “life-changing experience.”

“I will never say anything in my lifetime that will make any of these young women at Rutgers regret or feel foolish that they accepted my apology and forgave me,” he said. “And no one else will say anything else on my program that will make anyone think that I didn’t deserve a second chance.”

His debut Monday completed a comeback that seemed improbable at the height of the uproar last spring over his calling the players “nappy-headed hos.” CBS Radio fired him April 12, pulling the plug on his “Imus In the Morning” program that had aired on more than 70 stations and the MSNBC cable network.

McCain, who called into the show, answered questions about gays in the military, the recent surge in Iraq and the 2008 presidential election.

An hour before the 6 a.m. show began, more than a dozen fans waited outside the Town Hall theater for the sold-out show. The $100 tickets benefited the Imus Ranch for Kids With Cancer.

Shortly after the program began, Imus introduced his new cast, including two black comedians. Returning was Bernard McGuirk, the producer who instigated the Rutgers comment and was fired as well.

While saying he had learned his lesson, he added — to applause from the live audience — “The program is not going to change.”

His guests also included historian Doris Kearns Goodwin and political analysts James Carville and Mary Matalin.

While Imus pledged to use his new show to talk about race relations, he added: “Other than that, not much has changed. Dick Cheney is still a war criminal, Hillary Clinton is still Satan and I’m back on the radio.”