Starting Monday, December 3, Don Imus will take over the morning slot on WABC, New York. The show will air from 6am til 10am and will also be nationally syndicated. Returning with Imus will be veteran newsman and Imus sidekick, Charles McCord.
Imus has spent over 30 years on New York morning radio before being fired earlier this year after a ridiculous blowup over an insulting quip about a local women’s sports team. The plans by WABC owner Citadel Broadcasting to syndicate the show to possibly 20 or more stations means this move will impact morning hosts nationwide.
Radio writer and analyst Brian Maloney, of The Radio Equalizer, examines who the potentially displaced hosts may be. Of course, New York’s Curtis Sliwa and Ron Kuby who ironically bested Imus in ratings, will almost certainly be looking for a new radio home. Some of the other hosts across the country include KSFO’s Lee Rodgers and Melanie Morgan, KABC’s Doug McIntyre and WJR’s Paul W Smith.
Over the next month we’ll see how this will all shake out. It will take longer than that for Citadel to discover if they did the the math properly. Meanwhile Imus will be raking in a reported five to eight million a year from the deal, and more if he can put together a tv simulcast deal. That is all on top of the estimated 10 million settlement with CBS. Now that was my kind of paid vacation.
