Don Imus Returns to Radio Airwaves
December 3, 2007

Eight months after being fired from his job on MSNBC and CBS Radio for his remarks about the Rutgers women's basketball team, veteran shock-jock radio host Don Imus, 67, returned to the airwaves on Monday. Imus, who made nation wide headlines back in April 2007 for calling the female Rutgers basketball players "nappy headed hos," returned to radio with a new set of co-hosts that included African American comedians Tony Powell and Karith Foster. After a year of scandal, Don Imus returned to air, telling listeners he has changed his ways and is looking to turn over a new leaf when it comes to racial debate on radio. As E Online reports, Imus revealed he wants to open dialogue and begin "an ongoing discussion about race relations in this country."

Although Don Imus came under fire for his racial remarks directed at the Rutgers players, Imus has had a long-running history of helping charitable organizations. In keeping with that tradtion, Imus donated all proceeds from his comeback event, which went for $100 a head at a special broadcast at Manhattan's Town Hall, to his Imus Ranch in New Mexico, which aids children stricken with cancer.

While Imus didn't let politicians off the verbal hook during his broadcast, taking jabs at Dick Cheney and Hilary Clinton, Don Imus set the record straight after months of reflection away from the job, "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... And no one else will say anything else on my program that will make anyone think that I didn't deserve a second chance."

Despite taking a hit in the media and in the public eye, Don Imus had big name support from a number of callers who dialed in to the comeback broadcast, including Republican presidential candidate John Mcain, Democrat Christopher Dodd, and other political names such as James Carville and Mary Matalin. After a troubled year, however, it appears Don Imus has a new perspective on life to make a positive change. As E Online reveals further, Imus is looking to the future to make a difference, "People don't want to have this conversation about race relations, so, out of this idiotic thing that I said, a lot of good can come, because I'll have a huge audience and an enormously influential audience."