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Don Imus Back on the Air

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[December 03, 2007]  NEW YORK (AP) -- 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, introducing a new cast that included two black comedians.

As he did several times in the days after his comments, Imus condemned his remarks 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 the debut on WABC-AM.

He said that every time he would get upset about how he was treated -- he was fired from CBS Radio and MSNBC -- "I would remind myself that if I hadn't said what I said, then we wouldn't be having this discussion."

Imus also apologized again to the players.

"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."

While saying he had learned his lesson, he added
-- to applause from the live audience at Manhattan's Town Hall -- "The program is not going to change."

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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 on 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.

His guests on Monday's show included historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, Sens. John McCain and Chris Dodd, and political analysts James Carville and Mary Matalin.

Shortly after the program started at 6 a.m., Imus introduced his new cast, including two black comedians, Karith Foster and Tony Powell.

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."

[Associated Press; By CRISTIAN SALAZAR]

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