SAN BERNARDINO — Professional contrarian Don Imus’ voice is on its way back to the Inland Empire.
Dennis Baxter, general manager and morning show host for KCAA radio and a San Bernardino councilman, said he inked a deal to bring Imus back to inland radio on Thursday.
“Imus brings his own firestorm with him,” Baxter said.
Imus’ show is slated to return to KCAA-AM (1050) from 9 to 11 a.m. on Sept. 1. The show is set to continue broadcasting in that time slot on weekdays.
Imus, who was born in Riverside, generated a surge of negative publicity in 2007 for calling members of the Rutgers University women’s basketball team “nappy- headed ho’s” on his program.
CBS Radio fired Imus for those remarks after his words became a national news story and a source of debate over whether the always-brash Imus was simply being rude or opening a window into deeper held racism. Imus’ show was also simulcast on MSNBC, which also fired him.
At the time, Baxter and KCAA did not shy away from the controversy. In April 2007, he and Westside Story newspaper publisher Wallace Allen co-hosted a rebroadcast of the Imus broadcast that sparked the national discussion on whether Imus deserved to lose his broadcasting gig or should be allowed to remain on the air.
Allen, who also has a show on KCAA called “Empire Talks Back,” said the reaction to Imus’ words proves that commentators must sometimes weather criticism for their remarks.
However, he doesn’t mind having Imus back on Inland Empire airwaves.
“I don’t want anyone to censor him because I don’t want anyone to censor me,” Allen said.
In April 2007, when the Imus controversy was still hot, Baxter opined that Imus, who apologized for his comments, deserved a suspension but that firing went too far. His station continued to rebroadcast Imus shows until CBS Radio’s legal team stepped in.
CBS filed a federal lawsuit that claimed KCAA violated the copyright laws by broadcasting unauthorized Imus reruns. The local station and CBS settled the case.
Beyond the Inland Empire, Imus and his career survived. The caustic commentator found a new home with ABC radio, and is advertised as “coming soon” to KCAA.
Imus’ iconoclasm extends to his own life. His official biography notes that he graduated high school “with no honors and no skills” and emerged from 12 years of public schooling lacking any formal education.
In 16 months since Imus bad-mouthed the Rutgers players, Baxter thinks “we (society) have done a lot of healing” and the anger that followed Imus’ remarks has died down.
For now, he’s not expecting Imus’ return to generate a backlash against KCAA.
“I don’t foresee it, but we’ll take it as it comes,” Baxter said.
