By Don Jeffrey
April 12 (Bloomberg) -- CBS Radio fired talk-show host Don Imus after his racially charged comments sparked protests from civil-rights leaders and advertisers.
CBS Radio said ``Imus in the Morning'' will be off the air permanently, joining cable-television network MSNBC, which yesterday canceled its simulcast of the show.
All of us have been deeply upset and revulsed by the statements that were made on our air,'' CBS Corp. Chief Executive Officer Leslie Moonves said today in an e-mailed statement. New York-based CBS owns CBS Radio.
Imus called the Rutgers University women's basketball team ``nappy-headed hos'' on April 4. CBS and MSNBC reversed an earlier decision to suspend the host for two weeks as calls grew louder for his firing and the show's largest advertisers, including General Motors Corp. and Sprint Nextel Corp., pulled their ads.
Imus's ability to attract high-profile political guests such as John McCain, John Kerry and Joseph Lieberman, drew listeners and made it the top-grossing show on CBS. He generated more than 25 percent of revenue for CBS's WFAN radio station in New York, or about $12 million, according to Mark Fratrik, vice president of BIA Financial Network, a broadcast consulting firm in Chantilly, Virginia. The show was carried on more than 60 stations across the country.
`Snowballing Quickly'
``It was snowballing pretty quickly,'' James Goss, an analyst at Barrington Research in Chicago, said in an interview. He has an ``outperform'' rating on the shares and said he owns them. ``I think it went beyond finances to the corporate image and the corporate culture.''
Civil-rights leaders Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson both called for Imus to be fired, as did presidential candidate Barack Obama. CBS director Bruce Gordon, a former president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, joined the chorus yesterday, the Associated Press reported.
``I understand their decision. I'm aware of the enormous pressure they were under,'' Imus said of MSNBC executives during his CBS broadcast this morning. MSNBC is owned by General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal.
Imus's two-day charity radiothon will continue tomorrow on WFAN without the host, CBS said.
Shares of CBS rose 42 cents to $31.41 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Fairfield, Connecticut-based General Electric rose 24 cents to $35.19. New York-based Westwood One Inc., which syndicates Imus's show in the U.S., fell 1 cent to $6.78.
Stern, Hollander
Advertising rates for Imus' show were the highest of any program on CBS Radio, said Edward Jones & Co. analyst Robin Diedrich, who has a ``hold'' rating on the shares and doesn't own them.
The network is still reeling from the departure of Howard Stern to Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. at the end of 2005. Stern brought in about $100 million in ad revenue each year, Diedrich said. Last month, CBS replaced CBS Radio chief executive officer Joel Hollander with Dan Mason.
``This is not going to help CBS Radio which still hasn't recovered from the loss of Howard Stern,'' said Diedrich, who is based in St. Louis. ``Imus's rates may not be as high as what they got for Stern but it's a pretty good comparison.''
`Long Practice'
Imus has drawn criticism for his racial comments before. He once called black journalist Gwen Ifill ``a cleaning lady'' and New York Times sports columnist William Rhoden ``a quota hire.''
``He should be fired for adopting a practice over a long period of time of abusing groups of people in this country,'' said Leo Hindery, managing partner of InterMedia Partners, which invests in media companies. ``This isn't the first time he's been insulting to ethnic groups. This crossed the line.''
Moonves said he met with several groups before making the decision.
``In our meetings with concerned groups, there has been much discussion of the effect language like this has on our young people, particularly young women of color trying to make their way in this society,'' Moonves said in the statement. ``That consideration has weighed most heavily on our minds as we made our decision.''
NBC Meeting
NBC News president Steve Capus made the decision to drop Imus from MSNBC with Jeff Zucker, chief executive officer of NBC Universal.
``I received very powerful messages from people who work for this organization,'' Capus said on CNBC yesterday. The network's decision ``is the only course of action that makes any sense.''
Vivian Stringer, coach of the Rutgers team, said on Oprah Winfrey's show today that the team wasn't calling for Imus's firing. The team and Imus plan to meet soon.
``We want the opportunity for a face-to-face meeting,'' Stringer said. ``Perhaps there will be a catharsis of sorts.''
Imus had asked for a meeting to apologize to the players.
``I'll meet with them and then we'll move on,'' Imus said today. ``I'm really not a racist. I also can't help it if I'm stupid. I said a hideous, despicable thing.''
``Nappy-headed'' is an insulting term for the hair of black people. ``Ho'' is slang for whore.
Imus ``has flourished in culture that permits a certain level of objectionable expression that hurts and demeans a wide range of people,'' Moonves said in a memo to employees today. ``In taking him off the air, I believe we take an important and necessary step not just in solving a unique problem but in changing that culture.''
Bloomberg
