Media Decoder Blog: Don Imus Signs a 3-Year Extension for His Radio Show

On his syndicated radio show, “Imus in the Morning,” the 72-year-old Don Imus sometimes talks about retiring to his ranch in New Mexico. And maybe he will someday, but not for at least three years.

Mr. Imus has signed a deal with Cumulus Media, the owner of his home station, WABC-AM in New York, to extend the show through 2015, Cumulus announced. The terms were not announced.

The Fox Business Network, which simulcasts the show, said it had also extended its deal with Mr. Imus.

Mr. Imus, who on his show recently discussed the impending end of his current five-year contract with Cumulus, commented on the extension with uncharacteristic pith: “I love it,” he said. “Let’s do it.”

“Imus in the Morning” is syndicated to 74 stations around the country, and heard by about 2.25 million listeners each week, according to Talkers, a radio trade publication. That is far fewer than some of the giants of talk radio, like Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity, whose audience is 14 million to 15 million.

But Mr. Imus’s prominence in New York — where his show has been running for most of the last 41 years — and the loyalty of his audience mean that stations can charge higher advertising rates on his show than others with comparable audiences, said Michael Harrison, the editor and publisher of Talkers.

“Although ratings count, they don’t count as much with Imus,” Mr. Harrison said. “He’s always had a very loyal and upper-echelon clientele. They’re active, affluent, and tuned-in to politics, business and popular culture on the kind of level that radio companies and ad agencies like.”

Mr. Imus began his show in New York in 1971, and was canceled by CBS in 2007 amid a national furor after Mr. Imus made comments about the Rutgers University women’s basketball team that were called both racist and sexist.

By the end of 2007, however, he returned to the air on WABC, 770 AM, with a five-year deal with Citadel Radio, then the station’s owner. Last year, Citadel merged with Cumulus, whose other talk show hosts include Michael Savage, Geraldo Rivera and Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas.

Article source: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/11/don-imus-signs-a-3-year-extension-for-his-radio-show/?partner=rss&emc=rss