RIP Don Imus

I stood in awe. I met Don Imus in Cleveland when he was a guest on the morning show on my station.  He was touting a new book and was amazingly fun and clever, as always. .  A few years earlier, he had worked at my station (WHK) and I always thought it was cool that I got to work the same board he did. 

As a kid, I remember when he came to New York to WNBC from WGAR in Cleveland.  The show was fresh and outrageous.  The Right Reverend Billy Sol Hargis selling his plastic Jesus for your dashboard, complete with music accompaniment, was just great radio. 

Before becoming a talk jock, he broke the rules in music radio, singing along with the songs, and changing the words to get a laugh.  He had demons that drove him from New York to Cleveland and then back to New York again, where he cleaned up his act and thrived.

Charles McCord, the staff news guy at WNBC, and Imus just clicked.  I felt his show was never the same after Charles retired, though Imus soldiered on. 

I was one of his biggest fans and feel honored that I met him, albeit briefly.  A giant in radio is gone and I'm sad.