Apr 12, 2007 4:02 pm US/Eastern
Calls Pour In Radiothon Despite Imus Controversy
NEW YORK (CBS/AP) ―
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Don Imus' Radiothon has raised over $1.3 million for charity.
Calls poured in to WFAN's charity radiothon Thursday despite the continuing furor over host Don Imus' inflammatory comments about the Rutgers women's basketball team, station officials said.
Eddie Scozzare, associate producer for the station's "Mike and the Mad Dog" afternoon call-in show, said $1.3 million had been raised by 3 p.m. He said the total appeared to be up from last year, when the radiothon raised $2.9 million over two days.
Callers expressed support for Imus, said Tony Gonzalez, supervisor of the radiothon phone bank at the New York Mercantile Exchange.
"We haven't had much of a negative at all," he said. "Most of them are very, very supportive; think it's a terrible situation."
The radiothon, which was to continue Friday, raises money for the Tomorrows Children's Fund, a nonprofit organization that helps children with cancer and blood disorders; the CJ Foundation for SIDS, which funds research into Sudden Infant Death Syndrome; and the Imus Ranch in Ribera, N.M., where Imus invites children who have been ill to visit.
"This may be our last radiothon, so we need to raise about $100 million," Imus said at the start of the event, which has raised more than $40 million since 1990.
Several major advertisers dropped Imus' show over last week's remark, and pressure from politicians and the public has mounted since he referred to the Rutgers basketball players as "nappy-headed hos."
MSNBC ended its simulcast of the "Imus in the Morning" radio program and aired news instead on Thursday.
Imus' ultimate fate depends on the CBS Corp., which owns both the radio station WFAN-AM that is the host's broadcast home and the syndicator Westwood One, which distributes "Imus in the Morning" across the country.
CBS Radio, which has suspended Imus for two weeks without pay beginning next week, said it would "continue to speak with all concerned parties and monitor the situation closely."
After Imus' show ended at 10 a.m., the radiothon moved to the Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square, where WFAN hosts interviewed cancer survivors and parents of SIDS victims between appeals for donations.
Mike Francesa and Chris "Mad Dog" Russo blasted MSNBC for dropping Imus' show on the eve of the fundraiser.
"They could have waited a day," Francesa said. "MSNBC showed no guts and no loyalty."
Advertising mogul Jerry Della Femina, interviewed on air about his agency's SIDS public awareness campaign, told The Associated Press as he was leaving, "I think Don Imus is a great radio personality. You don't take 40 years of charity, of taking care of people, of starting hospitals and throw it away for a 4-second interlude."
Melanie St. Jean, a business professor from Coventry, R.I. who watched the broadcast live while lunching at the Hard Rock, said CBS was right to suspend Imus but should not fire him.
"If we're going to fire everybody who makes some kind of remark, every industry would crumble," she said.
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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