THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, April 18, 1995 TAG: 9504180274
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARK MOBLEY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines
We joined the story already in progress.
New York talk-radio veteran Don Imus made his Hampton Roads debut Monday. He hit the airwaves on WTAR-AM around 6 a.m., minutes after the beginning of his daily show and three decades after the start of a checkered but successful career.
Imus and his highly rated, four-hour syndicated show replaced local conservative Pat Murphy, whose last live broadcast was Wednesday.
In place of callers grousing about city officials and state politics, listeners heard Imus, a grizzled, middle-aged survivor of the fast life, bravely forbear a mysterious, flu-like illness to chat with his in-studio men friends about the Simpson trial, presidential jockeying, the Simpson trial, the America's Cup, the authorship of the Gospels, and - did I mention the Simpson trial.
Let's put it this way: You could get by without a winning lottery ticket if you had a dollar for every use of the phrase ``police criminalist Dennis Fung.''
Imus didn't bust out of the gate with the messianic self-importance of Rush Limbaugh or G. Gordon Liddy. Nor was he as foul-mouthed or wildly brilliant as Howard Stern, a direct competitor in the New York market. On ``Imus in the Morning,'' the breaking news tends to come not from the host but from his guests, as in Sen. Alfonse D'Amato's recent bid to become the Bill Dana of the '90s.
A fascination with politicians has helped Imus gather national clout. Bill Clinton's visits to the show are widely credited with boosting his candidacy. He returned after the election to speak about the first 100 days of his presidency.
Monday's guests included Republican campaign consultant, CNBC talk-show host and professional married person Mary Matalin, broadcasters from various affiliates in Imus' 55-station network and Imus' brother Fred, who was funnier than Imus.
Fred, calling from Auto Body Express in Santa Fe, N.M., on the Gramm campaign: ``If he's the Republican candidate, Bill Clinton wins and only spends $200 on his campaign. Buys some bumper stickers and that's it.''
After hearing a news clip, Imus nailed Gramm for an outstanding peculiarity of the senator's accent. Imus' listeners may now notice through the entire election cycle that Gramm says ``pwaaarty'' for party. A Gramm sound bite was cut off by an explosion and Imus' declaration that ``You're not gonna be president, Phil.''
The show did include such morning-radio staples as news, sports, song parodies, strategically deployed archival tape, and tasteless racial and sexual comments. ``Beavis'' talked with a Forrest Gumpish ``Bubba Clinton.'' A mention of New Jersey Devils hockey coach Jacques Lemaire brought cheers of ``Vive le France!''
Imus proclaimed that ``O.J. Simpson is whiter than Al Gore'' and that ``black people are not pulling for O.J. They're pulling for Johnnie Cochran, who is certainly more black than O.J. will ever be.''
Highlights of O.J.'s athletic career were spliced together with Nicole Brown Simpson's infamous 911 call and a Hertz commercial.
But the focus of the four hours was Imus, wisecracking with the sightly slurry voice and halting phrases of a powerful man up past last call, which he used to be with some frequency. In the late '70s, his alcohol and cocaine addictions became well-publicized. Now he's drug-free and even rides Fred about lapses in a bid to quit smoking.
The show was bumpy, as WTAR apparently struggled to catch cues and integrate local material with the national feed. Listeners heard dead air and many station promos, plus one Liddy spot that ran twice in a row. Imus came up in midsentence, without any announcement of his show.
Liddy follows Imus, which means that WTAR's morning lineup is entirely syndicated, a trend that Imus and Stern have led nationwide. WTAR general manager Mark T. Kanak said Imus had drawn both new advertisers and increased business from WTAR accounts. Though he declined to name the advertisers, he said they were familiar with Imus from listening to him on Northeastern stations.
On competing talk-radio station WNIS-AM, host Tony Macrini said, ``Ah! What a pleasure it is to wake up on a Monday morning and have a full-time job and the last laugh.'' He made repeated references to his station being ``the only live and local news and talk station in Hampton Roads. You wanna call somebody, you gotta call us, pretty much.'' MEMO: Pat Murphy brings his unsparing viewpoints to WAVY-TV/E2
ILLUSTRATION: Ads for Imus' show call it a cross between McNeil-Lehrer,
Letterman and a little Firesign Theater.
KEYWORDS: TALK RADIO by CNB