Don Imus Leaves Radio

From this morning's Tom Taylor newsletter...

Imus leaves radio on his own terms - walks off his “last show” two hours early. Don was choked-up and emotional, and he left some fans feeling shocked. A NOW reader tuned in to WABC New York/770 yesterday morning at 6:45 to hear Imus say he’d be playing the first song he ever played on the radio. After the 7 o’clock news, that tune was “Young Girl” by Gary Puckett and Union Gap. Imus recalled being so nervous, 50 years ago, that he messed up and talked over the cold-start intro. Then he began a lengthy rap about his career, ending with something he’d apparently written for this last day. He said he’ll miss talking with his audience. Without naming names, he also apparently took shots at Howard Stern and the Rev. Al Sharpton. Here’s more from the listener – “Then suddenly there was a noise and feedback, as he evidently took off his headphones right into the mic, and he walked out of the studio and was gone.” Before that, he’d said “I know in my heart there’s been nobody ever better on the radio than me…Nobody ever did this” – working in major-market radio for 50 years at his level. Then this - “You have no idea how much I’m going to miss you.” After he split, the producer plugged in Kid Rock’s “You Never Met a [think a 12-letter variant of the f-word] Quite Like Me.” They filled out the rest of the I-Man’s last shift with best-of material. Imus was right – we won’t see his like again.

I had to play this one on WJMK many times. Talk about a creepy song...