Don Imus returning to television on RFD-TV

Posted Nov 14th 2007 6:16PM by Barry Summerlin
Filed under: Television, Scandals, CBS Corp 'B' (CBS), Comcast Cl'A' (CMCSA), Time Warner Cable (TWC)

"Unlikely" is how the New York Times termed today's reported partnership between returning radio pariah Don Imus and RFD-TV, a 24-hour network celebrating the early-rising country life, broadcasting shows called I Love Toy Trains and The Johnnie High Country Music Revue. I wouldn't be so sure.

Launched in 2000, RFD is reportedly already available in some 30 million American homes, about 10 million fewer homes than HBO. And you can expect that to change. This deal is obviously a major coup for RFD -- whose audience will likely be fairly forgiving toward Mr. Imus -- and gives the network much stronger leverage as it pursues carriage through Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA) and Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC).

Terms of the arrangement have not been disclosed, as the final deal has yet to be struck. One Times source expects RFD to pay as much as $5 million annually for the five-year deal, which, along with Imus' radio contract with Citadel Broadcasting Corporation (NYSE: CDL), would nearly match his earnings from CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS) Radio before the network yanked him this spring.

With programming like Training Mules and Donkeys, it would be easy to laugh off RFD as one never-ending episode of Hee-Haw. Dropping in on my grandparents out in Edenton, North Carolina, last Christmas, I caught them engrossed in RFD. They left Imus' new network on for a couple of hours while everyone caught up.

The actual programming I saw was a concert of country stage tunes, filmed in Branson, Missouri, or thereabouts, punctuated by commercials for the sorts of products sold by operators who are standing by, probably someplace overseas.

Promo spots for other programs promised crop reports, farming discussions and so forth -- strictly business, not unlike Granddaddy's copies of Progressive Farmer that I recall lying around during my childhood visits.

But more vividly, I recall that the commercial breaks included short, dignified montages of fields and farmhands, dirt and labor, as dusty men in dungarees declared proudly, "I am a farmer."

Tags: broadcasting, country, Don Imus, DonImus, farming, inthenews, media, radio, RFD-TV, rural, television

Print this

Reader Comments (Page 3 of 3)

12-23-2007 @ 12:54PM

polly said...

We are so very happy to have Don and his gang back. Can anyone tell us please, who was that older man he had on recently who was singing with a country band? He was just fabulous and we would love his name. Than you

1-11-2008 @ 3:05PM

K. Heaton said...

Whatever anyone says about Imus, the fact remains that his guest lineup is always great, especially the musicians. Van Morrison? Mark Knoppler? You never see these people anywhere else. Imus' taste in music is superb.