Don Imus returned to drive-time radio Monday with all the fanfare of a reunion tour by an aging rock band.

The news story of his return ran in newspapers in more metropolitan areas than carry his new radio show (so far, the only "major markets" where Imus is heard is New York and Boston).

Reported The New York Times:

Nearly eight months after being fired for making a racially and sexually disparaging remark about the Rutgers women’s basketball team, Don Imus returned to the radio at 6 a.m. yesterday and vowed he would not say anything like it again.

He also introduced two new cast members, Karith Foster and Tony Powell — both black and both comedians — and said they would join him in conducting “an ongoing discussion about race relations in this country.”

“I will never say anything in my lifetime that will make any of these young women at Rutgers regret or feel foolish that they accepted my apology and forgave me,” Mr. Imus told a live audience at Town Hall in Midtown and those listening to WABC-AM, his new radio home. “And no one else will say anything on my program that will make anyone think I did not deserve a second chance.”

Still, in many ways it felt as if the clock had been turned back to before last April, when Mr. Imus made his remark and was fired by CBS Radio and MSNBC, which had simulcast his program on cable television.

“Dick Cheney is still a war criminal,” Mr. Imus, 67, told the audience, in an effort to reassure them that he did not intend to alter his style completely, or curb his tongue. “Hillary Clinton is still Satan. And I’m back on the radio.”

He was flanked on his right by Charles McCord, his longtime news reader and sidekick. To his left, with a microphone conspicuously in front of him, was Bernard McGuirk, the producer whose reference on April 4 to the Rutgers team as “some hard-core hos” had prompted Mr. Imus to take the bait and call them “nappy-headed hos.” Mr. McGuirk was largely mute yesterday — so much so that Mr. Imus implored him at one point to “turn your mike on.”

“Hi” was about all Mr. McGuirk could muster, but the Town Hall crowd, several hundred strong, roared its approval.

Said The Washington Post:

Eight months after the controversy that made him a national symbol of intolerance, a contrite Don Imus returned to the airwaves Monday and was cheered like a rock star -- at least by several hundred fans who filled a midtown theater to give him a hero's welcome.

A live studio audience -- consisting mostly of white, middle-aged men -- streamed into the theater before 6 a.m. to catch Imus's first show since being fired by CBS Radio and MSNBC last spring for uttering a racist and sexist slur. An air of celebration prevailed as the broadcaster received multiple standing ovations during his four-hour show, which was staged as a $100-per-person benefit. Even Imus's sidekicks were greeted with raucous cheers.

Imus, decked out in his familiar cowboy hat, duster jacket, jeans and boots, wasted little time in addressing the matter that led to his dismissal: his on-air reference to Rutgers University women's basketball players as "nappy-headed hos."

In his first public statement since being removed from the air, Imus on Monday called his Rutgers comment "reprehensible" and reminded that he apologized to the team in April during an emotional four-hour meeting. "I will never say anything in my life that will make those young women regret or feel foolish that they forgave me," he vowed, "and no one will say anything on my program that will make anyone feel I don't deserve a second chance."

As a benefit for Imus's charitable camp for children who have cancer, Monday's show was broadcast from an ornate, 1920s-era concert hall that has hosted the likes of violinist Isaac Stern. Onstage, Imus and his crew were arrayed around a long desk; behind them was a cathedral window and a backdrop depicting a forest scene. An eight-piece band fronted by Levon Helm, best known as drummer for the Band, provided the music.

Will the new and improved Don Imus really tone down the rhetoric that cost him his job? And, if he does, will he continue to attract the core audience that liked such rhetoric?

Stay tuned.