The Street Buzz

Craig Carton and Boomer Esiason Replace Don Imus it is official, it was announced tis morning at a press conference that Craig Carton and Boomer Esiason will replace the fired Don Imus.

John Donald “Don” Imus, Jr. (born July 23, 1940) is an American humorist, writer, radio and television talk show host in the mold of a shock jock. His “drive time” weekday morning radio show, Imus in the Morning was aired over WNBC and WFAN in New York from 1971 to 1977 (when he was fired) and again from 1979 until it was canceled on April 12, 2007, in response to comments he made on air. On 9 June, 2007, rumors surfaced that Imus would be returning to broadcast radio.

Don Imus the down fall.

On April 4, 2007, Imus’s executive producer Bernard McGuirk referred on-air to the Rutgers University women’s basketball team as “nappy-headed ho’s and he agreed “during a discussion about the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship. At 6:00 p.m. that evening, Media Matters for America became the first news outlet to report the remarks, transcribing:

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IMUS: That’s some rough girls from Rutgers. Man, they got tattoos and –

McGUIRK: Some hard-core hos.

IMUS: That’s some nappy-headed hos there. I’m gonna tell you that now, man, that’s some — woo. And the girls from Tennessee, they all look cute, you know, so, like — kinda like — I don’t know.

McGUIRK: A Spike Lee thing.

IMUS: Yeah.

McGUIRK: The Jigaboos vs. the Wannabes — that movie that he had.

There were African-American players on both the Rutgers and Tennessee teams. Imus initially dismissed the incident as “some idiot comment meant to be amusing”.

Two days later, amid mounting calls for his firing, Imus issued a statement of apology:

“I want to take a moment to apologize for an insensitive and ill-conceived remark we made the other morning regarding the Rutgers women’s basketball team, which lost to Tennessee in the NCAA championship game on Tuesday. It was completely inappropriate and we can understand why people were offended. Our characterization was thoughtless and stupid, and we are sorry.”

On April 9, Imus appeared on Al Sharpton’s syndicated radio talk show to address the controversy. Sharpton called the comments “abominable”, “racist”, and “sexist”, and repeated his earlier demand that Imus be fired. Imus said, “Our agenda is to be funny and sometimes we go too far. And this time we went way too far. Here’s what I’ve learned: that you can’t make fun of everybody, because some people don’t deserve it.”

Craig Carton
Born in New Rochelle, New York in 1969, Carton attended New Rochelle High School, during which time he worked on the cable television show “Views From the Bridge.” In 1991, Carton graduated from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University with a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism. After a year-long stint at Cleveland’s 1100 WWWE (now WTAM), he worked as a sports radio talk show host at WIP-AM (610) in Philadelphia for three years in the mid-1990s. On February 28, 1997, Carton reported on air that Eric Lindros, an ice hockey player with the Philadelphia Flyers, had missed a recent game because he was hung over after drinking too much the previous night. Carton further alleged that the Flyers had lied to cover up Lindros’ behavior by claiming that he had been unable to play due to a sore back. Within days, on March 5, 1997, the Flyers filed a libel suit against WIP-AM and its parent corporation. The station immediately decided that it would not attempt to mount a defense against the Flyers’ claims that libel had been committed, and instead agreed to issue an on-air apology and pay an undisclosed sum of money as compensation. Carton coincidentally departed the station shortly thereafter, eventually leading to a career in non-sports-oriented radio.

It should be noted that NJ 101.5 promoted Carton as a “Jersey Guy”, but he held no connection to New Jersey except for the fact that he worked there. Carton keeps residence in Pennsylvania.

Carton is married (wife Kim), with three children.

His broadcasting philosophy: “Keep it real and get a reaction, whether you make them laugh, or you make them cry, or you make them happy or you make them sad. Be relevant. We’re the most relevant show in the state.”

Craig will be teaming up with Boomer Esiason replacing Don Imus on New York’s WFAN radio station effective September 4, 2007. He was replaced by Casey Bartholomew on NJ 1015.

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