NEW YORK (Reuters) - Radio personality Don Imus returned to the airwaves on Monday, promising to keep his edgy tone but refrain from the kind of racist and sexist comments that got him fired earlier this year.
"We now have the opportunity to have a better program, to obviously diversify the cast... but the program is not going to change," Imus said at the start of his new daily radio show on Citadel Broadcasting Corp's ABC Radio Networks.
The show has added an African-American woman and man to the cast -- comedians Karith Foster and Tony Powell -- along with regular sidekicks Rob Bartlett and Charles McCord.
Imus's return comes nearly eight months after CBS Radio fired him and shut down his "Imus in the Morning" program for referring to the black members of the Rutgers University women's basketball team as "nappy headed hos," a phrase combining an often derogatory term for coarse, curly hair with slang for whore.
"I will never say anything in my lifetime that will make any of these young women regret or feel foolish that they accepted my apology or forgave me," said Imus, who referred to his earlier remarks as "reprehensible."
"Imus in the Morning," previously was produced and broadcast by the CBS-owned WFAN radio station in New York, and was syndicated on some 60 stations and simulcast on MSNBC cable television.
The show mixed often ribald commentary on current events with interviews with high-profile politicians.
Imus preserved that flavor, declaring U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney was "still a war criminal" and New York senator and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was "still Satan," drawing laughter and applause from the audience.
