Mel Karmazin taught Farid Suleman well – so well, in fact, that the Citadel Communications CEO’s move to bring Don Imus back to the airwaves is torn straight from the teacher’s manual.
Now that Imus is a free agent after settling his lawsuit with CBS Radio, radio industry insiders and Wall Street analysts have installed Suleman as the front-runner to land the radio raconteur. Such a hiring would not only give Suleman’s ABC Radio Network, which he acquired from Disney last year for $2.7 billion, a financial lift, but also be in line with Karmazin’s lesson plan of making big bets on controversial talent that can produce big returns.
“Mel always understood the plusses and minuses of working with people like Howard Stern and Imus, and Farid does as well,” said one radio industry analyst.
Suleman and his former Infinity and Westwood One cohort Joel Hollander were responsible for putting Fox News host Bill O’Reilly on the radio and bringing back Marv Albert to call “Monday Night Football” games after he was accused of biting a sex partner in 1997.
Just last week Suleman signed a deal to return Bob Grant back to WABC-AM in New York after 11 years in exile for comments he made about Commerce Secretary Ron Brown following the fatal crash of Brown’s plane.
Hiring Imus would also catapult Suleman, who worked under Karmazin for 16 years at Infinity Broadcasting, out of his teacher’s shadow and onto the national stage.
As soft-spoken as the 54-year-old Tanzanian native is, sources said Suleman doesn’t lack for ego and isn’t afraid of taking chances, two traits that will be necessary to endure the scrutiny if he succeeds in landing Imus.
“Farid will not only absorb, but also enjoy and bask in the attention that comes with hiring Imus,” said Radio-Info.com news editor Tom Taylor. “He’ll like the dialogue the hiring sparks.”
In an interview with The Post, Suleman said only that he thinks Imus’ availability represents an opportunity and that he would consider hiring him only if he could make the numbers work.
Such modesty belies the “can’t lose” proposition that bringing Imus back is for Suleman. If the shock jock flames out in his return, Suleman can point to Imus’ comments about the Rutgers University women’s basketball team as having tarnished him forever. If the public embraces Imus’ second act, Suleman will earn kudos for giving him another chance.
Suleman, who has never had a formal employment contract, dismissed the publicity that would come with an Imus hiring as a fleeting distraction that matters little to the bottom line.
“There will be a little publicity for a couple of days, but after that all that will matter is if I made money for my shareholders,” Suleman said.
Sources said that both Suleman and Imus would love to have a deal in place in time to make a big splash at the National Association of Broadcasters’ Radio Show in Charlotte, N.C., on Sept. 26.