Where Would Imus be Without Charles McCord?

From Fran Wood, The Star Ledger:

They say when you lose someone, you go through several stages of grief – shock, sadness, anger, depression, etc.

Apparently that doesn't apply only to the death of a loved one. I have experienced all these emotions since the announcement, a couple of weeks ago, that Friday, May 6, will be Charles McCord's last day on the Imus in the Morning show.

I have never met McCord. But after 35 or so years of listening to the Imus in the Morning show, he feels as familiar to me as a blood relative.

Charles is not just the newscaster on the Imus show. Not just the backup voice flattering the host, endorsing his opinions, providing the occasional bon mot.

He is all those things, of course. But he is more. In short, Charles McCord is the gold standard of sidekicks.

Not because he is extraordinarily bright, which he is. Or because he can provide a fresh angle on almost any subject at a moment's notice, which he does. Or because he can usually (lamentably, history shows not always) prevent Imus from going off the rails.

McCord is the gold standard because he does all of that, in addition to providing structure and seamlessness to what otherwise might be a chaotic three and a half hours. And he has done it all flawlessly, five mornings a week, year after year, decade after decade.

Not that you'd notice, because he manages to do all this AND stay out of the way.

Well, most of the time. But there have been occasions – few, but scintillatingly memorable – when McCord has erupted into a tirade over something Imus has done.

Imus' prostate cancer is a prime example. After weeks and weeks of Imus talking about it, beginning almost every conversation with a guest by announcing he has it, accusing guests who make some unrelated caustic remark of bullying a cancer patient, McCord will finally blow his stack – as he did when Imus brought up his cancer on the morning of the show's debut on the Fox Business Network:

"Everybody knows you have prostate cancer," said Charles. "Everybody! Headhunters in New Guinea know you have prostate cancer. Lost tribes in the Amazon know you have prostate cancer. ... Nobody cares. Nobody! You want to know why nobody cares? Because you have killed sympathy. Because you have gone on with this crap so long you have KILLED SYMPATHY! You have not only killed sympathy for yourself, you have killed sympathy for cancer patients. You have SISSY cancer! Your cancer is never going to harm you in ANY FATAL WAY. You're going to get killed by something else – probably somebody around here with a baseball bat, if you don't stop it."

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Read Origianl Posting:  Official: Imus Wingman Charles McCord Retiring