Say It Ain't So, Chuck!

Charles McCord in the 80's

The "Imus in the Morning" program changed forever with the Nappy Headed Ho incident in 2007.  Yet "the I-Man" and company came back, and some have said that they are stronger and better than they were before the moment that Imus and Bernard McGuirk made fun of the Rutgers women's basketball team.

Effective at the end of the show on May 6th, the show will be irrevocably changed.

Charles McCord, the straight man to Imus, the news man, the side kick, the one who (truth be known) did most of the comedy writing during the halcyon days on WNBC (later WFAN), is retiring (David Hinckley in the New York Daily News).

I imagine, deep down, John Donald Imus is frankly devastated at the departure of his friend, whom he first worked with in 1971.  I'm sure Imus believes that the show will march along with somebody else playing the Chucksters' old role.  Hinckley's article confirms that Connell McShane of Fox Business News will replace McCord (I would have considered Dagen McDowell).

It will never be the same without Charles.

Here is a classic moment, perhaps Chucks' best: this is the day that, after what seemed like months of Imus's obsession with the Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss story (a result of Sam Tanenhaus's 1997 biography of Chambers), Chuck went off.


This was a good one also.  This is when Imus confronted Chuck about his hair...


Here's another Chuck moment:


One more!


Good times.  We're going to miss you, Chuck.