NOW President Kim Gandy said the specter of Imus coming back to the radio dial was like "a bad dream."

"Didn't they learn anything?" she asked about broadcasting executives.

Whatever they learned, they didn't forget that Imus makes money. His core audience is older, affluent and likely to rejoin the I-man.

"Imus brings, potentially, large national advertisers," said Tom Taylor of the industry Web site radio-info.com. "And there's also syndication, not only on radio but television."

Suleman's WABC-AM is already home to several syndicated hosts, including Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Mark Levin. And Imus' national presence would trump the local Arbitron ratings, where his WFAN-AM show consistently drew fewer listeners than WABC's current morning drive time team of Curtis Sliwa and Ron Kuby.

Taylor said he expected Suleman to stick with Imus unless the backlash becomes too intense.

"I think he understands Imus' potential power," Taylor said. "Farid is a fan, and he seems determined to do this — absent thousands of angry people gathered outside his office."