Source:
Wall Street JournalThe Supreme Court is still pondering whether to permit fleeting expletives on the airwaves, but a San Francisco radio station isn’t waiting for the decision.
A host on San Francisco’s top-rated KGO told his fans Tuesday that the station had fired him over comments he made a few days before the election about Joe Wurzelbacher, the suddenly famous unlicensed plumber who got caught up in the candidates’ tax policy debates.
Charles “Karel” Bouley, a weekend personality, thought his microphone was off as the station aired a brief newsclip. Unfortunately for him, it was still on, whisking his insights about that night’s Joe-the-Plumber update to thousands of Bay-area listeners.
His comments about Wurzelbacher arguably weren’t fleeting. In fact, Bouley used several colorful expletives to describe the Ohio everyman, as well as wishing him dead.
Read more:
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/11/11/radio-host-gets-the-hook-for-joe-the-plumber-comments/
More from Brad Kava:
http://www.examiner.com/x-448-SF-Radio-Examiner~y2008m11d11-Karel-and-Engineer-Fired-in-a-One-Paragraph-Email-and-Three-Minute-Phone-Call
Charles "Karel" Bouley, San Francisco's lone gay voice on KGO-AM (810) talk radio, was fired Tuesday afternoon, a week after some profanities went out on air when he thought his microphone was off.
"They silence the most prominent gay voice in the Bay, right as Prop 8 passes. How lovely," said Karel in an email.
... In his defense, Karel says that he was told by the engineer, who left the studio to use the bathroom, that his microphone was off. The engineer was also told, he says, to make sure it is off during breaks because Karel talks to his chat room during the breaks, saying things not appropriate for the air.