Karel Fired

Karel has been fired.

What did he do?

Just before the election, Karel, weekend radio host on San Francisco's KGO-AM, had an open mic incident.

During an ABC newsbreak, there was a sound bite with John McCain mentioning Joe the Plumber.

In the background, supposedly out of earshot, Karel (aka Charles Karel Bouley) could be heard shouting about Joe.

Transcript

KAREL: F--- G-- damn Joe the G-- damn m-----f---ing Plumber. I want m-----f---ing Joe the Plumber dead.

Hear the audio.

Because of his outburst, Karel is out of a job.

Brad Kava, S.F. Radio Examiner, writes:

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.

Karel said Swanson told him "it got too big."

...[Karel] had the qualities that make for great talk: he wasn't a party line guy; he wasn't affiliated with the knee jerk groups you might expect; and his show was always a surprise. Not to mention that he was flamboyantly gay and honest about it, something you never hear in the media in San Francisco, the capital of all things gay.

Swanson hasn't yet returned my call, but I've dealt with him long enough to bet that he will say that the company was worried about the fines that such irresponsible behavior could incur.

The real reason, I'd also bet, is that general manager Mickey Luckoff, an old school guy, didn't get Karel and didn't like his schtick. Swanson and Luckoff supported another loose cannon, Michael Savage, and watched him rise from a Marin County wack job to the top of the national radio heap. Radio folks are less inclined to take such risks today.

...But I have no doubt that Karel will end up on the air somewhere, just as Savage had his biggest success after he left KGO sister station KSFO for KNEW and syndication by Mark Masters' Talk Radio Network.

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.

"Weekends are cheap and they were using a cheap engineer for my show," he said. "My show shouldn't have had an inexperienced engineer for my show, which is done remotely, and in which the host doesn't have an on/off switch on his mic They put an inexperienced driver in the seat and the show crashed."

So Karel blames his downfall on the engineer instead of taking personal responsibility.

Although he believed his microphone was off, I don't know why Karel trusted this supposedly inexperienced engineer.

He knows he doesn't have his own "on/off switch on his mic." That being the case, I'm surprised that Karel would risk saying such hateful stuff on breaks during his show.

Calling for someone's death and using the language he did is not a minor thing.

That's not only inappropriate on the air, but it's inappropriate for a chat room as well. Shouting about wanting someone dead? It's inappropriate. Period.

I'm sure Karel will find a new radio home soon. That's the way these things always play out.