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Charles Karel Bouley, known on-the-air as Karel, is an American talk radio host. Bouley is best known for his work on KGO in San Francisco, California and for his firing by KGO's station management for his on-air tirade and use of obscenity during a newscast. Prior to working for KGO, Bouley was one of the first openly gay hosts on a major market radio station, KFI in Los Angeles. Bouley is also an occasional columnist for The Advocate.com, Billboard Magazine and a contributing blogger for The Huffington Post. He has also authored a 2004 book of essays titled, You Can't Say That, published by the LGBT publishing house, Alyson Press.

Biography

'Charles Raymond Bouley, II was born November 7, 1962, in Miami Beach Florida, to Charles Raymond Bouley Jr. and Rose Marie (née Tremblay) Bouley. While attending Long Beach Poly High School, Bouley was editor of the high school's newspaper, "High Life." As a junior member of the press through his involvement with the paper, he was able to be included on press-only lists for premieres and openings in the Los Angeles area. With this type of press access, Bouley began attending stage productions and would then write reviews of those shows in his high school's newspaper. Eventually, Bouley went on to work for Billboard Magazine; his affiliation with the publication gave him access to music concerts and concert after-parties. This began his career in the entertainment industry.

Before radio

Before his radio career began in the late 1990s, Bouley was a stand-up comic and recording artist. His 1995 album, "Dance . . . Or Else," attracted critical notice in the mainstream press while getting very little attention from the GLBT press. Following "Dance . . . Or Else," Bouley later recorded the single "Don't Stop" with Steve Bronski, a single, "I Am", with Jellybean Benitez and "Take Your Heartache Away", also on the Jellybean label. Some of Bouley's recording projects included Thea Austin, former lead singer of Snap! For a time, Bouley owned a graphic arts company, Bouley was a celebrity photographer, imaging celebrities such as Michael Jackson and Diana Ross.

Radio talk show host

Bouley, along with his domestic partner, Andrew Howard, started in radio at KYPA Los Angeles in addition to Triangle Broadcasting based in Palm Springs, California. For the latter, the duo hosted a morning program, "Good Morning Gay America".

Professionally known as "Karel and Andrew", Bouley and Howard became the first openly gay radio talk-show hosts on a U.S. major-market radio station in 1998. Hired for the afternoon drive slot at Los Angeles' KFI, the duo replaced KFI mainstays John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou.. In March 2000, however, Bouley and Howard were bumped from the coveted afternoon-drive slot into the less-desirable evening-drive slot, being replaced by the nationally syndicated Phil Hendrie Show. According to Howard, the move was made to accommodate Hendrie's live-broadcast in order for it to be heard on the East Coast by that primetime listening audience.

After twenty-two months on KFI, Bouley and Howard were replaced by Phil Hendrie in May 2001 and rival hosts Kobylt and Chiampou were again put into the afternoon-drive slot. David G. Hall, KFI's Director of Syndication, was quoted at the time of the change as saying "KFI might still find a spot" for Bouley and Howard, stressing that the duo had not been terminated. The station's programmers said they were preparing to return Bouley and Howard to the airwaves by putting their show on another Clear Channel station, however, Howard's May 21st death from cardiac arrest changed that course. Following his partner's death, Bouley returned to KFI and hosted a talk-show there until he was fired by station management in April of 2002. Seven months later, Bouley was hired as an on-air host by San Francisco radio station KGO.

Other media

Bouley has appeared on television, having completed two seasons on TNN's Ultimate Revenge. He also wrote and directed a 60-second spot, Barbarians At The Gate of Our Future, which won second place in the GLAAD "I Do" Marriage Equality project. Bouley has been a fill-in host on the Bill Press radio talk show and has also appeared as a guest commentator on CNN, MSNBC and Fox News.

Appellate court battle

Following the untimely death of his partner, Andrew Howard, Bouley went on to file and win a malpractice suit as a domestic partner in a Los Angeles appellate court. This court victory effectively changed the wrongful death laws in California for domestic partners as well as making them retroactive.

Controversy

During his media career, Bouley has become known for his controversial statements, one of which led to the end of his tenure at KGO.

Ronald Reagan

On June 5, 2004, Bouley opened his weekend KGO program with a clip of The Wizard of Oz song, "Ding-Dong the Witch is Dead!" as a "tribute" to former President Ronald Reagan, who had died earlier that day. He went on to rant about Reagan during the first two hours of his show because of what he saw as the inaction of Reagan and his administration in the face of the developing AIDS crisis, propagating the perception it was a "gay disease." The Monday following Reagan's death, Bouley was "castigated and panned" by listeners in addition to being strongly reprimanded by KGO management. He later apologized on the air, not for what he said, but for choosing to air his comments the same day as the former president's death. He later included an open letter of apology to Nancy Reagan in his book You Can't Say That.

Tony Snow

On March 27, 2007, Bouley wrote the following for the online The Huffington Post, regarding reports that White House spokesman Tony Snow had developed colon cancer: "I hear about Tony Snow and say to myself, well, stand up every day, lie to the American people at the behest of your dictator-esque boss and well, how could a cancer not grow in you?...I know, it's horrible. I admit it. I don't wish anyone harm, even Tony Snow. And I do hope he recovers...and surrounds himself with friends and family for his journey. But in the back of my head there’s Justin Timberlake’s “What goes around, goes around, comes around, comes all the way back around, ya...” " When controversy immediately ensued, Bouley replaced the draft and the inflammatory statements were removed with a notation that it had been edited from the original version. The original post, however, got wide airplay in print, on television, and the internet, compelling Huffington Post editor Roy Sekoff to speak out about the issue on The O'Reilly Factor shortly after the row.

Joe The Plumber

When Bouley was hosting his weekend 7-10 p.m. call-in program on KGO Saturday, November 1, 2008, the sound engineer unintentionally failed to mute Bouley's microphone during the national news break. When a reference to Joe the Plumber came up during the news, Bouley was clearly heard on-air to yell: "Fuck goddamn Joe the goddamn mother-fucking Plumber! I want mother-fucking Joe the Plumber dead!" Following the news break, Bouley apologized to the audience for the incident, explaining that his words were not intended to be aired. Bouley's comments earned him the title "pinhead" from Fox's Bill O'Reilly on The O'Reilly Factor, Monday, November 3, 2008. Bouley posted on his website November 4, 2008, that he had been "suspended pending review from KGO" and as of November 5, 2008, his profile and blog on KGO's website were removed. On November 6, 2008, KGO host Ronn Owens confirmed on-air that Bouley had been suspended indefinitely. KGO issued a news release on the afternoon of November 11, 2008 stating that he had, indeed, been fired. Bouley stated on November 11, 2008 via the blog on his web site that he had been fired from KGO. Bouley stated on November 11, 2008 on his own website blog that he takes responsibility for the incident but " not my fault", blaming the newly-hired KGO engineer instead. Bouley then went on to blame KGO for his remarks being aired in Brad Kava's November 11, 2008 column in the S.F. Radio Examiner where he stated, "Weekends are cheap and they were using a cheap engineer for 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."

Current life

Withing a few months of leaving KGO, Bouley began performing stand-up comedy and was back on radio again in medium and small-market stations. In March, 2009, Bouley was hired by San Francisco's KNGY as well as KRXA in Monterey, California. In June 2009, Bouley's show on KNGY was cancelled due to the station's budget difficulties and insufficient ratings, shortly before the station declared bankruptcy. In January 2010, Bouley was hired by KKGN, San Francisco; with the latter two-hours of the show also broadcast on KUDO in Anchorage, Alaska and on KYNS, San Luis Obispo. In May 2010, KJRB in Spokane, Washington added Bouley's show to their lineup. Since December 2008, Bouley has been performing stand-up comedy in the Rrazz Room at the Hotel Nikko and Cobb's Comedy Club, both in San Francisco. He has recently been seen performing at The Comedy Store in Los Angeles and The Laugh Factory in Long Beach, California, where he currently resides.

References

  1. http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-02-07/entertainment/17847968_1_michael-savage-air-america-randi-rhodes/2
  2. http://books.google.com/books?id=yQ0EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA16&dq=billboard,+karel+bouley&as_pt=MAGAZINES&cd=5#v=onepage&q=billboard%2C%20karel%20bouley&f=false
  3. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/charles-karel-bouley/im-afraid_b_133804.html
  5. http://akas.imdb.es/name/nm1693994/bio
  6. http://www.mylife.com/people-search/b/
  7. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/charles-karel-bouley/one-smart-blonde_b_260382.html
  8. ^ Kava, Brad (8 Jan 2010), SF Radio Examiner
  9. ^ http://www.allbusiness.com/retail-trade/miscellaneous-retail-retail-stores-not/4629919-1.html
  10. LARRY FLICK Publication: Billboard Date: Saturday, June 27, 1998
  11. Openly Gay Artists Making Business Strides By LARRY FLICK Publication: Billboard Date: Saturday, June 27, 1998
  12. http://www.backstreetmemphis.com/theaaustin.htm
  13. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/charles-karel-bouley/the-man-goes-through-the_b_221456.html
  14. Anthony, James (1999-05-11). "Queering rush-hour radio - openly gay radio talk show in Los Angeles, CA, hosted by Karel and Andrew", The Advocate.
  15. http://articles.latimes.com/2000/jul/14/entertainment/ca-52655?pg=2 LA Times - July 14, 2000
  16. ^ Moxley, Scott (27 Mar 2003). "Dr. Kooshian vs. the Gay Community". Retrieved 2009-09-17.
  17. LA Times - July 14, 2000
  18. ^ LA Times - May 2, 2001
  19. HalEisner.com
  20. Bouley, Charles Karel (10 Oct 2006). "My Ground Zero of Fear". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2009-09-16.
  21. Huffinngton Post - My Ground Zero of Fear; October 10, 2006
  22. Bronstad, Amanda (28 Mar 2005). ""Surviving partner in gay couple can sue after revision of law"". Retrieved 2009-09-16.
  23. ^ http://www.advocate.com/News/News_Features/Charles_Karel_Bouley_II__Who_deserves_respect_/
  24. http://www.mrc.org/SpecialReports/2007/huffington/report0912_p1.asp
  25. http://www.olbermannwatch.com/archives/2008/01/countdown_with_413.php
  26. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/charles-karel-bouley/theres-all-types-of-cance_b_44369.html
  27. Bouley, Charles Karel (2007-03-27). "There's All Types of Cancers Growing". The Huffington Post.
  28. http://www.green960.com/pages/blog.html?feed=313154&article=6803026
  29. "Video: Michelle versus HuffPo editor on O'Reilly". Hot Air. 2007-03-30.
  30. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/30/PKO7147PF1.DTL
  31. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,446586,00.html
  32. "Ronn Owens Program". 2008-11-06. {{cite episode}}: Missing or empty |series= (help)
  33. Bouley, Charles Karel (2008-11-11). "KGO Talk Host Karel Fired". Retrieved 2008-11-18.
  34. Bouley, Charles Karel (2008-11-11). "Fired". Retrieved 2008-11-11.
  36. Kava, Brad (2008-11-11). "Karel and engineer fired in one-paragraph e-mail and three-minute phone call". Retrieved 2008-12-06.
  37. http://www.free-press-release.com/news/200902/1235589337.html
  39. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/lieberman/detail?blogid=70&entry_id=42499
  40. http://sfppc.blogspot.com/2010/01/kkgn-green-960-hires-karel-for.html
  41. http://www.kudo1080.com/staff.asp
  42. http://calcoastnews.com/2010/02/kyns-1340-signs-up-controversial-gay-talk-show-host/
  43. http://www.790thefan.com/default.asp?pid=5068
  44. Kava, Brad (18 Nov 2008). "Fired Radio Host Karel Back in San Francisco--With a Standup Comedy Act". Retrieved 2009-09-19.
  45. http://www.sfbg.com/blogs/pixel_vision/2009/11/bruce_vilanch_karel_and_nico_s.html

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