you lot

[timpsd01]

ive always held my peace on this board, and now im gonna speak my mind!
THis is regarding the reaction you have all given (bar a few of you) to the Charlie Wolf thing.
you all seem to be a bunch of misguided naer do wells in the world of radio.
if one thing shines through in all of these threads its pure jealousy.
many of you appear to try and present your own little radio show in you own little part of Ireland or the UK for that matter! and just because CW can stir the shit and get away with it you all cant handle it, sorry guys but he's made it to the top in our country! more than any of you little anoraks will ever do with your little message board to bitch and bullshit the night away on how you think the media should be run! most of you seem to have long missed the boat.
So guess what? charlie wolf has the listnership whether they love him,or love to hate him!

i wont be replying so dont bother with the barrage of abuse I will get for this. CW if ur reading keep it up mate, heres to new radio in Ireland and good stuff its all hapening in cork!

Later Peeps

[misterbuzzbomb]

Charlie is an interesting man. Hes a man whos career stalled on overnight weekends on Talksport. His co-workers on Talk Sport don't seem to hold him in great regard, in fact even while working on Talk Sport his daytime job was working for "Big AM" (a misnomer of a station name if ever there was one).

During his time on Talk Sport, Charlies greatest achievement was to show us just how mundane his 'talent' really is. Ironically the man who complains about racist bullying had no such concerns less than a year ago when referring to followers of Islam as "Towelheads" (a wanna be Stern-ism there). Other diatribes included some fairly derogatory remarks aimed towards the Irish - but Charlie seems to have forgotten that as well.

Simple reason that Charlie is getting his knickers in a knot over this board is because you lot are the only people who have reacted to him. His audience figures don't look terribly healthy (thats according to Red FMs own inhouse tracking) - and in fact Charlie is now back doing overnight weekend work in Talk Sport. I hope he stays there.

Charlie - you tell us all about how you are the way of the future - but you are doing lameass radio that Stern dropped doing at some point in 1987.

[Charles T Wolf]

Thanks to the first two posters.

I find this site shallow and insidious because it is really a bunch of anoraks who if they do have jobs in radio it is probably cleaning ashtrays at ballybumf*ck-fm. But worse still is the ability to hide behind a user name and pass off acusations unchallenged; to put across opinion as if it were fact.

The above is a good example (I don't even expect this out of Robert Fisk in the [UK] Independent). It is the shallow lack of intellectual rigor from wannabees that reduces them to slings and arrows where there is no fact.

Let me respond briefly to the above (having lived my life, I think I remember best how it went):

I find it hard to understand how my career 'stalled' at TalkSPORT. The reverse is actually true - TalkSPORT actually took my career into its second phase: from music jock (which bored me) into a more highly disciplined and far more rigorous and challenging style of radio - as my colleague and friend, the former Minister, Steve Norris said to me once: It is like doing PMQ's (Prime Minister's Questions) for four hours a night - even Tony Blair couldn't do that .

You quote that my co-workers at TalkSPORT didn't 'like me' (as if that would matter) Please name names. You can't. You say that I was not held in great regard, but then (having read a rumor on another board) say I'm going back. Pretty interesting for someone not held in high regard.

You think someone 'stalls' by doing all night radio... on a national radio station. Have you ever worked on a national station.... probably not. If that is such a crap job how do you explain Art Bell or Larry King or [the now retired] Larry Glick?

To be factual - and I don't have a problem with facts, my career actually 'stalled' during the last years at GWR Group (especially at Beacon FM) where they were doing formulaic radio and did not let me do what I do best. The 10-in-a-row homerun is not my idea of a challenge. My success has always been on stations where the management didn't interfere and had the guts and steely determination to let me just get on with it. Laser 558 (where I trounced R1 and Capital in about 3 months and killed off every local station in the SE), Atlantic 252 (changed the face of British radio), TalkSPORT and here (#1 in my first book) all gave/give me the freedom to do my job. Most of you jobsworths -if you are in radio- have never attained that. Until you learn the rules you will never be able to break them. Henry has full confidence and lets me do as I please - he hired a pro and I've delivered.

You call BIG AM my day job.... no it wasn't. It was a voice tracked show that was recorded about once a fortnight. I also did some fill-ins and weekends (prior to joining TS) Was BIG the greatest station ever - far from it, but this is a free country and a free market economy; I think I have the right to sell my wares where I please and make a living.

You also have your facts wrong about me being a racist. We've done numerous shows here on racism in Ireland - I think if any culture has a problem with race it is probably this one: my country has brought more immigrants onto its shores than any other - so again.... try some facts.

And let's get it right on the basics: Towelheads was used at the start of the Gulf war while on 252 not on TS. I also sang 'nuke them 'till they glow!" on the air -- it was pretty f*ckin' funny too. My form of radio revolves around opinion and I will gladly back that up with all comers. I don't resort to reading cards from the 'opinion lines' but will put anyone with a fair point that can be salient and understood on air. Unfortunately those who can't agree with me opinion, or offer a valid challenge use the racist charge. Funny enough I've been called a racist over my pro-fox hunting stance. When there is a lack of fact or intellect it seems people (as above) resort to argumentum ad hominem.

"My audience figures don't look terribly healthy??" I have the biggest cume on the station - I can't see how that's not healthy. You also talk about RedFM's own inhouse tracking?????? There you are up for libel my friend. There is no 'in house tracking' - you don't work here so how would you even know. If there was I'm sure it would show how successful the show is.

You imply some 'derogatory remarks towards the Irish' but can't give a specific - yet my views have never been hidden. I have a distaste for the IRA, think Sinn Feinn's politics are Marxist and therefore 'loopy' at best. Again, I have the guts to give my opinions and defend them nightly on the radio, be it TalkSPORT or RedFM.

Mr. Flemming, the webmaster accusses me of stirring it - but I'm only answering your posts - again under my real name. I believe I have only started one thread on this pathetic site. You pissant wannabee nobodies are the ones left to stir -or wallow- in your own excrament.

The only thing you've said that is right is: 'because you lot are the only people who have reacted to him.' That's right: I'm the protagonist -- you are the sheep.

So..... back of the class for misterbuzzbutt. You will really have to do much better. In the future you should try sticking to some facts otherwise you have the ability to make a right plebe of yourself.

More importantly - don't you have your own life to live instead of trying to live mine. You are the ones discussing me, not the other way around.... so I'll ask it again.... why don't you just not listen?

The answer is you are in my back pocket, how really sad. GET A LIFE.

[frankie says relax]

Most but not all who visit this site are wannabees who'd only dream of being in the position a lot of broadcasters find themselves .

The good thing about this board is , we can all express our opinions on the state of radio here and abroad ,which is why everybody loves it .
But i cant understand why everybodys getting so uptight about 1 radio show and 1 presenter . I never heard of Charles T Wolfe 'till i came here and to be honest , I think his show is very entertaining .
If you dont like a night club ,youll leave and never return , the same applies to a radio show , if you dont like , dont tune in anymore .
So why do you losers all keep tuning in ? My guess is , your just looking for an excuse to slag him off . Go watch a movie or go to the pub or better still, get a show of your own and prove your better than he is .
It's only a guy on the wireless , it's not the holocaust part 2 , so for gods sake chill out and keep political views to your night in the pubs .....

[TonyCurrie]

Surfing the net can bring you up against all manner of interesting things. I stumbled across the current "situation" while waiting for something vaguely intellectualy stimulating to happen on another Forum across the Channel.

I didn't hear Charlie's diatribe against the forum, but I read a whole bunch of emotions into the assorted responses. Including Charlie's.

Now I regard Mr Wolf (whom I have never met) as a fellow professional. (Before some smartass lobs an accusation of posessing bumfluff at me, let me say that I've earned my living from broadcasting since 1972 and have been PD, MD, CEO of an assortment of TV and radio stations in assorted corners of the world including this one.) I also have respect for those who give their time to run and moderate boards like this because they give pleasure to many and require a damned sight more work to maintain than ever meets the eye.

So, coming cold as it were to this dispute, may I make a couple of observations that might be helpful to all concerned?

Charle is a man who has a real passion for broadcasting, and the clearest evidence of that is his willingness to debate and discuss on this and other message boards. I know of very few on-air personalities who do so under their own names.

Most of the posters on this forum are also passionate about radio; the exceptions seem to be a number of what we might call "blow-ins" who have popped their heads above the parapet in the wake of the Wolf outburst.

Charlie was - in my humble opinion - right to take offence on air about the anti-semitic posting (because it raises all sorts of interesting issues which could stimulate a good bit of radio debate) but wrong to suggest "flaming" the website. He should have apologised, but the making of genuine apologies requires ears willing to hear and accept them and I'm not sure that the right conditions yet exist for that to happen.

It seems a shame that John and Cassie are now polarised against Charlie, and equally regrettable that Charlie is being so sweepingly derogatory in his postings. It's plain daft to brand every single person on this forum as being insignificant or anoraky, and I'm quite sure Charlie realises how silly he sounds when he says things like that.

But equally Cassie's blue-pencilled outburst helps nothing. Banning or expelling any postings that mention Charlie by name is every bit as small-minded and juvenile, in my view.

Kissing and making up are not on the cards yet, I fear, but perhaps everybody concerned might consider going and doing something else for a while to see if time can be encouraged to do a bit of healing?

Please forgive me for butting in here, but sometimes it takes a stranger to say the things that need saying.

TONY CURRIE

[Dermot Breen]

Charles T Wolf? Never heard of him except on this board!

I could recommend a good dictionary to him though...........

[John Fleming]

Tony,

Thank you for your valued input. I'm afraid that you have had only a snapshot of the story and i have made most of the points i could make here in other threads, so i won't bore our other members with it again.

I agree that CW is a professional, and also a passionate man. I too am passionate, so i fully respect that and i do enjoy his show much of the time.
I am not 'polarised' against Charlie - quite the opposite, in all other respects my admiration for him remains - but he has refused to answer my emails, and replies 'around' my posts here.

This story should really be taken chronologically to appreciate it, to be honest.

The 'current' situation only exists since his statement on air last Thursday, and particularly when he said on Sunday that he would not apologise. This has led me to explore other avenues based on the threat to this site, and the distress caused to me from having to remove diatribes of hate and bile all aimed at him, all from new members obviously attracted here by his stance.

This site is something i've put a lot of hard work into, i am entitled to fight for it and rise against anyone who threatens it, which he did, make no bones about it.

It is not that we are not willing to accept an apology - it is because he isn't willing to make one. He could have either here on the boards, or on his show, but he stated that he wouldn't do that. That is his right, but i truly think he is unaware of what he caused when he asked his listeners to do what he did.

Cassie was affected too, and is fully aware of what i went through. Her anger is totally justified. The posts about CW were causing sleepless nights, stress, distress and threats of legal action. To remove them would have been an act of survival. In this case, CW would come on and abuse people, knowing he would get a rise out of them, and the whole cycle became continuous. Removing all the posts would have stopped all that, so no it wouldn't have been a 'small-minded' or 'juvenile' act - simple a necessary one.

The only reason why we didn't remove then was because it would have been playing straight into his hands and he may have misrepresented the situation on air - as he has done from the start, and continues to do.

This whole thing, which was mocking and fun at the start, and i enjoyed it at that point, has exploded into something it should never have been allowed to do thanks to one user with an offensive username.
The user joined only to attack Charlie - he was not representative of this site, in fact he told me privatelt that he is a Cork listener who has been deeply upset by Charlie's attacks on the area of Cork that he lives. Maybe if Charlie realised that his claim that his call to 'smoke the site' was understandable under the circumstances, this user was also distressed and could possibly be excused for going OTT? It seems to have been forgotten in all the ballyhoo, but the user apologised for the offence caused.

To finalise, i am still catching up on my sleep after what happened last week. I apologise to all our users for letting this engulf the site and we need to all work together to make sure that this doesn't happen again.

Welcome aboard Tony! As you can see, life is rarely dull around here.