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KGO-AM temporarily pulls Karel off the air

KGO-AM has temporarily suspended Charles “Karel” Bouley while management decides what it should do after he unleashed an obscene tirade against Joe the Plumber while he thought his microphone was turned off.

“It’s a personnel matter and it’s under review,” operations director Jack Swanson told Wall Street Journal reporter Sarah McBride. “It is clear what happened wasn’t intentional.”

Karel’s 7-10 p.m. timeslot this coming Saturday will be pre-empted by a Cal football game anyway; the station still hasn’t announced who will fill in on Sunday from 7 to 10. Karel has been in the running to become the station’s permanent host from 7 to 10 weeknights to replace Bernie Ward.

The Journal said Karel apologized for the outburst on the open mic. “I was, and am deeply sorry that went out,” said Bouley, who called Wurzelbacher “an actor playing the character of Joe the Plumber.”

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