Charlie Wolf
Encyclopedia
Charlie Wolf is a British
-based American radio talk-show host, disc jockey
and political commentator, originally from Boston
, and formerly the Communications Director of Republicans Abroad UK
. Wolf is best known for the TalkSport
show he hosted on Saturdays and Sundays from 1am to 6am, following Mike Dickin
. Wolf was forced to leave talkSPORT 2006 when the station hired Jon Gaunt, shifting Ian Collins back to overnights and Mike Mendoza to the weekend shifts occupied by Wolf, leaving no space in the schedule for him.
He is now a featured writer and blogger for the Mail Online's "Right Minds" page edited by Simon Heffer.
before moving to the UK in 1984 to DJ for the pirate radio
station Laser 558
, broadcasting from MV Communicator, based in international waters. In the early 1990s he was a DJ on Atlantic 252
and also presented the network evening show on the three GWR FM
stations in the west of England. In 2002 Wolf moved to Cork in Ireland to host RedFM
's Cork Talks Back show (which is currently hosted by Victor Barry) and subsequently presented RedFM's breakfast show until his departure in June 2004. Whilst in Cork he also wrote a weekly column in the local Evening Echo
newspaper for a time. For a short period Wolf broadcast on both Red FM and talkSPORT, and would fly from Cork
to London
and back on Ryanair
. On a number of occasions, he presented his talkSPORT show remotely from a studio at RedFM.
Wolf continues to air his views in a weekly column in London-based community newspaper The Jewish News. Wolf also temporarily returned to the radio airwaves to host two shows a week on Shalom FM, an RSL (Restricted Service Licence
) radio station which was broadcasting for one month until 25 November 2006 in North West London. He was also a stand-in presenter on the Frinton-on-Sea
based radio station Big L 1395
.
For the last year since leaving TalkSport radio Wolf has worked mainly as a radio and television pundit and commentator, mainly debating or speaking on American politics and news stories. On 12 October 2007, he appeared on David Frost
's Al Jazeera English programme Frost Over The World
, debating capital punishment
with Bianca Jagger
. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixQF9oxbrUs Wolf continues to support capital punishment, arguing in the case of Troy Davis that because his execution was "pretty peaceful," therefore "putting down the family dog would have been a lot worse." http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2040554/Troy-Davis-execution-Death-fitting-punishment-grown-societies.html He has also appeared on The Real Deal with George Galloway
on the Iranian government-funded news channel Press TV
. http://www.presstv.com/Programs/player/?id=69483.
Wolf made a memorable appearance on BBC Radio Four's Today programme in December 2010, where he joked "with apologies to Clausewitz, politics is sport pursued by other means."
He nows appears every Sunday night on 5 Live's Nolan show, with Stephen Nolan
and Bishop Stephen Lowe
.
, an American peace activist who had been killed by an Israel
i military bulldozer, as "scum." In its bulletin dated 23 January 2006, Ofcom
ruled this comment to be in breach of the "Generally Accepted Standards" section of the Broadcasting Code and stated it was "seriously ill-judged".
In June 2007, Wolf announced that he has kidney cancer
, the same disease that afflicted his former talkSPORT colleague James Whale
.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
-based American radio talk-show host, disc jockey
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
and political commentator, originally from Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, and formerly the Communications Director of Republicans Abroad UK
Republicans Abroad
Republicans Abroad is an organisation for members of the Republican Party who are living outside of the United States. Unlike Democrats Abroad, Republicans Abroad is not considered a "state committee" by the Republican National Committee...
. Wolf is best known for the TalkSport
TalkSPORT
Talksport , owned by UTV radio, is one of the United Kingdom's three terrestrial analogue Independent National Radio broadcasters, offering a sports and talk radio service broadcast from London to the United Kingdom....
show he hosted on Saturdays and Sundays from 1am to 6am, following Mike Dickin
Mike Dickin
Mike Dickin , was a late-night host on the British radio station talkSPORT. Dickin used to present the 1am to 6am slot at weekends on Talk Radio UK from 1995 to 2001. He returned filling in for James Whale during James' battle with kidney cancer...
. Wolf was forced to leave talkSPORT 2006 when the station hired Jon Gaunt, shifting Ian Collins back to overnights and Mike Mendoza to the weekend shifts occupied by Wolf, leaving no space in the schedule for him.
He is now a featured writer and blogger for the Mail Online's "Right Minds" page edited by Simon Heffer.
Career
Wolf studied journalismJournalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
before moving to the UK in 1984 to DJ for the pirate radio
Pirate radio
Pirate radio is illegal or unregulated radio transmission. The term is most commonly used to describe illegal broadcasting for entertainment or political purposes, but is also sometimes used for illegal two-way radio operation...
station Laser 558
Laser 558
Laser 558 was an offshore pirate radio station launched in May 1984 by a consortium of British and American business and broadcasting executives, some of whom have never been named. Laser 558 used disc jockeys recruited from the USA. The station was aboard the ship the MV Communicator in...
, broadcasting from MV Communicator, based in international waters. In the early 1990s he was a DJ on Atlantic 252
Atlantic 252
Atlantic 252 was a long wave radio station broadcasting to Ireland and the United Kingdom on 252 kHz from its 1988 purpose built transmission site Clarkstown radio transmitter, which provided service to Atlantic 252 from 1989 until 2002. The station's studios were located just 12 km away in...
and also presented the network evening show on the three GWR FM
GWR FM
GWR FM was a network of three radio stations in the south west of England. All three stations were rebranded and joined the Heart Network on 23 March 2009.*GWR FM Bristol - now Heart Bristol - was launched in 1981 as Radio West, it relaunched as GWR in 1985....
stations in the west of England. In 2002 Wolf moved to Cork in Ireland to host RedFM
Red FM (Ireland)
Cork's RedFM is an Irish radio station which broadcasts to Cork and the surrounding area, and is aimed at a youth audience.Cork's RedFM commenced broadcasting at 08:00 on 16 January 2002. The station was awarded Ireland’s first youth radio licence...
's Cork Talks Back show (which is currently hosted by Victor Barry) and subsequently presented RedFM's breakfast show until his departure in June 2004. Whilst in Cork he also wrote a weekly column in the local Evening Echo
Evening Echo
The Evening Echo is an Irish evening newspaper based in Cork. It is distributed throughout the province of Munster, although it is primarily read in its base city of Cork. In Limerick, an altered local edition of the paper is sold...
newspaper for a time. For a short period Wolf broadcast on both Red FM and talkSPORT, and would fly from Cork
Cork (city)
Cork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland's third most populous city. It is the principal city and administrative centre of County Cork and the largest city in the province of Munster. Cork has a population of 119,418, while the addition of the suburban...
to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and back on Ryanair
Ryanair
Ryanair is an Irish low-cost airline. Its head office is at Dublin Airport and its primary operational bases at Dublin Airport and London Stansted Airport....
. On a number of occasions, he presented his talkSPORT show remotely from a studio at RedFM.
Wolf continues to air his views in a weekly column in London-based community newspaper The Jewish News. Wolf also temporarily returned to the radio airwaves to host two shows a week on Shalom FM, an RSL (Restricted Service Licence
Restricted Service Licence
A UK Restricted Service Licence , is typically granted to radio stations and television stations broadcasting within the UK to serve a local community or a special event...
) radio station which was broadcasting for one month until 25 November 2006 in North West London. He was also a stand-in presenter on the Frinton-on-Sea
Frinton-on-Sea
Frinton-on-Sea is a small seaside town in the Tendring District of Essex, England. It is part of the Parish of Frinton and Walton.-History:...
based radio station Big L 1395
Big L 1395
Big L is the name of a broadcasting company registered by the British licensing authority Ofcom from for a satellite radio service known as Big L. The license states that the station "… will provide an eclectic mix of rock and pop, both modern and classic. News and weather will be broadcast hourly...
.
For the last year since leaving TalkSport radio Wolf has worked mainly as a radio and television pundit and commentator, mainly debating or speaking on American politics and news stories. On 12 October 2007, he appeared on David Frost
David Frost
Sir David Frost is a British broadcaster.David Frost may also refer to:*David Frost , South African golfer*David Frost , classical record producer*David Frost *Dave Frost, baseball pitcher...
's Al Jazeera English programme Frost Over The World
Frost Over The World
Frost Over The World is a television interview and news talk show, with Sir David Frost as host. Frost is a famed English television presenter. The show is broadcast on Al Jazeera English...
, debating capital punishment
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
with Bianca Jagger
Bianca Jagger
Bianca Jagger is a Nicaraguan-born social and human rights advocate and a former actress and model...
. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixQF9oxbrUs Wolf continues to support capital punishment, arguing in the case of Troy Davis that because his execution was "pretty peaceful," therefore "putting down the family dog would have been a lot worse." http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2040554/Troy-Davis-execution-Death-fitting-punishment-grown-societies.html He has also appeared on The Real Deal with George Galloway
George Galloway
George Galloway is a British politician, author, journalist and broadcaster who was a Member of Parliament from 1987 to 2010. He was formerly an MP for the Labour Party, first for Glasgow Hillhead and later for Glasgow Kelvin, before his expulsion from the party in October 2003, the same year...
on the Iranian government-funded news channel Press TV
Press TV
Press TV is a 24-hour English language global news network owned by the Iranian government. Its headquarters are located in Tehran, Iran, with bureaux in Beirut , Damascus , London , Seoul and Washington DC ....
. http://www.presstv.com/Programs/player/?id=69483.
Wolf made a memorable appearance on BBC Radio Four's Today programme in December 2010, where he joked "with apologies to Clausewitz, politics is sport pursued by other means."
He nows appears every Sunday night on 5 Live's Nolan show, with Stephen Nolan
Stephen Nolan
Stephen Nolan, born Belfast in 1973, is a radio and television presenter for BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Radio Five Live. He was educated at Royal Belfast Academical Institution, and Queen's University Belfast where he studied French and Business Studies....
and Bishop Stephen Lowe
Stephen Lowe
Stephen Lowe is an English playwright and director.Lowe's plays have dealt with subjects ranging from the takeover of Tibet by the Chinese People's Liberation Army in 1959 to a dying DH Lawrence trying find a publisher for Lady Chatterley ; from Donald McGill postcards to Dr John Dee...
.
Controversies
During his talkSPORT show on 4 December 2005, Wolf described Rachel CorrieRachel Corrie
Rachel Aliene Corrie was an American member of the International Solidarity Movement . She was killed in the Gaza Strip by an Israel Defence Forces bulldozer when she was standing or kneeling in front of a local Palestinian's home, thus acting as a human shield, attempting to prevent the IDF from...
, an American peace activist who had been killed by an Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i military bulldozer, as "scum." In its bulletin dated 23 January 2006, Ofcom
Ofcom
Ofcom is the government-approved regulatory authority for the broadcasting and telecommunications industries in the United Kingdom. Ofcom was initially established by the Office of Communications Act 2002. It received its full authority from the Communications Act 2003...
ruled this comment to be in breach of the "Generally Accepted Standards" section of the Broadcasting Code and stated it was "seriously ill-judged".
Personal life
Wolf married London-based journalist and art critic Estelle Lovatt in August 2004. They have a son Freddie, born in June 2005.In June 2007, Wolf announced that he has kidney cancer
Kidney cancer
Kidney cancer is a type of cancer that starts in the cells in the kidney.The two most common types of kidney cancer are renal cell carcinoma and urothelial cell carcinoma of the renal pelvis...
, the same disease that afflicted his former talkSPORT colleague James Whale
James Whale (radio)
Michael "James" Whale is a British radio and television host. He is known for his plain-speaking, often ascerbic and confrontational, broadcasting style; during phone-ins he frequently hangs up on callers he disagrees with or who do not make their point quickly enough.-Early life:Whale was born...
.