Charlie Wolf

Charlie Wolf (born Stephen Richard Linksy)
Born	12 April 1959 (1959-04-12) (age 52)
Nationality	American
Religion	Jewish

Charlie Wolf (born 12 April 1959) 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.

Career

Wolf studied journalism 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. [1] 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." [2] He has also appeared on The Real Deal with George Galloway on the Iranian government-funded news channel Press TV. [3].

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.

Controversies

During his talkSPORT show on 4 December 2005, Wolf described Rachel Corrie, an American peace activist who had been killed by an Israeli 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".

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, the same disease that afflicted his former talkSPORT colleague James Whale.

References

• Charlie Wolf fan website
• The Charlie Wolf Blog
• Archived Shows
• Ofcom ruling on breach of generally accepted standards
• Charlie Wolf has cancer
• "Discovering I had the Big C"
• Republicans Abroad UK

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Name	Wolf, Charlie
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Date of birth	12 April 1959
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