Stan Zemanek

Stan Zemanek (29 May 1947 – 12 July 2007) was an Australian shock jock, radio broadcaster, television presenter, radio producer and author who presented a night-time show on 2UE in Sydney and which was networked across parts of Australia via Southern Cross.

Career

Zemanek was born and raised in Sydney, New South Wales, but began working in radio as a researcher for Radio C-Fun 141 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He worked as a producer on the John Laws program in Australia starting in 1978, before returning to North America for some years, where he covered the 1983 America's Cup. He spent a decade presenting on 2UE late at night beginning in 1987. He spent a year in 2000 presenting the 2GB morning shift.

Zemanek moved to Melbourne for a short stint with 3AW's drive program in 2002 before moving back to Sydney and 2UE in 2003, having failed to garner ratings, and publicly falling out with several members of the 3AW's broadcast team.

While popular with much of his audience, Stan often boasted about being the most complained-about broadcaster in the country, polarising opinions of those who did not agree with his right-wing beliefs. He was not shy to admit that he was politically biased and often criticised "idiot Labor voters" for not doing the same. His most commonly used terms were "numb nuts", "turn it up", "half-wit", "oxygen thief", "left-wing looney", "give yourself an uppercut" and "typical Labor voter"; and he once asked a caller who sounded to be a little slow 'are you smoking the wacky-tobacky', a slang reference to marijuana.

In 2003, following his return to 2UE, he received a bombardment of calls from a number of people he referred to as 'The Phone Box Boys', thinking they were all calling him from a phone box.