Stan Zemanek
| Stan Zemanek | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
29 May 1947 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
| Died | 12 July 2007 (aged 60) North Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
| Cause of death | brain tumour |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Occupation | Radio and television presenter |
| Spouse(s) | Marcella Zemanek |
| Children | Gaby & Melissa |
Stan Zemanek (29 May 1947 – 12 July 2007) was an Australian radio broadcaster who presented a popular night-time show on 2UE Sydney and which was networked across parts of Australia via Southern Cross.
He was known for his forthright, generally right-wing views and for trading abusive remarks with some of his callers. He was also the 13th and longest-serving "Beast" on the popular panel TV show, Beauty and the Beast.
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, 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 didn't 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-tobaccy', 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. The calls would sometimes reach 20 a night, and would spin several staples of Zemanek such as sound effects, on Stan himself. This led to an enormous spike in his ratings for the period of March–July 2003. A CD based solely on these calls is in the pipeline for a release.
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