Radio host facing charges
Krystal off the air
By BRIAN HAYES Court Reporter
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Radio News 95.7 host Andrew Glenn Krystal was out of his element Friday and is off the air for now.
Rather than being behind a microphone for his daily Maritime Morning talk show, he was on the prisoner’s bench in Halifax provincial court.
With his dishevelled hair and the laces removed from his black and white running shoes, the 47-year-old Halifax man looked nervous when brought in from the downstairs cells for his arraignment for allegedly disobeying a police order to stay away from alcohol.
Mr. Krystal agreed to the condition after being charged with domestic assault and mischief about three weeks ago.
He is accused of assaulting a Halifax woman and damaging her property. Court records didn’t indicate Mr. Krystal’s relationship to the woman.
Mr. Krystal was released Friday on condition he have no contact with the woman, stay at least 50 metres from her home and refrain from consuming drugs or alcohol.
He is slated to be back in court Feb. 20 to enter a plea to the assault, mischief and breach charges.
Mr. Krystal has worked at 95.7 since the Rogers Communications talk radio station first went on the air last October. He previously hosted talk radio programs at CFMJ in Toronto and CKTB in St. Catharines, Ont.
"We were advised by Andrew this morning that these charges were to be laid," station vice-president and general manager Jim Hamm said in an e-mail Friday.
"We are in the process of collecting information on this situation and that includes meeting with Andrew early next week. Until that conversation occurs, Andrew will remain off the air."
After studying international relations and strategic studies and English literature at the University of Toronto and producing television shows, Mr. Krystal began his radio broadcasting career in Toronto on Talk 640. He later re-launched the station as MOJO Radio, before moving on to top-rated News/talk 1010 CFRB in Toronto.
He is now host of Maritime Morning’s on News 95.7 in Halifax, News 91.9 Moncton and News 88.9 in Saint John.
The station’s staff biography noted that Mr. Krystal’s broad range of interests lent itself to guests as wide-ranging as former U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger to legendary musician James Brown.
Mr. Krystal gained national attention in January 2006 when headlines described a heated exchange on his show between Nova Scotia Conservative MP Peter MacKay and Nova Scotia NDP Leader Alexa McDonough, during which Mr. MacKay told Ms. McDonough: "I think you better stick to your knitting."
He gained further attention the same month for comments made during a brief appearance on CTV Newsnet, when he told fellow election panellist Charles Alder, who is the grandson of Auschwitz victims, that Mr. Alder would have voted for Adolf Hitler if the German dictator had run as a Conservative.
Mr. Krystal’s comments sparked outrage among Canadian conservative bloggers and he was branded "sick" and "despicable" by the popular Bourque Newswatch website.
He later clarified his comments in an e-mail to a Canadian political blogger: "I said that Alder would vote for Satan or Hilter as long as he was a Conservative. Blind, in other words. . . . I wouldn’t vote for Mussolini or Hitler either. I might try Satan. He’s the devil I know."
( bhayes@herald.ca)
3 comments:
my how the mighty fall fast & hard
good story charles
and its rogers to boot
drunken sleeze bag. give himthe chair. that will teach him!
I listen to Krystal's show often and I like it. Quite honestly, I can't believe that this story was front page news. The guy broke his probation? Big deal. This happens every day.
Why not put the screws to the crackhead who does it 10 or 14 times, instead of the guy who just happens to have a recognizable name? I hardly think Andrew Krystal is that much of a risk to society that he must be on the front page of the paper.
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