They Like Things to Be Out in the Open

Last summer, KFI-AM (640) radio hosts Karel Bouley and Andrew Howard faced the wrath of uber producer George Lucas by broadcasting live--via Howard’s concealed cellular phone--from a movie theater rolling an early press screening of “Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace.” After a few minutes, two burly security guards told Howard to disconnect ASAP or take a hike.

Earlier this month, the naughty boys were at it again--beckoning a young Richmond, Va., girl, who’d magically received an early edition of “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” to read the opening pages of the meticulously shrouded novel live on air.

Are they even the slightest bit worried about landing in hot water? Hardly. For Bouley and Howard, stirring up controversy is all in a day’s work on the 7-9 p.m. shift at L.A.’s top-rated talk station, where they host “Karel & Andrew.”

“We just show up and get in people’s faces,” explains Bouley. Howard calls it “kamikaze journalism.”

Partners in life for 11 years, Bouley and Howard met at a club in Garden Grove. At the time, Bouley was a writer-photographer for a music publication while Howard was waiting tables at a Reuben’s Steak House. Howard briefly managed Bouley’s fleeting career as a singer/stand-up comic before the two collaborated as an on-air team.

“I went from waiter to housewife to radio personality,” chimes Howard, whose innocent, boy-next-door looks mask a venomous tongue. Speaking recently about prison reform, Howard advocated lobotomies and castration for prisoners, chanting, “Snip ‘em up top. Snip ‘em down below. Snip, snip, snip!”

The other half of this Siegfried and Roy for the AM dial is Bouley, whose macho looks mirror pro wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin (all comparisons, however, end there).

Each weeknight, Bouley and Howard commute to the Hollywood station from their home in Long Beach, where they live with their cat, Matisse, and dogs, Ally (named after Miss McBeal) and Owen. And if all goes according to plan, they are hoping to adopt a Chinese baby girl, whom they have already named--Danielle Lee.

True opposites in every way, their contrasting personalities serve the show well, enabling them to debate a variety of issues from Elian Gonzalez to the escalating price of movie theater popcorn.

“We’re complete opposites,” notes Bouley. “Andrew’s alternative; I like R&B.; He’s liberal, and I’ve been called a closet conservative. He thinks breaking news is something happening in Poland with their election. I think it’s Barbra Streisand marrying James Brolin.”

As David Hall, KFI’s program director, puts it: “They see the world in a very no-bull---- kind of way. Like ‘Seinfeld,’ they’re more likely to talk about the things that are not the biggest issues in life, but when you hear it, you’re like, ‘Yeah, that’s so right!’ ”

In March, the pair celebrated their one-year anniversary as the nation’s first openly gay radio hosts. It was also in March that the boys were bumped from the coveted afternoon drive to a less desirable early evening time slot (weeknights, 7-9 p.m.). Next week’s Arbitron ratings will be the first to track how the team is doing in its new time slot.

The shift put then-newly nationally syndicated radio personality Phil Hendrie in their spot while they moved into his. It was made, according to Howard, so that Hendrie’s show, which is broadcast live from the West Coast, could hit East Coast audiences earlier than 10 p.m.

“At that hour [10 p.m. EST], you get no ratings,” says Howard, seemingly undaunted by the move. “We still get the same pay--we’re still under contract [until March 2001]. We didn’t feel bad about it--it’s everyone else who’s tried to make us feel bad. . . . ‘Gosh, you guys must feel awful.’ ”

The only real alteration necessitated by the shift, says Bouley, was a modified intro. “In drive time it was, ‘Driving you home or driving you crazy,’ ” says Bouley of his nightly mantra. “So now, since we’re on a little later, it’s ‘Driving you home, driving you crazy or driving you crazy at home.’ ”

In the audio booth at the start of their broadcast, Howard, 33, is dressed in a tank top and reclines comfortably in his swivel chair, while Bouley, 37, stands with microphone in hand, taking charge.

“He tends to dominate the conversation,” says Howard of Bouley, who clearly considers himself the star. (Their online bio lists Bouley as host, with Howard as his co-host.)

Also in the booth: their “kiddie” producers--Eliza and Tiffany, both 20. During the broadcast, Eliza Sultan fields calls while Tiffany Dennis, responsible for herding guests, doodles her name over and over again on a pad of paper. Supportive of his producers, Bouley says their youth keeps the show fresh: “In radio, everyone is a child, but we do have the youngest.”

Known for its conservative staple of stars--most notably Rush Limbaugh and Laura Schlessinger, KFI might seem an unlikely home for two out-of-the-closet homosexual men. But as it turns out, Dr. Laura, infamous for her anti-gay slurs, is a regular listener. During one of “Karel & Andrew’s” recent segments concerning a wave of jellyfish attacks striking L.A. beaches, Schlessinger phoned in to report that her son had been stung.

“We asked her if she peed on him to take away the sting,” cracks Bouley.

Their decision not to confront Schlessinger about her politics (“the timing was inappropriate,” Bouley says) triggered a barrage of calls from gay listeners peeved at what was viewed as a missed opportunity to put the controversial radio personality, whose anti-gay rhetoric has drawn national protests, on the spot.

“Laura is an enigma unto herself, and we don’t get involved in her politics or her battles with the gay community,” says Bouley. “I think the gay people are stupid for picketing Laura--it only adds to her publicity. She doesn’t have to buy the newspaper space . . . they’re giving it to her.”

While Schlessinger might tune in, not everyone is a fan. Turned-off guest Pat Buchanan recently cut short a scheduled half-hour interview, signing off after just 10 minutes in prime time, explaining he was due at “The Today Show.” And Howard admits it was at times hard to get out of bed in the early days when threatening phone calls and e-mails were daily occurrences.

“Die faggot, die,” he recalls as one of the more popular salutations.

Hall says the controversy wasn’t totally unexpected: “Every single time I’ve put a show on the radio, some portion of the radio audience thinks I’m completely nuts. When I put Laura on KFI, there was a big protest because everyone thought she was too mean and the show would fail miserably. When I put [Bill] Handel on in the morning, people said he was too shrill and screechy, and they hated it. And when I put Daryl Gates on, oh my god, people came out of the woodwork saying the radio station was racist. With Karel and Andrew, I probably got less than 25 [derogatory] e-mails or calls.”

Aside from gay bashers, the hosts claim they have been inexplicably shunned by gay organizations, namely GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

“GLAAD has not so much as acknowledged us,” says a seriously disgruntled Bouley. “They’ve written letters about Laura, but they’ve never once said, ‘Good job for KFI with Karel and Andrew.’ They must not like us. Maybe we’re too gay for them--or not gay enough.”

GLAAD’s entertainment media director, Scott Seomin, denies that.

“We love Karel and Andrew,” he says. “We are totally supportive of them. We just don’t currently have a category [in the GLAAD Media Awards] for talk radio--perhaps we should.”

Even fellow KFI staffers, the boys claim, gave them the cold shoulder when they first arrived on the scene.

“No one would talk to us,” remembers Howard. “They would avoid us in the hallways. It made it very hard when we started. I think they thought we were too gay and people’s jobs were in jeopardy because two faggots were on the air.”

But Hall says any animosity the guys may have sensed early on stemmed not from Bouley and Howard’s sexuality but from what many viewed as inexperience. Says Hall, “Radio’s a pretty competitive business, and they went from not having a regular talk show on KFI to prime time--and that caught everybody by surprise.”

The situation has since tempered dramatically, Bouley says.

“For our 10th anniversary last year they threw us a party. They had a cake and bought us a Baccarat crystal heart.”

“It’s wonderful having a whole office committed to keeping you together,” scoffs the far more cynical Howard, suggesting the kindness may perhaps be nothing more than smart business.

What both men are sincerely proud of is the influence they’ve had on listeners who once decried their very existence.

“We get e-mails saying, ‘When I first started listening to you, I [explicative] hated you. I hated fags. But you know, you’ve really changed my mind,’ ” says Howard. “Even if that happened once, it would be great. But it happens every day.”

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“Karel & Andrew” in on weeknights, 7-9 p.m., on KFI-AM (640).