Ray Hadley is not only a terrible caller - he is a crap human being (according to Fairfax Media), a bully and massive coward
http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment...o-back-down-to-ray-hadley-20130309-2fsg8.html
Ray Hadley picked on the wrong guy. Fed up with the radio host's constant bullying and physical threats, Mark Piepers did a rare thing: he stood up.
When Hadley threatened Piepers physically, the imposing broadcaster must have thought he had an easy target.
Like many of Hadley's targets, Piepers, at 175 centimetres, appeared no match for the host's hulking frame. And given Piepers' relatively lowly position as 2UE's overnight newsreader, Hadley wielded significant power over him.
But there was one thing Hadley did not know about the newsreader. ''He didn't know any of my boxing or martial arts history,'' Piepers said.
Piepers has decided to speak on the record about Hadley's serial bullying to stand up for dozens of colleagues who have been too scared to tell their stories.
Hadley's bullying and intimidation of junior colleagues is an open secret in the radio industry but until recently has been hidden from public view.
The argument between Hadley and Piepers began one morning in 2001. Hadley was driving into work listening to the 2UE news bulletin.
Piepers made the mistake - in Hadley's eyes - of replacing some two-day-old rugby league scores with fresh AFL results.
The phone rang. It was Hadley. ''I heard the word f--- more times in a sentence than I'd ever heard anyone put together before,'' Piepers said.
But Hadley was not finished. When he arrived at the office he marched up to Piepers' desk and continued his tirade in the middle of the newsroom.
If Hadley was abusing anybody else, the incident would have ended there. But Piepers was tired of the bullying. ''I went into the sports department ? and said, 'Ray, that's not acceptable to talk to me in that fashion.'
''Then [Hadley] said: 'If you don't f--- off now I'm gonna punch you through that f---ing wall.'''
Colleagues of Piepers say this was not Hadley's wisest move.
An article in the Australasian martial arts magazine
Blitz describes Piepers as having trained in ''close-quarter fighting and ambush drills''. He is an amateur boxer with skills in jujitsu, karate and kung fu.
''Once he'd threatened to punch me out ? I kept telling him, 'Mate, step up to the plate,''' Piepers said. ''I don't get threatened like that and take it lying down.''
But ''lying down'' is exactly how Hadley's juniors endure his bullying. Hadley's behaviour has been protected for decades by successive management teams at 2UE and now 2GB.
In 2001, 2UE was owned by Southern Cross Broadcasting. It is now owned by Fairfax Media.
Last month Hadley's bullying was exposed in newspapers after a younger colleague secretly recorded one of Hadley's vicious tirades on his phone.
Managing director Rob Loewenthal suspended the top-rating host for the bullying incident, but instead of accepting his punishment Hadley called his friend John Singleton, the network's majority owner, who overruled Loewenthal's decision and ensured the broadcaster remained on air.
Since reporting the story, Fairfax Media has been contacted by more than a dozen of Hadley's current and former colleagues. Most spoke off the record because they fear retribution. According to numerous sources, Hadley often demands employees be fired for mistakes as minor as mispronouncing a suburb's name or misreading a football score. This is why Piepers has decided to speak out. ''Hadley's been allowed to get away with this for so long,'' he said. His account has been confirmed by former 2UE host Mike Carlton and three others who worked at the station at the time.
By the time Hadley was threatening to punch Piepers through a wall, an audience had gathered near the sports department. A witness recalls Piepers saying to Hadley: ''Let's go, baby.'' Hadley ''very quickly'' sat down.
Hadley did not respond to Fairfax Media's requests for an interview.
My opinion - Nine needs to dump him quick smart and bring back Vossy
