bFM listeners get behind Wallace

Infamous Kiwis are lining up to support out-going bFM Breakfast host Wallace Chapman.

The Tutts, Chris Knox, Kate Sylvester, The Mad Butcher Peter Leitch, Joel Tobeck, Thane Kirby, Patrick Reynolds, Johnny Brough, Stacey Gregg, Damian Christie and Simon Coffey are among the more than 700 bFM listeners who have signed a petition to reinstate Wallace as the b’s Breakfast host.

The popular morning DJ will be replaced by bFM legend and current Drive host Mikey Havoc from September 4. Wallace pre-empted the change by quitting the show.

Like most of the petition signatories, actor Joel Toebeck says it’s not about one or the other, it’s about keeping them both.

“Wallace is FANTASTIC in the morning! Mikey is FANTASTIC in the avo!” he says.

Others urge the bFM board to ‘listen to their public’. The consensus is two are better than one.

“Wallace is a pleasure to wake up to,” says one. “He's intelligent, warm, generous spirited and pretty bloody funny. I will miss him greatly but ask that you reconsider this decision. Plus, Mikey is superb on Drive. Keep him there.”

Petition creators are keen this is not perceived as an anti-Havoc campaign.

“Please bFM, reconsider this ill-advised decision,” they say. “Wallace is a well-read, informed DJ who can interview leading social commentators of our time. He is courteous, professional, warm and witty – in short, Wallace is a gentleman. He should not be treated as ‘surplus to requirements’.”

A new website, BringBackWallacedotcom, will follow the petition progress.

And, as one Wallace supporter says: “(It) kind of reminds me of a story my mum once told me to make a point... a woman was watching her son march past with his army unit and said, "Look, my son is the only one matching (sic) correctly and all the others are out of step"....bFM management, please take note.”