EBS native speaker broadcasts drunk, is not so handsome teacher, say listeners.

The Korea Times' Kang Shin-who reports that a host on an Education Broadcasting System [EBS] radio program "Morning Special" gave a drunk broadcast on the 25th, according to some listeners.

Last Wednesday morning, Aug 25, Walsh was heard reading the news in English, speaking gibberish and becoming tongue-tied during the live program. Multiple listeners posted critical comments on the EBS website.

As he had difficulty reading the script smoothly, another native English speaker took over and completed the program. All this was also shown on Internet TV.

Dozens of listeners have posted comments criticizing Walsh for the alleged “drunk broadcast.”

“I was so angry while listening to the program. It seems Adam was not able to read the news. He should not have appeared on the program,” a listener Lee posted on the show’s website. “What makes me angrier is that EBS finished the program as if nothing happened.”

Another netizen, who watched the program via Internet TV, complained that she felt like she was ridiculed by the program and infuriated by the program’s staffers’ “cowardly” excuses made later without a “sincere apology.”

Walsh, for his part, blames illness, and what I'm getting at in the title with the cliched complaint against foreign teachers is that I suspect few listeners---and viewers---would be discerning enough to judge a native speaker's English as alcohol-impaired. In a message left on the EBS messageboard he writes:

Dear listeners

I have been under the weather since Monday but i did not think it would affect my work. On Wednesday morning 25th of August, I woke up and though I felt ill, I thought I would be able to perform on the radio. I took some cough medication that I had purchased and some aspirin because I had a mild fever. When I got to the studio I chatted and prepared for the show as I always do. When the show started I felt cold sweats and extreme dizziness. This affected my ability to read the news. This is when Steve and Nemo realized something was wrong and helped me. Had I known I was as sick as I was, I would have called in and said I was ill. It was not my intention to embarrass the radio station or myself. I take my work very seriously and feel very saddened by the situation.


This will never happen again and I sincerely apologize for putting the radio station and my colleagues in such a predicament. I also want to apologize to the listeners of EBS who have shown me great support since I started with the radio station.

The letter, under which several Korean listeners and readers expressed their support for Walsh, can be retrieved by finding on EBS.co.kr and searching through the show's "free board" (자유게시판) for "Adam." He is probably better known for contributing articles and columns important to the local teaching community to the Korea Herald---for example on the hate-group Anti-English Spectrum---at least until he was relieved of his duties following the August 24th piece "Views differ on HIV testing of foreigners." That's a timely development the group and reporter Kang---an AES member with the Herald's competition---will surely appreciate.