Bob Francis in hospital

5AA Adelaide's controversial night announcer, Bob Francis, is currently in hospital in Europe with a lung condition and a cruised back following a fall on a cruise ship.

Francis, who was widely criticised last month for his comments on asylum seekers (here).

Francis had said on-air; "Bugger the boatpeople, as far as I'm concerned I hope they bloody drown out there on their way over here, in my opinion they are not welcome here". 

Following the criticism of the comments, he subsequently attacked (verbally) a journalist from The Australian saying "can you believe that bloody bitch in The Australian . . . some smart-arse dickhead woman . . . wrote me up in the paper this morning".

After being condemned for the comments, including criticism from Immigration Minister Chris Bowen, political commentator Mark Latham, and 5AA Management, Bob Francis left on a pre-arranged survey break.

From his hospital room in Cologne at the weekend, speaking to The Australian, Francis apologised for his behaviour saying; 

"I apologise for what I said, I've done this before and been in trouble for saying the wrong thing, because I don't have an editor between my brain and my mouth. When you say things like that off the cuff, you think, 'oh shit, I shouldn't have said it that way', but it was too late because I said it anyway. It was done."

Francis will remain in hospital for another two days before doctors will allow him to travel; 

"I was okay from the fall, but then just out of Cologne I started feeling a bit breathless. I was having dinner and then I couldn't move, and it was like I was having a massive asthma attack, we got into Cologne, got an ambulance and got into hospital, where they drained three litres of fluid out of my lungs."

Francis and his wife have cancelled the rest of their holiday; "It's a little hard on my wife, but we'll be okay, my wife was looking forward to going to Paris, but now we're all fucked."

In the most recent Nielsen survey, Bob Francis recorded an overall share of nearly 24%, double the second ranked station (here).

(pic from The Australian).