Bubba the Love Sponge returning to Tampa airwaves
Tuesday, December 11, 2007

TAMPA (Bay News 9) -- Nearly four years after he received what was then the largest Federal Communications Commission indecency fine in history, Bubba the Love Sponge is returning to Bay area radio stations.

According to Bay News 9's partner newspaper The St. Petersburg Times, Bubba the Love Sponge Clem will take over the morning drive time at WHPT 102.5 The Bone in Tampa. He also will host a show for a Jacksonville station and will continue his national show on Sirius Satellite Radio.

The deals are worth more than $3 million a year for Clem's production company, which operates from a Tampa office park.

Once Tampa's highest rated morning radio personality, Clem was fired by Clear Channel Radio in 2003 after receiving a $755,000 fine from the FCC for broadcasting shows in which cartoon characters were discussing and .

Clem, later went to work for Howard Stern on satellite radio, where he has the second-most-listened to channel on satellite radio after Stern.

Bubba's first new show on Tampa Bay radio will be Jan. 8.

http://www.baynews9.com/content/36/2007/12/11/309277.html?title=Bubba+the+Love+Sponge+returning+to+Tampa+airwaves

Frankly I could care less about about Bubba....I typically listen to NPR on 89.7 in the mornings and afternoon commutes, but other than that it is CDs or 97x......I only wish that we could get Lex and Terry back in Tampa, I used to listen to their show every morning. Shock jocks do not impress me, nor do I care if they are on the radio, change the channel if you do not like it.

Steve

I only wish that we could get Lex and Terry back in Tampa

What happened to them? They left the state?

I typically listen to MJ on 93.3 or Kathy Curtis on 94.1 in the morning.

No, I think those are the guys from Jax who were replaced by Cowhead.

^^
Oh.

Yeah, they were out of Jacksonville, but they are out of Dallas now. There was a big fight with their contract (they are/were syndicated across the country) and they lost all of the stations they were on for a short time. About a month later they got a new deal and I think they are on more stations now....but not in Tampa still. In Florida they are still on in Jaclsonville, Orlando, Pensacolla, Tallahassee, and Gainsville. They are pretty laid back about the syndication deal....funny how MJ always says "The MJ radio network" and is always making a huge deal....out of the six stations he is on (all in Florida except one) - MJ even put Lex and Terry down right after their Tampa contract was not renewed, but of course he never mentioned that they are on 25 stations and XM.

Steve

^I can't stand that MJ guy. He's an asshole, and not even a funny one.

I don't mind MJ. I think Froggy is hilarious with those calls. :lol:

Yeah, I know some people, my wife included, that like MJ....myself though, I cannot stand him. I used to listen to him most mornings (right after lex and terry were canceled), but after a few months I just could not take him anymore.....it is amazing how much he talks about himself and how great the "MJ radio network" is.

Steve

I listen to my iPod. Unless it's late and then I'll turn on Coast to Coast AM on 970. Radio is way too full of commercials. Not to mention that the music stations are programmed by promoters instead of consumers. I think the only time I have listened to FM in the last 3 years was if I was in the car during a Bucs game.

Bubba's dual personalities
He debuts a cleaner a.m. act while still doing an explicit p.m. satellite show.
By ERIC DEGGANS, Times TV/Media Critic
Published January 9, 2008

http://www.sptimes.com/2008/01/09/images/xlarge/BSecti_Shockj_2396724.jpg
Bubba the Love Sponge Clem started his new morning radio show at 6 a.m. on WHPT-FM 102.5 in Tampa on Tuesday. He also hosts an explicit afternoon drive time show on Sirius Satellite Radio, making history as the first to have such a dual on-air personality.

TAMPA - The torture rack was hidden behind a black curtain, the stripper pole obscured by a collection of local TV cameramen and reporters jockeying for position.

Even the poster-size ads for sex talk phone lines along the wall were covered by mock chain link fencing, as a forest of bright lights turned a cramped studio into a spotlighted stage Tuesday for the spirited return of shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge Clem to local, free "terrestrial" radio.

Clem made history as the first personality to present a toned-down terrestrial radio morning show and an explicit afternoon drive-time program for Sirius Satellite Radio in the same day.

- - -

Debuting at 6 a.m. on Cox Radio's WHPT-FM 102.5 in Tampa and WFYV-FM 105 in Jacksonville, the beefy host tore into an array of enemies, sparring with reporters while welcoming telephone visits from his boss on Sirius, fellow shock jock Howard Stern, and Orlando Davis, host of the Freak Show morning program on WLLD-FM 98.7.

And even though the broadcast was far from family-friendly - subjects ranged from Clem's wife electrolysis on her nether regions to the attractiveness of various female local TV personalities - it also wasn't quite the avalanche of explicit fare that once characterized his terrestrial show years ago.

"I gotta think one step ahead of myself," said Clem, sitting behind the show's massive control board, where he used the show's 10-second delay just once, to cut out an offhand profanity uttered by a member of Stern's show who called in. "I'm different now - I'm married and have a kid and I need this job. So maybe I'm doing a different show."

Jay O'Connor, regional vice president and Tampa market manager for Cox Radio, said the company never utilized its ability to "dump" audio from Clem's show during the four-hour debut, saying the first broadcast drew a flood of compliments from sponsors and fans.

Still, Clem was the first to admit Tuesday's show wasn't typical, as the crowd of cameras provided an opportunity to joust with visiting journalists, turning those who had come to cover his story into on- air foils.

The shock jock opened his new show by lashing out at critics and rivals, decrying a critical column in the Tampa Tribune from longtime media indecency advocate David Caton and aiming pointed insults at morning rival Todd "MJ" Schnitt at Clear Channel-owned WFLZ-FM 93.3. Curse words permissible by the Federal Communications Commission guidelines (but not publishable in a family-friendly newspaper) flew by, though Clem's habitual use of the b-word to refer to women seemed curbed, at least for the moment.

Old enemies

Caton shrugged off the put-downs from Clem, saying his Florida Family Association was taping each program and intends to file an indecency complaint with the Federal Communications Commission if the shock jock moves ahead with plans to feature porn stars as guests.

"No matter how innocuous the conversation, an appearance by a porn star is glorifying pornography to the community," said Caton, whose 1998 complaint about a skit depicting a man receiving a milk enema brought a $23,000 fine for Clem nearly a decade ago.

Clem blamed Clear Channel for "running him out on a rail" when he was fined $755,000 by the federal government four years ago. The company fired him from the morning slot at WXTB-FM 97.9 (98Rock), leaving him out of work for nearly two years before Stern hired him at Sirius, bankrolling a custom-built studio in an office park where Clem now broadcasts both shows.

On Tuesday, while calling in from New York to support Clem, Stern expressed concern over a grueling schedule that requires his friend to leave home sometime around 4 a.m. and return at 8 p.m., five days a week.

"I feel good that Bubba's making a living ... (but) I hate like h--- that he's got to do two shows a day," said the recently divorced Stern, noting sarcastically, "at least you know your marriage will last."

Stern and Clem implied on air that the shock jock was prompted to go to Cox Radio because Sirius wouldn't pay enough money.

Experts speculate Clem may also be hedging his bets, in case federal regulators disallow Sirius' plan to merge with rival XM Radio and the satellite radio industry is disrupted.

Despite all the trash talk by Clem and his crew, Schnitt downplayed their competition, saying his rival was employing a classic radio technique to try goading a top-rated personality into talking about a new show.

"I'm not buying into this pseudo war that Bubba's trying to create," added Schnitt.

"He needs to invent a war against me to reintroduce his clown act. ... All he needs now is a big red nose and floppy shoes."

[Last modified January 8, 2008, 23:56:02]

http://www.sptimes.com/2008/01/09/Hillsborough/Bubba_s_dual_personal.shtml

Bubba is an idiot and it makes Tampa bay look like a trailer trash town. Anyone who kills pigs on a morning show is an idiot.

I actually listened to his show for about 20 minutes this morning. It's actually not that bad.

^I can't stand that MJ guy. He's an asshole, and not even a funny one.

+1 amen.

My morning commute consists of NPR, Fisher & Boy on 97x or MP3's depending on how bad the traffic is and what mood I am in.

I usually listen to WSJT in the morning. Sometimes MJ.

Yeah, I know some people, my wife included, that like MJ....myself though, I cannot stand him. I used to listen to him most mornings (right after lex and terry were canceled), but after a few months I just could not take him anymore.....it is amazing how much he talks about himself and how great the "MJ radio network" is.

Steve
Well, he's clearly a narcissist, and likely suffers from a mental affliction known as APD (sociopath).


Yes, Bubba is back... Now the radio sucks 2% less than it did before. Yippee.

MJ is not a sociopath! He is nutty at times, yet, but thinking that he is a sociopath...nonsense.

For making people kill a little pig just for fun, he should be banned from ever hosting a radio show again. I am disgusted by this guy.

For making people kill a little pig just for fun, he should be banned from ever hosting a radio show again. I am disgusted by this guy.

It was a wild boar and was slaughtered by a professional trapper following the state statutes. Obviously it was glorified and in bad taste, but that doesn't mean he should be banned from anything.

I have a ham in my fridge right now (and bacon!), so I'm no better. It's going to be delicious.

MJ is not a sociopath! He is nutty at times, yet, but thinking that he is a sociopath...nonsense.
Listen to his afternoon politics show... Then you go look in the dictionary for a word other than 'sociopath' that better describes his personal politics.

For making people kill a little pig just for fun, he should be banned from ever hosting a radio show again. I am disgusted by this guy.

The pig thing was definitely out of line. Bottom line: I don't like when animals are slaughtered like that. Which was why I was happy when Mike Vick got sentenced for what he did to those dogs. I don't mind Bubba being back on the air, but if he screws up in any way one more time...that's it...

Listen to his afternoon politics show... Then you go look in the dictionary for a word other than 'sociopath' that better describes his personal politics.

To be honest, I never listen to the afternoon show. I forget he even has one half the time. Maybe I'll do some analysis and get back with you later...

Love him or hate him, Bubba appeals to a what is evidently a profitable demographic. As far as being out of line, he was out of line long, long ago in far, far away early 90's world inhabited by 93.3...the Power Pig where he used to do things like "No Panties Thursday" and orgasm contests.

Those were the good ol' days of Bubba....before the FCC stepped in and stopped all that. And of course, that was even before the Janet Jackson "wardrobe malfunction" incident.