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Bubba Stirs Pot In FM Radio Comeback

Tribune photo by JULIE BUSCH

Bubba the Love Sponge and his crew return to the Tampa airwaves at 102.5FM The Bone after a four-year hiatus.

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By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 8, 2008

Updated: 01/08/2008 04:17 pm

TAMPA - "The voice that couldn't be silenced," as the radio promo says, is back.

Bubba the Love Sponge Clem, the shock jock who drew numbing fines from the federal government in 2004, strapped on the headphones Tuesday morning, and for the first time in four years hosted a drive time show on Tampa FM radio station The Bone.

And, as expected, no one was safe from the edgy barbs. Local television and radio personalities were poked at during the broadcast from Clem's studio in Tampa on WHPT, 102.5 FM. He also lambasted his competition and said he aims to unseat them in the ratings. His show airs in Tampa and Jacksonville from 6 to 10 a.m. each weekday. He continues his uncensored Sirius Satellite Radio show during the afternoons.

Clem's return to local radio drew criticism before he uttered the first word. David Caton, executive director of the Florida Family Association, penned a blistering editorial piece printed in The Tampa Tribune on Tuesday morning,

Calling Clem a "pornographic" host whose presence on the Tampa airwaves "threatens to break a four-year period of decency on traditional radio airwaves," Caton stood ready to call for a boycott of advertisers.

"I've got the biggest target on my back," Clem said. Caton "is judging me before I've even said a word. I've got to work a little smarter. It will be tough keeping it clean. I'll have to think before I speak."

Caton later said he listened to the entire show and plans to tape each broadcast. He said he doesn't plan to boycott advertisers just yet. But he is listening, hanging on just about every word.

"Our hope is that he will do a clean show," Caton said, "clean enough for us not to contact advertisers or file a complaint. The guy is really talented and there are a lot issues out there that you don't have to go into the toilet to talk about to get listeners."

Clem brushed aside Caton's criticism and used the editorial piece to tear into Caton and his organization.

After all, stirring the pot with outrageous comments is what Clem does.

He is hugely popular with an audience suited to his advertisers, which include brewers, local bars, restaurants and strip joints. He predicted he will be the Bay area's top-rated morning show by summer.

Clem was fired four years ago from Tampa's 98 Rock, after the Clear Channel Communications station was fined nearly $800,000 by the Federal Communications Commission mostly for objectionable material. For two years Clem was out of radio. Two years ago, he joined up with Howard Stern and hosted a show on satellite radio.

His debut on Cox radio network Tuesday was no small event. Media outlets from across the Bay area converged at the studio to cover the first show and many were handed microphones to join in the conversation.

His firing four years ago humbled him, he said during a break. "It opened my eyes that you don't have to push the envelope every day and that no matter how big you are, you can be fired and replaced."

He never moved from Tampa, and he uses a small, black-walled, red-carpeted studio near Tampa International Airport to host both shows. In the room stood a stripper pole and a torture rack next to the beer vending machine.

Tampa is his home, he said. "This is where my family is."

He credited Stern with saving his career but said the groundbreaking shock jock from New York wasn't happy about him taking on the Tampa morning show. Clem said he did it for the cash, about $3 million a year, and for personal reasons.

"If I get the ratings … I can get syndicated across America," he said. "Plus, I'm doing this because they told me I can't. Ninety percent of us coming back is revenge-motivated."

Clem, who legally changed his name to Bubba the Love Sponge Clem eight years ago, began his career as a college radio station disc jockey and made his professional debut in 1985. He has hosted shows across the nation, including in Chicago, Orlando, Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Grand Rapids, Mich.

He has opened clubs and restaurants and is a seven-time Billboard Air personality of the year. He also is second only to Stern in compiling FCC fines.

In 2001, he was arrested on a charge of animal cruelty after a broadcast during which two hunters slaughtered a pig and prepared it for a barbecue. He and the hunters eventually were acquitted.

He admitted he was a bit unsettled during today's broadcast.

"I've got to tell you, I'm a nervous wreck right now," he said. "Sometimes I think we're a train wreck waiting to happen."

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760 or kmorelli@tampatrib.com.

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