TAMPA, FL – The DJ whose sexually explicit morning show antics prompted a proposed $755,000 fine from the Federal Communications Commission last month has been fired, radio giant Clear Channel Communications said yesterday.
The company agreed to fire popular radio talk show host Bubba the Love Sponge after deciding his raunchy show didn’t fit its standards, company president John Hogan said in a statement.
Hogan said Clear Channel Radio supported the decision of the local managers of WXTB-FM in Tampa in severing its contract with the talk show host, whose name was Todd Clem before he legally changed it to his radio moniker.
The firing of the top-rated morning talk show host was announced Monday night by WXTB General Manager Dan DiLoreto.
“After conducting an internal investigation, we concluded that Bubba’s show will no longer be carried on any Clear Channel Radio station,” Hogan said. “This type of content is inappropriate and not reflective of the way we run our local stations or Clear Channel Radio.”
Messages left for the disc jockey with friends were not returned Tuesday.
The FCC is seeking to fine Clear Channel for segments of the Bubba the Love Sponge show that aired on four Florida radio stations, in Callahan, Clearwater, Port Charlotte and West Palm Beach. It was the single largest fine ever proposed for indecency.
The segments included graphic discussions about sex and drugs that were “designed to pander to, titillate and shock listeners,” the FCC said.
One segment featured the cartoon characters Alvin the chipmunk, George Jetson and Scooby Doo discussing sexual activities.
The segments ran 26 times and the commission proposed fining Clear Channel the maximum $27,500 for each airing, or $715,000. Clear Channel, the nation’s largest radio chain, also was fined $40,000 because of record-keeping violations at the stations.
Clear Channel spokesman Joe Lobello issued the statement by e-mail but did not immediately provide further details.
Bubba was acquitted in 2002 of animal cruelty charges stemming from the on-air slaughter of a pig. The animal was castrated and slaughtered during a show in February 2000.
The firing comes three weeks after the uproar created by the raunchy Super Bowl halftime show on CBS-TV on Feb. 1, which ended with singer Justin Timberlake tearing off part of Janet Jackson’s top and exposing her right breast to millions of viewers. The two performers said it was an accident. The incident touched off calls for stricter regulation by the FCC and larger fines.
In October 2002, a Phoenix disc jockey, Beau Duran, was dismissed after an offensive call to the widow of St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Darryl Kile, who had died just months earlier. The firing came just weeks after a pair of New York shock jocks, Greg “Opie” Hughes and Anthony Cumia, were dumped for broadcasting the play-by-play of a couple allegedly having sex in St. Patrick’s Cathedral.