Early last week, the FCC told Clear Channel that it wanted them to pony up $755,000 for “indecency” issues relating to the Bubba the Love Sponge program, which is broadcast on four stations in Florida, one in Kansas, and one in Georgia. Bubba is also featured on XM Radio. [source: bubbasyndication.com].
This would be a record fine that Clear Channel would have to pay, and even includes a $40K penalty for what the FCC calls “poor record keeping”, which basically is the equivalent of the broken taillight ticket you would receive for not being cordial to an officer pulling you over on the highway for speeding. You draw attention to yourself, they check you over with that fine toothed comb over there.
The best part of this is, apparently “Bubba the Love Sponge” is a big deal now. I remember in the 80’s, “Bubba” was one of the guys on New York’s Z-100 station (also a Clear Channel property) who would drive around and look for people with “Z Free Money Stickers” on their cars, and give them money if they honked at him, or something like that. He even had his own little jingle song that sounded like “The Little Old Lady From Pasadena”, but it was “Bubba the Love Sponge from Massapequa”. Times change, don’t they.
[update] Tuesday, February 24th, 10:45pm: Clear Channel has fired Bubba the Love Sponge after the recent fines and on-air behavior exhibited by Bubba, whose real name is Todd Clem. [via Drudge Report]
1 response so far ↓
1 Lou Pickney // Oct 28, 2005 at 5:18 pm
For what it’s worth, Scott Shannon from Z100 tried to steal Bubba The Love Sponge’s name for on-air use, but Bubba trademarked it and prevented Scott from using it.