Bubba The Love Sponge^TM

Bubba Clem, better known to the radio world as Bubba The Love Sponge^TM, has accomplished something that no one else has done. Over the years, the controversial morning host had his share of run-ins with the FCC over objectionable content ... until he "crossed the line" and was fired from Clear Channel. For two years he was completely off the radar, but thanks to Howard Stern -- another so-called "shock jock" who had left terrestrial radio for the censorship-free SiriusXM - he got a chance to do a show on Stern's channel. That eventually led to gigs back on terrestrial radio, starting in his home state of Florida - WHPT/Tampa, WFYV/Jacksonville and WHTQ/Orlando, for starters.

Doing a relatively clean show on terrestrial, Bubba has returned to ratings prominence - more noteworthy in that it's in a PPM era where high-profile personalities are being shunned for musical jukeboxes. In this frank and reflective discussion, Bubba touches all the bases on how he found his way back home.

Going back to your first gig at WPFR/Terre Haute in 1986, were you always convinced that radio was for you?

I had no idea I'd be in radio, even though I used to hang around WPFR when I was a kid because I liked Scary Cary Grey. I was a bouncer at a club called Jubilation and he'd show up every week for a Naughty Nightie contest. We became friends; it was cool to hang out with someone who always had free beer and pizza. He invited me to the studio, where I answered phones and sat in with him. Back in those days, you hung around a radio station long enough and they'd hire you to do overnights or weekends. Which is what they did ... offering me a weekend shift.

Even though I was doing that, I had no idea I'd make a career out of it. But on Christmas Day 1986, they offered me, a part-timer, middays. So I called my mom and told her I wouldn't be coming home for Christmas. She told me I was an idiot and that I'd never make any money in radio, but it was my first prime-time air shift -- and I had to practice!

Was there a turning point or moment in the early days that convinced you to stick with radio?

In the Spring of '87, I got my first Birch book while doing nights ... and I did real well. They asked to be MD. Soon after that, the lovely Joel Denver gave me P3 status ...but as a reporting radio station, we had to buy a fax machine to send in the playlist. The GM almost kicked my ass because we had to spend $400 on a fax machine, as the station had just been sold by the Oak Ridge Boys. But by then, I was bitten by the bug. I saw the fun side of radio, and I knew right then that I was going to try like hell to stay in it. And nine or 10 firings later, I'm still grasping that.

Before "branding" became such a huge deal with radio, you branded your on-air name. How did that come about?

I had a gimmicky name, which to be honest and if I had my druthers, I'd now rather be just Bubba Clem ... but we had this moniker and in 1989, Jeff McCartney at KTFM said, "You need to trademark your name or people would start stealing it." So I invested $5,000 of my own money ... actually, I borrowed it from my parents ... to actually go through the process of getting a federal trademark.

At this point, I'm just sticking to my guns. I don't like the term, "shock jock," but in the early days I did have this reputation of getting fired a lot. I never thought I was much of a problem. Now, the guys at Cox love me. We're going on our third year together and I've never had a bump in road. Obviously, the Clear Channel stuff speaks for itself.

I don't know if saying this will make people mad or happy, but I wouldn't even overrule working for Clear Channel again. Radio is a business. I have content and radio is comprised of companies that need content. That's why I wouldn't overrule it. All I want to do is stick to my guns in being real and not becoming a liner jock.

Another key to my success is that I have a great ancillary staff; I'll never be able to assemble more talented people than I have working for me right now. I recognize their talents and let them be creative and brilliant. This is not the time to be a time-and-temperature jock.

The problem with this industry is that we don't have training grounds like we had in Ft. Wayne and Peoria, where a kid can be 20-21 and do weather stab-ins and overnights. With so much voicetracking and hub-and-spoke broadcasting, it's much easier for management to blow in some guy from a larger market and pay him $4,500.That type of technology has made the larger companies more profitable, but destroyed minor league talent.

I'm 43 and I'm one of the younger syndicated guys in mornings. Howard is in his 50s, as are Lex and Terry. Bob and Tom are in their 60s. Name me a high-profile morning or syndicated guy in his 20s or 30s. The hub-and-spoke globalization really ruined where kids can learn their craft.

What's even worse is that there are no more good teachers out there. I had Greg Cassidy, Mark Driscoll, Buddy Scott, Rick "Big Dog" Hayes, Marc Chase, Tom Collins and BJ Harris ... guys who'd sit down with you and do an aircheck session, then point you in the right direction. No one has time for that anymore; corporate is more interested in putting Ryan Seacrest in 4,000 markets. Now I'm so blessed to be working with two guys who really get it -- and both are old school, throwback teachers of good radio: Kevin Vargas with Cox, and Tim Sabean with SiriusXM. These two are so good, and both have a lot to do with the current success the show is having.

Was there ever a time during the pre-Nipplegate days when you thought that you were going too far to push the envelope?

No, I didn't, because I had never been told about what I couldn't do. We got called on some blatant stuff, such as when people were having sex on the air, but it was always after the fact. We always had such huge ratings, we were never reeled in.

This time around, Cox sat me down and told me I already had 2 3/4 strikes with me -- with no wriggle room. I was given a handbook on what I can and can't do ... and I haven't even had bump in the road while I've maintained a higher market share than I ever had ... including branching out into Dayton and Richmond, not to mention SiriusXM.

I've cleaned up my act ... after getting married and having kids, growing up has served me well. Now I listen to the old stuff and go, "Holy shit, was that dirty!" I find myself cringing at some of the younger Bubba stuff. I wish Clear Channel would've sat me down and said, "This is what you need to do to clean it up -- or you're out." But it's really not their fault; it was the times we lived in.

Considering those times, would you even have listened to them had they said that?

Probably not. I was very arrogant back then. Sometimes you need something drastic to get a better perspective of what you had. I thought I was the swinging dick at the time; I thought I could've done anything I wanted because without Bubba, there'd be no 98Rock. And there hasn't been since I left, so to speak, but it didn't stop them from firing me ... and rightfully so. I deserved to be fired; it was good for me because nobody is bigger than the industry.

I promised myself that if I ever got back into in radio, I wouldn't go through nights where I dreaded every time the phone rang ...and it was Brad Hardin, calling about a new NAL. Fortunately, Cox and Beasley have been wonderful; I don't have any issues anymore.

Back then, did you even tell management what outrageous stunts you were planning on doing, or was their mentality an early incarnation of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell?"

Before Nipplegate put this glaring target on the industry, Randy Michaels used to say an NAL was the cost of doing business ... as part of the Power Pig mentality. Back in the day, they'd say, "Hey, we haven't gotten a complaint call in three weeks ... have you been lazy?"

When you saw the Janet Jackson Super Bowl flash and the uproar it generated, could you tell right off that the way you ran your morning show was about end?

When I watched Nipplegate, I thought it happened so fast and so quickly that it'd blow over. It didn't initially seem like such a big deal, but it was a different time. The Republicans were banging their bibles and cleaning up the airwaves was their big initiative. Howard and I were the only two major casualties in the industry ... and as fate would have it, he would be the one who helped resurrect my career. I wouldn't be here today on Cox and Beasley had he not taken a chance on me. I was completely off the air for over two years, yet Howard gave me a chance ... and I'll be forever grateful for that.

You once had heated rivalries with rival morning shows such as Howard and Lex & Terry. Now you're working with Stern at SiriusXM and just had a rapprochement of sorts on the air with Lex & Terry. How real were those rivalries during your heyday?

I hated Lex & Terry with a passion and I still did ... up until last Friday. I hated Howard, too, when we went head-to-head in Ft. Myers, Orlando and Hartford. There are different types of air personalities. Howard and I are both cut-throats, while Bob & Tom are more complacent and don't really goof off on their competitors. If your rival was short and stupid, Howard and I would come up with parody songs about that and call up their wives. It was all part of the guerilla warfare.

But as you get older, you start to appreciate your fellow brethren. For 10 years, I tried to call Lex & Terry on-air, but they never picked up the phone. Finally last Friday, we called after Clear Channel hung them out to dry in Dallas. At that point, we had a common denominator. The whole thing was so surreal; there was no name calling, no "I'm gonna kick you ass..." Instead it was, "Hey, I feel for you, because I know what you're going through."

It's kind of like when the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears beat each other up on Sunday, but see each other in a bar during the week after the game and have a beer together. A better analogy would be those cartoons with the coyote and the sheep dog; they would clock into work and try to kill each other, then clock out and be like buds. Good morning shows are so few and far between now; we're almost a dying breed

You've done quite well in the PPM era, while other major radio personalities haven't. Have you altered the way to do your show at all to accommodate the way PPM monitors listenership?

I really can't pinpoint whey we're doing so well in the PPM. My numbers in Tampa have actually gone up ... knock on wood. I haven't been a victim of PPM in any of my markets - and I still have the #2 radio show behind Howard on SiriusXM.

We've only made a few adjustments, one being to do more listener appointments with regards to staying structured. If I say something's going to happen at 8:20a, it has to hit as close to that as possible. I pre-sell a bit more; I never did that prior. We try to finesse them that way, but other than that...

Cox has given me free reign on content. There's been no drastic overhaul; they're not insisting on me playing music; I'm not a music kinda guy. I don't know what the magic is about the show that has prevented us from being a PPM casualty. We're just not over-thinking it.

Still, I hate to see my broadcasting brethren lose their jobs as a result of this knee-jerk reaction to PPM. The PPM may be in a honeymoon phase, yet the methodology is still a bit flawed. It's better than the diary but it could use some restructuring. It's scary for a guy like me, whose livelihood is determined by whether a few people in each market are listening to me at the same time. Look at what the PPM did to Steve Dahl in Chicago. I grew up listening to him; he's one of my icons. He was a hugely popular in Chicago for years -- and all of a sudden he's not? I just don't get it.

Would you have been content just being at SiriusXM if Cox never came along with an offer to get back into terrestrial radio?

Yeah. SiriusXM opened my eyes in regard to ancillary dollars, marketing and a lot of things regular radio doesn't offer. I've sold out venues in Atlantic City, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Maryville, IN, Cleveland, and Detroit. Doing both on-air and satellite, I see regular radio as basic cable TV and satellite radio as HBO. People might have a favorite show on cable, but it's not cult-like because you're not paying for it. On the other hand, shows like "The Sopranos," Sex & The City," Weeds," "Entourage" and "Hung" develop huge cult followings partially because they're harder to watch. You have to jump through a few hoops with pay cable. People who listen to satellite radio are the most passionate fans; they buy your merchandise and they follow you to gigs.

Would you or have you considered your own Internet radio station?

I did. Net radio and podcasting are for real. When I had Phil Hendrie on my show, Phil told me he made $40,000 a month in downloads and podcasts. The methods of delivery people use to get content are changing daily. People aren't married to their transistor or car radio anymore. They have phones and computers that use hot spots. Internet radio is going to become a major player in this arena, and the companies that provide their audience with the best content will be the winners.

You've done this now for almost 25 years. Is the competitive fire to do your show the same as it was 10 years ago? 15 years ago?

It's somewhat different because now because I have a family; it's more of a business. That doesn't automatically make it less fun, but you do have more pressure to deliver - so, in a way, there are times when it is less fun.

Thing is, BJ Harris once told me now something I will never forget: No matter how long you do mornings, no matter how early you go to bed, the body never gets used to getting up at 4am. Yet being on the air is the fun part of the gig. It's the behind-the-scenes shit that can get hairy. We've got reality projects in development; I've got 22 employees to look after; I own my own studio; I have to deal with insurance and stuff ... these are things I thought I've never have to deal with as a DJ.

Forty years ago, they asked Mick Jagger if he could see himself playing with the Stones when he's 40. Jagger said no way. The Stones are now all in their 60s ... and they haven't retired yet. Do you see your career as an ageless entity, too?

No, I would really like to race dirt late-models and asphalt trucks full-time someday. My son is seven and he's been racing quarter-midgets since he was three. We have a big rig and every weekend from Feb 20th to November 20th, my son and I are out of town, racing. We just bought a plane so we can meet our rig at races every other week -- next week it's Nashville and its Atlanta after that. We've been racing in Indiana four times this year and Ohio three times. I'd like to retire as soon as soon as my son turns 18 ...11 years from now, which would put me at 54, 55. I don't need that much money. If I had another good 10 years, I could be comfortable and give my entire studio infrastructure to one of the younger guys on the show ... and lease back the intellectual property

In the near future, I've always been a dreamer and I got whole new lease in radio. I've been given a wonderful opportunity by Bob Neil and Cox, as well as Beasley. It's going to be very interesting here in the next 10 months. Howard did say he'd bring us anywhere he went ... and I'd like to go with him. That's why things for us should be interesting. We positioned ourselves in the right spot for the first time in our career -- without an FCC problem or an NAL. Cox is one of the most conservative radio companies in the country ... and I haven't even had a mosquito bite of a problem. We're very fortunate to still be doing well.