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Bubba the Love Sponge (Todd Alan Clem^[1] on April 21, 1966) is an American radio personality. He is the host of The Bubba the Love Sponge Show on Howard 101 on Sirius XM Radio, an uncensored satellite radio service on Fridays, and on various Cox Radio and Beasley Broadcast Group stations.

Early career and the FCC

Bubba is an Indiana native. One of his first radio jobs was at WGRD in Grand Rapids, Michigan where he worked the afternoon drive. The ever controversial Bubba was in trouble with WGRD almost from the start due to the sexual content of his show. Bubba also took shots against crosstown competitor WKLQ, in particular Danny Douglas who worked at WKLQ during the afternoon drive. Bubba went after Douglas by calling him a homosexual on the air, at one point even claiming that Douglas had AIDS. After Roger's Department Store cancelled their account with WGRD, management at the station met with Bubba and explicitly told him what he couldn't say on the air. Bubba also apologized to Douglas, but less than a week later Bubba began to disparage Douglas on the air again. On December 20, 1988, a 13 year old girl listening to the show called Bubba to defend Douglas. Bubba made sexual references to Douglas and to the 13 year old female caller. He was fired the next day. (sources: The Grand Rapids Press, December 16, 1988 and December 22, 1988)

The Federal Communications Commission issued a Notice of Apparent Liability (a precursor to a fine) of $755,000 against four stations owned by Clear Channel Communications (including its parent station, WXTB) on January 27, 2004 for objectionable segments of "Bubba the Love Sponge" aired on its stations in five Florida cities: Callahan, Clearwater, Port Charlotte, West Palm Beach, and Jacksonville. The fine consisted of the maximum of $27,500 for each of 26 airings of a segment plus $40,000 for record-keeping violations. The segments included graphic discussions about sex and drugs and according to the FCC were "designed to pander to, titillate and shock listeners". One segment featured the cartoon characters Alvin the chipmunk, George Jetson and Scooby Doo discussing sexual activities.^[2]

Clear Channel Communications discontinued Bubba's show on February 23, 2004 and two days later, Clear Channel CEO John Hogan testified in front of Congress, stating that the "Bubba the Love Sponge" show would no longer be broadcast on Clear Channel.

Nedley Mandingo III

Nedley Mandingo (born August 23, 1944), formerly known as Ned Schnittt, is a character on the Bubba the Love Sponge Show heard on Sirius channel Howard 101, Tampa Bay's "The Bone" 102.5, and Jacksonville's Rock 105. He is voiced by Mike "Manson" Waters on the radio and played by Manson's Father in Law in public. When Ned is required to speak in public, such as his Standup on the "Bubbapalooza" tour, Manson wears a costume. Also on the "Bubbapalooza" Tour during the "Ned" segement they use low blue lighting to make it tough to get a picture or a clear view. It's the big work of the show.

There have been many events that point to Manson being Ned. When Manson is out, Ned is also out. Such as the first Friday morning on Sirius which Manson had to miss due to his children's soccer tournament. Also at the Howard Stern Film Festival, Ned (Manson's Father In Law) was interviewed by Shuli and it was clear that he did not sound like the Ned on the radio show. Whenever Manson leaves the studio during interviews with porn stars, Ned is surprisingly quiet for being a perverse old man. Hulk Hogan also let it slip that Ned stood for "Non-Existent Dude" There have also been many occasions where Bubba talks about "The four of Us" in reference to other co-hosts Spiceboy, Brent Hatley, and Manson forgetting to add in Ned.

Current activities

Bubba began broadcasting on Sirius Satellite Radio on January 9, 2006. Bubba began broadcasting a live morning show from Tampa radio station WHPT (102.5 "The Bone") on January 8, 2008 which was simulcast on the Jacksonville, Florida radio station WFYV (104.5 FM).^[3] During the second quarter of 2008, Bubba's show received a number one rating ^[4] in his home market of Tampa. Cox Radio then expanded its broadcast of the Bubba the Love Sponge show to include four more radio stations covering the cities of Miami, Orlando, Ft. Myers and Richmond.

In December 2008, Bubba extended his contract with Sirius/XM for another 2 years. The contract consists of a rebroadcast of his censored terrestrial morning show, in addition to a satellite only show Friday mornings. He also can do a show on Howard 101 on Monday nights at 7 PM ET, but this special show hasn't aired in several months.

In January 2009, Cox Radio stations WHDR-FM Miami (93 Rock), WHTQ-FM Orlando (96.5), WZLR Dayton, Ohio (95.3) and WDYL Richmond (Y101), along with Beasley Broadcast Group station WRXK-FM Ft. Myers (96 K-Rock), also began broadcasting the Bubba the Love Sponge Show. Bubba's show is broadcast each day with a 60-second delay from Bubba’s custom, multimedia studio in Tampa.

On January 3, 2010, Bubba announced via his Twitter account that he had signed with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling as a backstage interviewer.^[5][6] He made his debut the following day on the special live, three-hour, Monday night edition of TNA Impact!, participating in four short backstage segments.^[7] Bubba's performance was universally panned^{[citation needed]}, with many fans feeling that Bubba was only given his position due to his closeness to Hulk Hogan^{[citation needed]}, who made his TNA debut on the same night.

On January 16, 2010, Bubba made crude remarks on his twitter account regarding Haiti's struggle to recover from the January 12 earthquake. Although he later apologized for his remarks, which he still claimed were truthful, they caused a rift between him and TNA management and for a while he was not used by the company.^[8][9][10]

On January 19, 2010, Bubba claimed that he had been attacked by Awesome Kong while backstage for the tapings of TNA Impact! the previous day. It is believed that this altercation was due to the comments made by Bubba the Love Sponge concerning the Haiti relief project.^[11][12] On February 25 Bubba announced that he was done with TNA Wrestling.^[13] That same day news broke that Awesome Kong, real name Kia Stevens, had filed a lawsuit against Clem for an alleged threatening phone call.^[14]

References

External links

• Official site
• BTLS (Bubba The Love Sponge) on Twitter
• TNA Wrestling profile