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Friday, July 29, 2011

Caylee Anthony Tribute Song Sparks Tampa Radio War

Wild 94.1's Orlando and The Bone's Bubba the Love Sponge fight on air

When it comes to clashes between big radio personalities it's tough sometimes to tell the difference between staged confrontations for ratings and genuine fights over real arguments.

But, according to a story by Eric Deggans at tampabay.com,  an emotional battle between two of the Tampa's biggest radio personalities -- 94.1 WLLD-FM's Orlando Davis (right) and 102.5 WHPT-FM's Bubba the Love Sponge Clem -- sure sounded like a genuine, put-up-your-dukes fight.

The argument started as a conflict over an attention-getting song created by another personality who works for Davis' employer, CBS Radio.

Cledus T. Judd (left), the co-host of the morning show at 99.5 WQYK-FM, penned a tune called She's Going Places (Caylee's Song) with Gary Levox of the hit country band Rascal Flatts, trying to draw attention to the deceased, 2-year-old daughter of acquitted murder suspect Casey Anthony.

The song has drawn lots of attention already, with more than 520,000 views on YouTube; versions of the song on iTunes and Amazon.com are now sold with proceeds going to Protect.org, a children's safety charity supported by HLN anchor (and outspoken Casey Anthony critic) Nancy Grace.

Clem has criticized Judd's song as  transparent attempt to earn ratings and attention from the highly publicized Anthony trial; Davis wrote an email to a co-host on Clem's show to complain. This morning, both hosts clashed in segments aired on both morning shows over who was in the right.

"You do everything for attention ... you're a hack," said Davis to Clem on air, unleashing a string of insults in which he accused the rival host of struggling to rescue a fading broadcast career by unfairly criticizing Judd. "You have ratings, but you're at the end of your run. You're a broke down Howard Stern."

Clem countered by alleging that Protect.org was a questionable charity, saying the organization's tax returns show a large percentage of donations it collects fund staff salaries. "First of all, you're a liar," Clem said, challenging Orlando's statements about dominating ratings in young listeners. "Play the song on your air and let your listeners decide how...cheesy it is."

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