Tampa Radio: Bubba Jokes About Gold Watch From FCC

Bubba Clem

“I’m under the microscope daily,” he says. “One more strike, and I’m officially banned for life on regular radio. I have the largest one-time fine in the history of the FCC. So one more strike, and I’m gone!

In an interview with the Fort Myers News-Press, Bubba The Love Sponge admitted, “My fine was $755,000. It was for just a plethora of eight or nine different things that they found offensive. It was $75,000 an utterance or something like that.

“I have over $1 million in fines. I’m in the seven figures. I should be getting a gold watch from the FCC soon (laughs).”

Bubba, currently heard on WBRN 98.7 FM in Tampa ,  seems to be a magnet for controversy and lawsuits — whether it’s a sex tape involving his ex-wife and Hulk Hogan, allegedly slaughtering a pig on live radio, or just talking graphically about sex. That comes with the territory when you push people’s buttons for a living. But Bubba says he’s more annoyed with the online trolls.

“I don’t get tired of lawsuits as much as I get tired of social networking and the haters,” he says. “That’s really a whole ‘nother thing that I didn’t anticipate in my career. That’s something we didn’t have before. It’s bad. It’s bad. They take swipes at my children. That’s something that I never knew.

He doesn’t call himself a shock jock, but he doesn’t mind much if you do.

“That’s kind of a term that the media coined,” he says. “It’s anybody who is real and isn’t the standard plastic template. It doesn’t bother me.

“It’s continually a struggle to keep it between the lines, so to speak,” he says. “I walk up to the ledge every day, but don’t ever go over.”