Tampa Radio: Morning Bad Boys Head To Court

According to a lengthy story by John Bary and Eric Deggans at tampabay.com, for the next three weeks, a Hillsborough County courtroom will host a surreal medley of bad-boy radio's greatest hits: a turkey fire, a swine slaughter, "whore scores," Bubba's Army and a bald Britney Spears on billboards.

The interior world of shock-jock radio is the centerpiece of a defamation lawsuit brought by Todd "MJ" Schnitt against Bubba the Love Sponge (Todd) Clem.

Bubba, Schnitt

The five-year-old case file is 38 volumes long and weighs hundreds of pounds.

Schnitt filed the lawsuit back in 2008, accusing Clem of "false, highly offensive and defamatory statements" about him and his wife, Michelle, as competition heated up between the two on morning radio.

A big judgment for Schnitt could bring to an ignominious end the "shock jock" style of programming developed in Tampa Bay in which all-out "radio wars" and harsh pranks between rivals were once commonplace.

And even if Clem is cleared, the trial, which starts Monday, will disclose many of the secret tricks and embarrassing scandals behind the careers of two longtime titans.

Bubba The Love Sponge

"If I lose this," Clem said in an interview Friday, "it's going to be very disturbing for people who do what we do." Through his lawyers, Schnitt declined to be interviewed.

In depositions, Clem has already admitted that most of his accusations against his rival weren't true, and Schnitt has admitted that parts of his own broadcasts were faked, including some of his signature "crotchety calls," where he pretended to be an old man calling businesses with oddball questions.

The fact that all this has resulted from a lawsuit filed by Schnitt, once the top practitioner of the form, may be the biggest irony of all.

But it all seems to have started over a pig.

Clem had left Tampa in 2004 after being fired by Clear Channel Communications in the wake of FCC fines for objectionable sexual content on his shows. He spent a four-year exile on satellite radio.

When brought back to Tampa by Cox Radio in 2008, he vowed revenge, not for the FCC fines, but for a sensational criminal prosecution in 2001.

Michelle Schnitt

Clem had stood trial for slaughtering and barbecuing a wild boar on his radio show. He claimed that Schnitt's wife, an assistant state attorney, conspired with State Attorney Mark Ober to bring animal cruelty charges.

Clem was acquitted, but after returning to local broadcasting on Cox Media's WHPT 102.5-FM, he targeted Schnitt, the then-top rated morning guy on his MJ Morning Show at Clear Channel's WFLZ  93.3 FM. He called him, among other things, "a lying piece of crap." He called Schnitt's wife, Michelle, a "whore."

Clem and Cox Radio executives said trash-talking is time-honored in radio wars. Listeners, they said, understand that and don't take it seriously. In depositions, Clem said he was just trying to get a reaction from Schnitt.

"All of this is tongue-in-cheek. Obviously, he's not really a piece of crap."

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